Adelaide to New Delhi India via KL Sunday 20 Oct 2013

We got to the airport at about 7:15am, so we had about 2hrs in the Qantas Lounge before our flight left at 9.55am.

Checking in was a bit strange. We had to have our carry on baggage under 7kg. To do this we had to take out our cameras, tablets and kindles, reweigh the bags and then put it all back in the bag.    Apparently thats OK.

When we went through customs and immigration, the Indian guy at our counter said that we would be in for a bit of culture shock when we first arrived in India. He said the big cities were very different but the country side was much more relaxed.

We boarded our flight at about 9:10,  (we are sitting in seats 1A and 1C, up the pointy end) and we were in the air a bit before 10am. I had my first Bourbon and coke by 10:25. I hear some of you saying it’s a bit early!!, but a holiday doesnt really start until I have had one. 🙂  it was 1pm in KL and 3.30pm in India!

Lets make that 2 by by 10:45, yes they gave me another, without asking for it as we ate our morning refreshment!!

While we were in the Qantas Club, Deb read the DFAT Travel Advisory for India, some interesting exterts are “We advise you to exercise a high degree of caution in India at this time because of the risk of terrorism, civil unrest, crime and vehicle accidents.”  (our mums will be pleased to know this warning is mainly for areas we are not travelling to)   And this explains a lot of the, “Why in the hell are you going there,” looks we have got from some people when we have told them where we were heading.  But we intend to stay out of trouble and enjoy the many colours of India!

The flight, besides a couple of rough patches, was pretty smooth. I watched a couple of movies while Deb got about 3 hrs sleep. The food on board has been very good for plane rations. For lunch  we had some very tasty Sate followed by Barramundi, which Deb described as the best she had ever eaten, nice thick fillets. We are due to land in Kuala Lumpa at around 2:40pm local time and then have about a 3 hr wait for our onward flight to New Delhi.

We found the Malaysian Airlines Golden Lounge without too much trouble (we were told it was just above the train station, and there it was. The lounge was pretty comfortable and for the most part fairly empty and quiet.

We boarded the flight to New Delhi at about 5:50 for a 6:30 take-off. It was a bit shambolic getting on board, we both smiled and thought (quietly aloud to each other) that this was a taste of things to come, sort of ordered chaos.

The flight was pretty full.    Deb got a few hours sleep on this flight as well. India is 5 hours behind Adelaide, and we are due to arrive around 9pm local time (2am Adelaide), so I am hoping I will get a good nights sleep and be back in sync in the morning.

Today we have flown  6940km from Adelaide to KL and 3900km from KL to New Delhi, about 20hrs door to door.

We arrived in New Delhi at about 9:20pm and after a slight mix up on our baggage carousel, we got through customs and immigration without any delays, and found the rep from Abbacrombie and Kent waiting for us just out side the arrivals hall, his name was Dej, and our driver is Munji. After getting some local cash from an ATM, he walked us over to a pick-up point and we waited for our driver. When the driver arrived we were both given an orange flower lae as a welcome to India.

The drive to our hotel was manic. We were on a 4 lane main road most of the way, that the locals made into 5 or 8 lanes at times. As we crossed from one district to another there was a huge toll gate array. I would guess there must have been 20+ toll gates, just for our side, and a similar thing on the other. There are 7 million cars in New Delhi and it looks like a lot of them are always on the road!   As we came into the toll gate a small car loaded with about 5 “local lads” came zig-zagging through the traffic in front of us and then in front of the next car. At one time they were, “parked” diagonally across the lane in front of us and 2 of them got out and started running around, leaving their doors open, and then the driver started up again and I don’t know how they didn’t hit anyone or anything. As we went through the toll gates I noticed the car had stopped about 20m in front of the toll gate and someone was standing at the back of the car, as we drove closer it became evident what was going on, apparently this was a great place for a toilet stop, and he was turned facing the traffic peeing! We laughed so much, but our guide and driver were a bit shocked I think, our guide said he had never seen anything like it before.We arrived at our hotel after about 20 mins and had to go through a security check to get in. ie The contents of the car were scanned with a metal detector before bollards dropped and allowed us entry, then before we could get into the hotel we had to go through a metal detector and our bags were x-rayed.The hotel is VERY nice, pity we only have the one night here. Our A & K guide then sat us down and went through our trip and how it is organised and gave us our internal plane and train tickets.  We asked him about how much to tip and who we are expected to tip, I am sure we will get into the swing of it as we go along.  We tried to tip the young man who was heping us with a sim card, but he said they are not allowed to take money, there is a tipping jar in the foyer, we can leave money there!!  Hopefully will have our mobile wifi up and running by the end of tomorrow.Our room is very nice, after settling in we had a relaxing bath and headed for bed.

It’s good to see Brian made it home from the weekend in Mildura and worked out the domestic things, like food shopping. Well done Desi for your Karate medals

And seeing how this blog will be posted on 21st , Happy Birthday Miss Mandy 🙂   Tomorrow we fly mid morning to Varanasi, old world India on the banks of the Ganges and the holy city of pilgrimage for Hindus. We can’t wait to dive into our exploration.