Up, up and away!

Today we arrived in London! The flight went off without a hitch and now we’re getting cozy in the airport. We made a bed out of a sewed sheet and the AirCanada blankets and pillows we stole from the plane. Didn’t sleep much, if at all, on the floor of Heathrow and we were eagerly waiting our flight after being there for 10+ hours in the am.  When we went to the desk to attempt to check in we were offered a killer deal if we were willing to spend MORE time in the airport and take a later plane-600 euros! Needless to say we signed up for the deal, and just as we were getting pumped and planning a trip into London to see Buckingham Palace, we learned we would be getting on the earlier flight, and the only good side of that was that we’d be getting out of the airport earlier!

Once we boarded the plane the flight attendant announced that they’d be spraying the cabin with a spray that prevents illness and disease. Since we had never heard of this before, and since we were quite tired for basically not sleeping for 24 hours, we found this quite hilarious.

After a five hour sleep on the seven hour flight, we landed in Delhi. Customs was a breeze-the officer didn’t even say a word to me-he just stamped passport and I was good to go. As expected, a driver picked us up from the airport and took us to our hostel. He pointed out the luxury hotels that we passed along the way near the airport as we had our first driving experience in India-this was around midnight and we learned that lanes basically do not exist.  Everything seemed nice enough, until we took a turn down the street our hostel was on. There were half dressed or naked men sleeping on the street everywhere and many skinny stray dogs, and absolutely no other sign of life-the streets were empty. The driver took us to a small sign naming our hostel and announced we were there. I was nervous, because the hostel didn’t appear to be anywhere, and wasn’t quite ready for this introduction to India. Luckily, he walked us down a winding alley to arrive at the hostel door. The hostel was comfortable but BASIC and the front desk staff very nice.  We settled into our room, where Jessie cleaned off the cow poop she’d stepped in as she got out of the cab that I had barely noticed happen because I was too preoccupired taking in our surroundings.  The room was simple, had “air conditioning” (basically a unit blowing out hot air) and a basic bathroom with a shower. 

The next day, the hostel arranged for a driver to take us to the tourist centre , where an absolutely lovely man named Happy listened to what we hoped to get out of our trip and planned multiple itineraries accordingly.  He then priced the entire trip for us, including all hostels, trains, transports from trains, drivers, tours and more I am sure.  While we deliberated over the plan Happy provided us with breakfast cooked by his mother-absolutely delicious fried airy pitas with a chickpea masala for dipping and our first sweet chai with milk. If he was trying to get on our good side, it definitely worked-that has been the best meal I’ve had so far in India!  Since we didn’t know the end date of our time with CHAI, we couldn’t commit to Happy’s plan, but will hopefully be taking him up on the offer of the all inclusive tour.

Upon arrival at the Hyderabad airport, we negotiated a price for a taxi after checking with the tourism desk to seem how much it should cost.  It took us about 1 hour to get to the hotel.  Right near the airport we noticed huge boulders stacked on top of each other on big cliffs-kinda looked like Jurassic park. The hotel seemd luxurious compared to where we had spent the night previously-triple beds with nearly clean sheets, a flat screen TV and a bathroom and ac. It overall just seemed cleaner and more secure.  We met up with the other girls, Joanne and Amanda, and ventured out to find some dinner.  We ate at a nicer looking place, wanting to ease ourselves into the cuisine.  We ordered butter chicken, tandoori chicken, vegetable biiryani, naan and multiple pots of rice, with four huge Kingfisher beers plus water, for about 5 bucks each. It was more than we could eat, and we realized that it was quite expensive, but it was good and filling. Had a great sleep in a comfortable, clean, cool (needed a blanket midway through the night) room, and were ready to take on Hyderabad the following day!