Travels

The five words you don’t want to hear when you arrive at the KLM counter at O’Hare: “Your flight has been cancelled.” Happily, the next words were “We’ve rebooked you on the American flight nonstop to Delhi.” So we had a few extra hours to kill in the airport. The first thing to do after checking our bags was to contact our friends in Amsterdam who were planning to meet us for a cup of coffee early on Thursday morning and the second was our Delhi hotel that was sending a car to meet us at the airport. Thankfully, both emails went through (even though the internet kiosk we used was clumsy, slow, and in direct sunlight). The flight was uneventful, if long at 15 hours.

It is always nice to come through customs and see our names held up on a sign, knowing that we have a ride to our hotel. A prepaid taxi is fine, too, but sometimes they have trouble finding their way in the warren that is Karol Bagh.

We were in our beds in the Swati Hotel by midnight, much better than arriving at the airport at 1:00 AM, as our original flight would have. We are always glad to stay at the Swati; they know us now and give us a room upgrade if they can. We spent three days in Delhi getting over jet lag, visiting with Anju and Sandeep, and touring the Akshardam Temple.

Monday morning we left early for the New Delhi train station and the Shatabdi train to Dehra Dun. We decided to splurge and travel in the “Executive” chair car this time. It was nice: four seats across instead of five; tea served in china cups, not plastic; and corn flakes (with hot milk) before the omelet/bread. And plenty of room for our luggage.

During Sunday night we heard a lot of noise outside our hotel. When we came down to leave at 6:00, there was an enormous ditch right up to the hotel entrance. We had to go out the restaurant door, sidle to the right, and get down a very narrow set of steel steps. I found out I couldn’t do it with my backpack on and a handbag! In the photo, you can see Dan in the white hat. The man on the right is standing near the top of the steps.