Good morning! I am awake and refreshed, after having run on the elliptical in the health center and eaten a delicious breakfast buffet in the hotel breakfast room. There was a mix of Indian and Western food; I chose all Indian, of course, except for a small croissant. My favorite was misdal, of which I had two helpings. It didn’t taste one bit like breakfast food!
The flight from FRA to DEL was smooth and without incident, and I was able to catch up on some sleep. I ended up watching all episodes of Season 2 of “Fleabag,” which was new to me. Thank you, Poonam, for the recommendation==that show is brilliant and laugh-out-loud hilarious! So well done.
Going through customs/immigration was easy. There was even a fingerprint scanner like they have at Disney World haha. Surendra and Emil (“Remember—it’s lime spelled backwards.”) from the hotel were there to pick me up. Emil joined us for part of the way, and then it was Surendra who drove me to the hotel. Both were so kind and gracious! I’m telling you, the Indians have cornered the market on hospitality. And just kindness in general! Emil was telling me all about the “grand” festivals in India. He has a cousin in Chicago so he knew about Devon Avenue and the Bean, although he’d never been. His wish is to one day see snow, which he’s never seen. “Just to wake up one morning and see it covering everything would be so beautiful.”
Surendra never stopped smiling, and it seemed genuine. He loves his job because he gets to meet people from all over the world. He works 10pm to 8am as a hotel chauffeur, has four children (“I have a lot of kids”), and admits to being poor...but he loves his job. Puts things in perspective! The drive to the hotel was about 30 minutes—it’s in a gated area near all the embassies (and Modi’s residence as well, I was told). All along the main road sit embassy after embassy, with lit-up signs out front indicating which one. “This is where all the rich people live,” Surendra mentioned more than once.
I had forgotten to get rupees at the airport so Surendra offered to stop at Khan Market, i.e., seedy strip mall, near the hotel to get some from the ATM there. By then it was 3:30am and no one was around except for a handful of mangy dogs who howled and growled the whole time we were there. Poor things, and I especially felt bad for the one with one eye and three legs. Surendra wouldn’t listen to my sympathy for them. “They are street dogs, ma’am. 24-7 fleas.”
I withdrew 10,000 rupees, which is only around $140. I finally figured out a quick formula for converting: chop off the last two zeroes and add a few more dollars. I have a currency converter app on my phone, but it’s nice to have to amount in your head when out and about!
In a bit I’m going to go explore. I arrived a day earlier than the rest of the people in my tour group so I have some time to do stuff on my own and also relax (yes, Sofia!) before we start doing structured events tomorrow morning. It’s supposed to be 79 degrees today!
This blog entry is pretty long—probably an anomaly but who knows. Here’s a quick video of the view from my hotel balcony. I took a video so you can hear the sounds: a mixture of people shouting, cars honking, and birds welcoming me to Delhi.
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