Saturday afternoon we took our first flight ever on India Airlines – a short four hour flight to Hong Kong. We thought we might have a chance to deplane and go check out the Hong Kong airport, but unfortunately we had to stay on board. Luckily they left the in-flight entertainment system on, so we could continue to watch Bollywood movies. They also had regular Hollywood movies, but all the Bollywood movies had English subtitles, so it was easy to enjoy them.
Once we picked up some more passengers in Hong Kong it was a quick four hour flight to Delhi, and we were through immigration and customs without a hitch. We had arranged for a pick up from the airport by our hotel, and sure enough there was a guy holding a sign with Kuniko’s name on it standing right outside the airport doors.
He introduced us to a guy in a suit who worked for the hotel, who in turn asked about our trip and if we needed help arranging anything during our stay. Very polite guy, and it was a relief considering there were all kinds of spooky looking taxi drivers lingering around hoping to grab some customers.
The driver of our car put away our luggage, and then offered us cold bottled water while we made the drive to the hotel. It was only about 20 minutes from the airport, and the driver was kind enough to point out some sights while we drove in. The traffic was extremely light, but I did notice that our driver and the drivers around us used their horns quite a bit while driving. It was dark as we traveled, so we didn’t see much of interest until we arrived at the Imperial Hotel where we were staying.
I had exchanged money at the airport, but they were stingy with the small bills, and so when the driver unloaded our bags I had the option of tipping him 1000 rupees (about $20) or 20 rupees (about 50 cents). Guess which one he got…
We stepped through a metal detector, which at the time I thought was a bit extreme as security goes, but actually it turned out to be the norm in Delhi. Then we were shown to our room, which was much nicer than I expected. Actually the entire hotel was nicer than I expected, and it turned out to be in quite a different world than the rest of Delhi.
There wasn’t much to do the first night as we were bushed from the flight, but we did sneak over to the bar for a cocktail before heading back to our room and then bed.
