So Long and Thanks for All the Fish

So... just to let you know... this will mostly be from Heather's point of view just because I type faster....

I wonder if the malaria pills are creating the weird dreams, the champagne, the late hour we went to bed... who knows but man that was weird! Oh... time to get up. Do we have everything?

Clean sheets waiting for when we get home, pack the remaining stuff from the fridge that will go bad while we're away (send it home with Blaine), eat some fruit, some bread, drink some Mimosa, go through the final checklist, the idiot check, the double check... yet even with all that we managed to leave the mango defrosting in the microwave (doh!!). A quick call and luckily MeShell is on the case (hopefully!)

Blaine is right on time, one more final check and we're off!

Breezed through airport check in - it pays to arrive 3 1/2 hours before your flight.
Checked out the duty free, wandered around Terminal 1 and, of course, since the T1 gates won't actually be completed until 2007, we had to take a shuttle to the infiled terminal to get our gate.

They let me take my trekking pole as carry on so while we were bussing to the terminal a man asked us where we were off to.
He is an environmental lawyer who studied at Dalhousie and was on his way to Trinidad to give a talk. He used to teach in India and he and his wife had taken their four (yes four) kids (all 10 and under) across India for a month a few years ago. He also told us that when he and his wife got married (1988) they spent four months travelling around Africa on their honeymoon with a tent, a stove and $800. How cool is that?!?!?

We ended up in the emergency exit aisle for the first leg of our flight to Milan. Did you know you can do a pretty reasonable yoga practice squeezed into an emergency exit aisle? This is if your seat partner doesn't mind stretching out over two seats (oh, and if you don't mind the weird looks either). Definitely something to consider!
Viparita Karani is a bit interesting since your head kind of feels like it's sticking out into the aisle as people are walking by.

The movie was Bewitched - Brad said it had funny bits but wasn't really worth it.

We landed in Milan and hung out at the airport for a few hours waiting to make our connection. It was foggy when we landed so we couldn't really see any of the city and the airport wasn't really anything to look at. There were several shops in the airport selling some serious designer clothes.
There was a Ferrari store, a Nike store and a lingerie store where you could pick up that last minute gift for your wife to make up for being away. By this point - yep, we're tired.

Back on the plane and we're off again. I could barely keep my eyes open long enough to get a glimpse of the city! We slept - finally! Out cold.

We woke up when they started serving food - lunch? dinner? No idea really... what time was it... I guess that depends on where you are! In the end, it didn't really matter except we were hungry. Eat, sleep, read, walk around, stretch - yep, another long flight.
Alitalia - as Brad put it - attendants practice extreme indifference. They were not rude but then again, they also weren't all that friendly. The binging of the attendant call button was pretty constant (and I mean every 5 seconds or so at some points - yes... I'm serious). People were falling asleep pressed against the button. The call buttons therefore, were totally ignored. After dinner was served and cleared, if you wanted anything, it was self serve. There was a drink cart in the galley and people pretty much just served themselves (including wine).

So let's see... Blaine's car, the bus to the infield, a plane, the terminal in Milan, a bus to the plane, a plane, bus to terminal - and we're there! Now that wasn't so hard... was it!

Oh, ya... just before we landed one of the crew walked through the cabin spraying air freshener. I'm not sure if that was because of the air in Delhi or the fact that the bathrooms were starting to get pretty ripe on the plane.

Landing... the city was huge. The smell started, subtly, just after we descended below 10,000 feet (well, I couldn't really smell it but Brad could - a blessing of allergies?)
Brad described it as a combination of burning rubber, eggs and dirt.
I wasn't an overpowering smell at all, just a "fragrance" that kind of hung in the air. I started to get a hint of it when we landed and especially once I got outside.

I'm sure people's first impressions are influenced by the aroma of the place - we seem to entirely forget that we have our own cities with their own special "perfume".

My first thought on disembarking was that living in Toronto prepared me pretty well. It didn't seem strange to me at all that I was surrounded by foreign people speaking a language that I didn't understand. The terminal luggage area was large and bright and soft music was playing. It reminded me a bit of the music in Peru.
(Note to self... carry small rupee denominations for the washroom attendants since you will likely want to use as soon as you get off the plane)

We picked up our bags and headed out of the luggage area. So, contrast this... large open bright luggage area... step through the sliding doors ... taxi sellers start calling you, a metal railing running along both sides of the exit is holding a large number of people back who are waiting for arrivals. On the right were what seemed like hundreds of welcome signs for people being picked up by thier hotels, on the left and at the back was the occasional tour sign and just lots of people.
We had prearranged a pick up from the hotel we were staying at and, similar to being in Peru, I'm glad we did!

We couldn't find our welcome sign so we exited the gauntlet, parked ourselves near a post and started hunting for a phone to call the hotel. Somehow, the hotel person found us. We were told to wait, our driver was on the way.

Our driver arrived and we followed him out of the terminal, another drastic change when we walked outside. People are now combined with cars and buses and auto rickshaws and the occassional dog.

We walked to the jeep where he was parked and climbed in for our most interesting journey to the hotel.

My initial observations on traffic - there are no rules. There were lines painted on the "highway" but they appeared to be irrelevant. The number and locations of the lanes was fluid but, as we drove, I realized that even in chaos there is order. The roads had trucks and cars and bicycle rickshaws and autorickshaws and people and vendors pushing carts and horse and buggies - yet somehow it was all moving along better than any traffic jam I've ever witnessed in Toronto. Horns and highbeams were used to signal turning, passing and displeasure. I would need an interpreter to know which ws which.

When we got closer to the core was when the numbers and variety of vehicles increased. We had stumbled into a jam caused by a large parade and celebration. The driver said it was for Dhurga but later we found out that festival was actually four days ago. This festival was for the birthday of the author who wrote a big book about the gods (Rama or something like that). There were flatbed trucks decorated with flowers and filled with people celebrating. Our driver tried some pretty tricky moves to find a way around (including going the wrong way down a street) but it was no good - we had to wait for the road to clear. In the end it took over an hour to reach our hotel but it didn't really matter, it was an amazing scene to watch. At some points I felt like I was dropped into a movie set. I even saw a few cows just hanging out.

What really caught my attention (again) was the contrasts. Delhi is huge and overpopulated. The air is thicker with pollution than the worst smog day in Toronto. Everything, everywhere seems to be covered in a thick coat of dust. Even the trees are dusty. This gives a very drab colourless scene. Puntuate that with women wearing the most bright, beautiful, colourful saris I've ever seen.

We did reach the hotel safely and stepped from the caucaphony outside into a "quiet" hotel lobby. We checked in, dumped our bags and took the elevator (run by an operator - metal gates and all) to the rooftop restaurant. It was now after midnight and we were starving (again!). It will be interesting to see the view from the roof in daylight. The moon was full, there was a variety of furniture (white patio chairs, black iron, etc) and a lighted fountain for atmosphere. Chana Masala, Veg Briyani, Naan and Masala Chai - Yum!! All that and a bottle of water and only $142 rupees ($4.00). How cheap! That taken care of and a quick bucket rinse -- time for sleep!