First day in India

It was 2 years in the making, but am finally taking the trip to India I put together and paid for in November of 2019. I decided to do this trip because I had some time left over on my India visa I had to get in 2018 in order to cross through the airport when I was changing planes coming home from Nepal. Since I paid for that visa, I figured I would use it. Big mistake. 2 years and $15,000 later this was one of my more expensive visas.

Am taking the trip now even though two things I really wanted to do: Darjeeling and seeing a spice plantation, aren’t included and I have to come back later in the year.

After I pay for the move of my personal goods, I’ll be able to see if I have any budget left to do this trip.

Anyway - Here we are on April 5/6, 2022. The flight was full, but I was going Business/First and had a wonderful seat 5K, so had a private access to my seat. I had Chicken Tikka for dinner which was great. Some champagne in the lounge and for dinner too. While waiting for the flight to be called I got a text from BA that everyone should be at the gate on time at 6pm because they wanted to get boarding done early because they were going to have to take some diversions due to closed airspace. I guess this was due to the war in Ukraine. Even so, boarding didn’t start on time and we left about 15 minutes late. It was a fast flight time, I believe less than 7 hours.

I was amused when there was an announcement that one of the passengers had a severe nut allergy and would appreciate it if no one ate anything having to do with nuts…. I got a bit of sleep on the plane and woke up in time to see the Himalayas.

I got off the flight in good time In order to line up for passport control which was a bit chaotic - long lines and it wasn’t clear which line was for what. I was able to figure out that the longest line wasn’t the line for the queue leading to business/first, so I got into that line with only about 20 people. Then I was concerned that maybe they didn’t do evisas because there seemed to be other lines for those, but they took me, no problem. It was more of a problem to get my finger prints accepted, than to get the visa. Almost immediately after there was another line and no one knew what this was for. I figured it was for health screening, but it was just someone who had to look at your visa.

Then out past the baggage pick up to the airport. Nowhere did anyone want to see anything linked with Covid or covid testing. So a lot of earlier worry on my part for nothing - no one cared if you were vaccinated, tested, filled out the online form or not.

I found the SBI ATMs and the Airtel store, just like the blog said. SBI only gave me 2000 rupees - about 26 GBP. Airtel was a bit more expensive that I thought - $10 for the month - and the SIM won’t be activated until 6 tonight - so a full day instead of the 4 hours I was expecting.

My pick up was outside - Rajinder - and Manoj my driver/guide for the next 2 weeks. Am staying at the Pullman Hotel. I haven’t been to one of these since Moscow. I was given some traditional marigolds in a necklace upon arrival which are now on bunny. The air quality is still bad, but it’s better than before. My nose and eyes are feeling it!

As we speak I am now having lunch and then plan to go to the gym and the pool. It is very hot and sunny. I also spent time trying to print my itinerary as I somehow picked up one of the older ones. Tomorrow to Samode, so I’ll have to read a bit about it. Also was invited to the GMs cocktail party here - free food and drink I guess:)