The Trip to Delhi

It wasnt an unpleasant journey from Minneapolis to Delhi via Paris, but I wouldnt call it fun either.  I couldnt sleep on the 8-hour overnight leg to Paris, arriving dazed at 6:00 AM to a nearly empty terminal for a 3 hour layover.  At least Starbucks was open...

At 6:00 AM, DeGaulle Airport looked about this blurry...

The Air France flight from Paris to Delhi was mixed.  On the plus side, the food and wine were not bad by airline standards.  However, Air France has somehow managed to pack this 777 10 seats wide when every other airline goes with 9.  They accomplish this by making each seat more narrow, and by shrinking the aisle width.  The result of course is that I have to lean towards the aisle to avoid shoulder contact with my neighbor, placing my other shoulder well into the aisle where is gets slammed by every passing body, suitcase and service cart.  8 hours of that was quite enough.  Next time I will fly KLM!  I arrived in Delhi at 11:00 PM, sore, exhausted and needing a bed. 

A driver had been arranged for me, a short young man with barely decypherable English who played 1940's pop songs on the car radio.  At least he knew where to go. 

The hotel was not far, at the end of a badly rutted road leading to an even more rutted parking lot which contained no cars.  the room smelled of mildew, the power across the hotel failed twice within the first half hour, the furnishings were worn and shabby, and I didnt care a bit.  All I needed was sleep which came around 1:00 AM.  

I was wide awake at 4:00...

Hard to see through the dirty windows of the Pllazio Gurgoan Hotel...