Bye Bye Dubai, Hello Dehli

We spent our last evening in Dubai packing our belongings and preparing for our flight the next morning.  Roj insisted on having one last swim in the pool at Joyce Chechi’s house where we were staying.  He has really enjoyed having access to a pool to cool off at the end of each evening. 

The next morning was an early start with a quick bite to eat and then heading off to the airport.  We need to return our rental car to Budget and brought it to the airport as we were instructed.  This turned into a communication nightmare and took almost 2 hours to actually successfully return the vehicle.  It’s a good thing we were early as we never expected the amount of runaround for this rental (we will never be using Budget Rentals again!).

The queue to check-in for our flight was backed up past the rope barriers and into the middle of the airport so we got in line and proceeded to wait to check in.  This took so long that by the time we actually checked in and arrived at our gate, the flight was boarding.  The flight itself took a little less than 3.5 hours and the scenery overhead was beautiful as a result of the clear day and lack of clouds.   Looking down from the plane window I saw rolling mountains and the beautiful landscapes of Iran and Pakistan. 

As we touched down in Delhi, it was a mad race to collect our belongings and check through immigration.  Once we made it through all of the clearances, we had a driver waiting to pick us up from the airport and take us to our hotel. 

We decided to splurge and stay at the Marriott hotel because Roj has visited Delhi before and he told me I’d be thankful to have a clean, nice place to come home to after a chaotic day of touring in India (he was right!).  The hotel is in a neighbouring city called Gurugram, which was listed as about 30mins away from the airport.  We left the airport at around 6:30pm and didn’t arrive to the hotel until 9pm… two and a half hours!  And this was due to regular traffic.  The driving here is INSANE! There are no lanes on the roads… bikes, rickshaws and scooters go everywhere and everyone cuts each other off.  At one point we were driving down a highway similar to the 401 and there was a group of 5 or 6 cars which were driving in the opposite direction, against the flow of traffic.  I asked if this was legal and our driver laughed and said no, but after 5pm the police don’t patrol traffic so there are no rules. 

The other thing I was surprised to see was the amount of poverty.  Since we landed after sunset, I couldn’t make out much of the streets and nearby community, but every time we were stopped in traffic, people would walk up to our vehicle and knock on the glass asking for money.  This includes women holding babies, small children around 4-5 years old etc.  It’s horrible to see and it’s everywhere. 

When we FINALLY arrived at our hotel, we had to go through another security check where our bags were scanned and we went through metal detectors… apparently most of the higher end accommodations do this now in an attempt to increase security which I’m completely on board with.

From start to finish, we were travelling for 13 hours and had a handful of issues to deal with throughout the day so we were all happy to arrive at the hotel, see a clean bed with an assortments of mini cakes to welcome us, and take a shower to remove the stresses of the day.

 

We ordered UberEats for dinner and dined on some local vegetarian Thalis which were not hot, but definitely filled the gap before bed.  I think we all slept soundly that night.