Made it to New Delhi!

We have arrived! After three airplanes, two layovers, and over 30 hours of traveling, Paula and I arrived in New Delhi, India! The flights were good and the layover in Amsterdam was different since the airport there was under going various renovations and had changed since the last time we were thru there six years ago.

      In Delhi, we met our in country coordinator Mini and his assistant Sanjeev. It was Sanjeev who got us from the airport at 2 in the morning and got us to our hotel, the Ashok. And the drive from the airport to the hotel was a great introduction to Indian traffic/driving!!! Constantly honking ones horn and the traffic/lane lines are just suggestions! Wow...weaving around trucks and other cars, motorcycles and the such, it was adventure in of itself! It was a very long day of traveling so finally being in a room with a soft bed made it a quick decision and we were asleep before we knew it.

      The next day we went down to breakfast...it was a buffet and very good! Aside from our "normal" food, like eggs, muffins, danishes and potatoes, there were also the Indian style food as well. All was very good and having fresh mango juice topped it off. 

    After breakfast went back to our room and settled in, going back to sleep to help get use to the time change. We are now 9 and a half hours ahead and we were really jet lagged. It was at this time that the power went out, which is normal here I take it. It was back on in ten minutes but the a/c in our room was shot. Ugh. We slept the afternoon away anyway and then gotten woken up by Sanjeev calling us, we were suppose to meet him in the lobby at 5...oops.

     Once we got to the lobby, we were introduced to Mini and we then booked our trip to the Taj Mahal with the hotel travel agent. Mini then handled our room A/C problem, getting us switched to another room down the hall. After all that, he helped us exchange some money in the hotel bank and took us for coffee in the Coffee House in the hotel (where the breakfast buffet is at). There we sat and enjoyed cappuccinos and pastries as talked, Mini giving us pointers and us talking about ourselves. After that, we went back and got ourselves situated in our new room, which is very cool (a/c wise). Tomorrow, we go to breakfast by 7 then off to the Taj Mahal at 7:30am before 'rush hour' starts up. 

Hopefully we will be able to post more tomorrow of our journey! Namaste!