We arrived at the Paro Airport at 09:30 and said farewell to our Bhutanese guide Dendup and our highly capable driver Tenzin.
We had business class seats which meant that we went through the baggage drop and ticket allocation quite quickly and efficiently.
At this point we had to say farewell to Sue who is not travelling on to India with us and is heading home to NSW via Singapore. There were lots of hugs and good wishes as our team of six suddenly became five.
Three of our five were suffering from yesterday’s luncheon with stomach upsets which resulted in everyone being fairly low key and wanting rest and not feeling like eating.
We had access to the Drukair Business lounge but just used it as an opportunity to relax in a comfortable surrounding.
We boarded our Airbus 319 and took off in the direction of the infamous valley and gorge but as we were climbing rapidly the danger associated with the descent into Paro is not so significant.
Boarding the plane for Delhi
The flight took 150 minutes and there were times that passengers on the right side of the plane could see some of the Himalayan peaks but most were cloud covered.
Coming in to land at New Delhi gave us a clear snapshot as to why this is the most populous country in the world. Even 20 km before landing the residential blocks were jammed so close together that there wasn’t the possibility of trees or gardens.
Flying into Delhi
Flying into Delhi
We landed at Indira Gaandhi International Airport and were able to access the business class passport and immigration ‘fast lane’ and were through in no time.
Our group of five all caught up at the luggage carousel and then used an ATM to collect some Indian rupees. The current exchange rate is around 55 Indian rupees to the Aussie dollar.
Having passed through customs without there being any declaration required we proceeded to the arrivals gate where we were met by a ‘Go India Experiences’ company representative who led us to our bus and we then headed in to New Delhi Dwarka. The outside temperature was 42C and the air-conditioning in our bus is a godsend.
The travel from the airport to our hotel was in heavy traffic with cars, buses, small trucks, motor bikes and cyclists all honking horns and weaving about and creating more lanes than theoretically existed.
At some intersections we were held up for extended periods and on one occasion, next to us was an elderly man riding a bicycle. Despite this mayhem he had strapped to his bike frame a 3 m long section of large diameter PVC pipe. He seemed to survive the jostling and near misses that occurred frequently.
We are staying in the Raddison Blu Hotel in the suburb of Dwarka.
On arrival at 15:00 Delhi time we all decided that we’d head for our rooms and go into hibernation until tomorrow morning when we do a tour of Old Delhi.