India trip - Part 1

I am back after a small break. I was gone for a couple of weeks on a trip to India. I know - two weeks is not enough at all but due to other compulsions, I had to come back soon. Our last trip was about 5 years back and we were all looking forward to this trip. In this and the next few posts, I will recount my experience which some of you may find amusing, interesting, intriguing or been-there-done-that. :)

Prologue to the trip: I was in LA attending school the day before the trip. As it is a few weeks back, the return flight time had changed to 7:45 pm in the evening which meant reaching home at 9:00 or later in the night. That fateful day, the weather was quite bad and after classes we found out that my flight back to SJ was delayed and would start at 9:30 pm. Oh god!!! When we boarded the flight, the attendant announced that due to the bad weather, the flight may be diverted to Sacramento. Oh god+++!!!. Fortunately it was not and I reached home around 11:15 pm in the night. Our flight to India was next morning and we had to leave the house by 9:30 am. Kudos to my wife for managing all the packing, shopping, handling two over-excited kids and not losing her temper. :)

Flight to India: We chose Singapore Airlines. From past experience, we have always had a good time with them and their service was amazing this time as well. The flight(s) passed off comfortably. I even managed to catch a couple of Hindi movies as well. :) Other than a stiff neck (from sleeping on the plane), everything was fine (wish my wife had bought two of those traveling pillows instead of one) :(.

Landed in Delhi in the morning and disappointed not to see clear blue skies. Having heard all the hype about the metro and how the traffic and pollution had eased, I was hoping to see clear blue skies (or at least dull blue) but instead I saw some haze. It was not clear whether it was smog or "dhoondh". Turned out the taxi guy failed to show up at the last minute and my FIL had to scramble to get a taxi at the last minute. He managed to get an old khatara Ambassador improvised with a gas cylinder int he trunk (read almost no luggage space) from the era of 1947 (or so it seemed). My jaw dropped to the ground... but soon I saw 3-4 people gleefully helping load out luggage on the roof of the car. The driver tied up all the pieces of the suitcases with a single thin rope. yes one thin rope. Soon, turned out all the "helpers" were strangers from the airport in search of $$$. Their MO is to (voluntarily) help load luggage and then in turn ask for $$$s. Well too bad, they had to be content with the good old INR this time (although I was more gnerous than I should have been). All the way home, I would keep looking back half expecting our luggage to be lying on the road but fortunately the ride back home was uneventful and we reached safe and sound with all the luggage.

Stay tuned for the next update... coming soon. :)