The first (and hopefully only) hiccup.

 

We landed in Delhi at 5:30am on Thursday morning.  Since we did not have a print out of our itinerary to Jodhpur, we weren’t allowed to get on the free shuttle to the domestic terminal.  So we grabbed our first taxi.  Driving in India is like nothing else… The lines on the road are mere suggestions.  And they have stoplights, but none of them are ever on!

We made it to the domestic terminal in one piece and it was total mayhem! Waiting in the line to get into the building proved fruitless, one because there are no lines and two because we needed the same print out from before to get in. When we finally found where we needed to be – check-in #1 – we discovered that our flight to Jodhpur had been cancelled. It was a stressful hour while we tried to figure out what needed to happen to get us to Jodhpur.  Our airline, Air India, was on strike, so there was not a lot of hope that the flight would leave the next day either.  But fortunately we found another airline that had seats the next day; we purchased our tickets for Friday and set about figuring out where we were going to stay for the night.

Our friend Aditi’s mother and grandmother live in Delhi, and fortunately she had given us their contact info in case of an emergency. Totally unprepared for a night in Delhi we decided to call Nira, Aditi’s mom, for some suggestions. She wouldn’t hear of us staying in a hotel and insisted on coming to get us after she was done with work. It was amazing!  We still had to occupy our time in Delhi for the day, and after traveling for 30 hours, we couldn’t really handle too much, so we got a car to take us to some sights and then camped out in a coffee shop all afternoon. From the minute she picked us up it was perfect… We got to take a shower, eat great food, have great conversations and just relax. 

The next morning, Delhi felt like a whole new place.  Everything was looking up.  It’s amazing what sleep can do for you!  Nira took us to the local mall so we could do a little shopping and then we grabbed a cab to the airport. Our flight left without a hitch, except for being small and bumpy, and we made it to Jodhpur safely. 

Here's me and D on the plane.

 Thank you, Nira, for rescuing us and taking us into your lovely home!  Danielle and I had a fabulous time at your house and can’t thank you enough for your hospitality. It definitely helped ease us into the craziness of India!