Namaste: Welcome to India

It’s almost 1:30am and I’m in my room at the Hotel Lalit in New Delhi – showered, fed and very sleepy. Tomorrow the bus leaves at 8:30am for Agra and the Taj Mahal and I have to have my bags outside my room by 7:45am (reminds me of being on a cruise ship), so tonight my post will be brief.

A couple hours before landing, I put my seatback entertainment screen on map mode to see how close we were. I was a little disconcerted by what I saw. Basically the plane at that moment was over Afghanistan in the corridor between Kabul and Kandahar – and making a path south of Islamabad. I have to be honest, that kind of freaked me out. I don’t know how I thought the plane would get to India if it didn't fly over that region, but I guess I just didn’t put it all together in my head. In any case, as I looked out the window into the pitch black darkness I couldn’t help but wonder who was tracking us and if there were any stealth fighter jets out there...

Before going through Immigration there was a Health Checkpoint you had to go through for the H1N1 virus. Everyone had to fill out a form and get a health clearance after standing in front of a really cool heat sensing plasma screen that I guess picks up on abnormally high body temperatures. There were people throughout the airport in masks – not a lot, but more than a few.

As soon as I cleared customs I went and changed money to get myself some Rupees. $100 US = 4,800 Rupees. And my first purchase? Soda of course - 45 rupees!

Meeting the tour leader was pretty easy and the group was small so we were able to get out of the airport pretty quickly and over to the hotel. This is a BEATIFUL hotel – probably one of the Top 10 I’ve stayed at. Makes me sad that I’m only here long enough to sleep and shower tonight. The last night of the trip I’ll be back here, but again only for enough time to get showered and cleaned up before heading home.

Time to get some sleep - have to be up in 6 hours. Tomorrow the Taj Mahal...