So Thursday we started the LONG journey to New Delhi, India. Starting around 3 in Cincinnati, we flew from there to Chicago. We had a few hours to kill and a list of very specific alcohol to buy in the duty-free shop for our professor's family. We made sure to get those and ate our last salads before heading onto the plane. The flight to Delhi is non-stop from Chicago and lasts around 15 hours, making it my second longest flight behind South Africa. This was my first time on a 777 and it was a nice plane, I certainly liked it. I was supposed to have the seat next to me empty but the plane filled up pretty quickly including a family with a crying baby next to me. The baby all in all behaved pretty well considering that she was probably 1 or so. It was a very interesting mix of people, a lot more "westerners" (as we are called there) than I would have thought originally. American serves specifically Indian food as a way to appeal to those Indian travelers. The flight was fine, it felt extremely long after a certain amount of time but that's just how those flights go. The movie selection was okay but I mostly fell asleep through each of them. This was Matt's first long flight and he was a trooper the whole way through. We were both pretty happy to land.
Once we got there, the terminal was brand new. We have been finding that a lot of things in Delhi are new because they hosted the Commonwealth Games last October. The CWG are all of the 72 countries that were once under British rule and it seems to be almost the same thing as the Olympics. The city went under some major changes, including the building of the entire Metro which has really only been open since then. I'll talk more about the metro later. After we got through customs, which was easy since we had our visas we headed out into the unsecured part. We bought our Indian Sim card that gave us a great local Delhi number. This phone allows us to call home for 8 rupees/min versus the $3 for Matt's US cell phone. To put it into perspective, 1 dollar is 45 rupees. This made everything much cheaper for us in terms of options. We also had to stand in line for our prepaid taxi. Finding the actual place where the taxi was turned out to be quite a challenge. There were other taxi companies that fight for your service and you end up crossing a pretty busy area to get to the right place. It was pretty dark and we didn't get to see much on our drive home. Traffic was pretty low then too. We got to the house and really just ate a bit and went to bed. The house seemed nice but we didn't explore much until the next day.
We woke up and journeyed out to see more of the flat. We are staying with one of econ professor's sister, Olina, and brother-in-law, Sri. They live a floor above the parents of my professor and Olina. We figured it was a very nice place based on the fact it was in a gated development. The neighborhood is called CR Park and it is one of the 4 most expensive places to live. Sri showed us around the building, they have a lovely terrace. They also have a live-in housekeeper, Raju. He's very shy around us and doesn't speak English. He's lived with Sri and Olina for 7 years now. He has a bed right outside the terrace where he stays. Olina's parents have a housekeeper, Shanu, and she has been with them for over 30 years. Her parents aren't currently at their flat, they are staying at their other house in Calcutta right now. Shanu cooks for Olina and Sri as well. The first morning Shanu made us an omelette and toast for breakfast, it was very similar to what we would eat at home. We also stayed around chatting with them until lunch. Lunch was very good, also made by Shanu. We had a cauliflower dish, rice and a lentil soup that you mix in with the rice. After that, we made our first venture outside the walls of CR Park. We took an autorickshaw, our first of MANY, and went to the first metro station by our house, Nehru Place. There is security EVERYWHERE. The one thing that is different is that women and men go through different scanners for everything. Women usually are patted down behind a screen by another woman. On the first metro ride, we went on the emptiest car and after a little looking around, realized it was the all woman's car.
There are more good stories but I'm going to have to run for now...
Once we got there, the terminal was brand new. We have been finding that a lot of things in Delhi are new because they hosted the Commonwealth Games last October. The CWG are all of the 72 countries that were once under British rule and it seems to be almost the same thing as the Olympics. The city went under some major changes, including the building of the entire Metro which has really only been open since then. I'll talk more about the metro later. After we got through customs, which was easy since we had our visas we headed out into the unsecured part. We bought our Indian Sim card that gave us a great local Delhi number. This phone allows us to call home for 8 rupees/min versus the $3 for Matt's US cell phone. To put it into perspective, 1 dollar is 45 rupees. This made everything much cheaper for us in terms of options. We also had to stand in line for our prepaid taxi. Finding the actual place where the taxi was turned out to be quite a challenge. There were other taxi companies that fight for your service and you end up crossing a pretty busy area to get to the right place. It was pretty dark and we didn't get to see much on our drive home. Traffic was pretty low then too. We got to the house and really just ate a bit and went to bed. The house seemed nice but we didn't explore much until the next day.
We woke up and journeyed out to see more of the flat. We are staying with one of econ professor's sister, Olina, and brother-in-law, Sri. They live a floor above the parents of my professor and Olina. We figured it was a very nice place based on the fact it was in a gated development. The neighborhood is called CR Park and it is one of the 4 most expensive places to live. Sri showed us around the building, they have a lovely terrace. They also have a live-in housekeeper, Raju. He's very shy around us and doesn't speak English. He's lived with Sri and Olina for 7 years now. He has a bed right outside the terrace where he stays. Olina's parents have a housekeeper, Shanu, and she has been with them for over 30 years. Her parents aren't currently at their flat, they are staying at their other house in Calcutta right now. Shanu cooks for Olina and Sri as well. The first morning Shanu made us an omelette and toast for breakfast, it was very similar to what we would eat at home. We also stayed around chatting with them until lunch. Lunch was very good, also made by Shanu. We had a cauliflower dish, rice and a lentil soup that you mix in with the rice. After that, we made our first venture outside the walls of CR Park. We took an autorickshaw, our first of MANY, and went to the first metro station by our house, Nehru Place. There is security EVERYWHERE. The one thing that is different is that women and men go through different scanners for everything. Women usually are patted down behind a screen by another woman. On the first metro ride, we went on the emptiest car and after a little looking around, realized it was the all woman's car.
There are more good stories but I'm going to have to run for now...
