Arrival

We arrived in Delhi late in the evening but easily breezed through immigration and customs. Our ride was awaiting us, so things were getting off to a good start. The smell of smoke was powerful, as we left the enclosure of the airport. Just a couple of days ago, I had read the weather forecast for Delhi, and it said "Smoke." I didn't really know this was an option, since I usually expect things like “rain,” “snow,” “clear,” but not “smoke.” That’s a condition, not a weather pattern. However, I suddenly realized here that it just might be part of the weather. It creates a low layer of poor visibility, looks like fog, but doesn’t burn off (no pun intended).

Anyway, the unfortunate part was the hotel was about another hour away and all we really wanted to do was lay our bodies down horizontally. The leg from Newark to Delhi was almost 14 hours straight and neither one of us got much sleep on the plane. We got to the Metropolitan Hotel at 10:30 pm. The guards at the front had the driver pop the engine hood to check for explosives, while others looked under the vehicle and opened the cargo area. Once we were cleared, our bags still had to go through an x-ray machine before we even entered the hotel lobby. Oddly, I didn’t feel as put out as I do with the TSA. Maybe because this didn’t require waiting in a long line, but this is not a place for my diatribe on the Homeland Security Department…

As soon as we arrived in room 406, we threw our bags on the dresser and laid down for the first time in well over 24 hours.Read more