The flight over from JFK went smoothly and Etihad turned out to be excellent, not some rando no-name airline. The flight attendants were gorgeous. They wore great form fitting suits, little red leather gloves, head coverings, and perfectly applied red lipstick throughout the flight. We lucked out and had an entire row to ourselves and I was happy to discover the flight was only 12 hours...not 18 as I had thought initially. It seemed as though we were in Abu Dhabi in no time, could have been a simple flight to CA. However, stepping off the plane I quickly felt worlds away. The heat was immediately oppressive even though we arrived at 10pm. I also had my first introduction to being surrounded predominantly by men in the airport. The Abu Dhabi airport had a beautiful large tiled centerpiece which extended to the ceiling in the main terminal and all of the duty free shops were exceptionally high end. Waiting for the flight to Delhi was when I started to feel really out of it and 3 other planes happened to board at our gate prior to when we were expecting to depart. Finally, our flight was called. This wait seemed to be longer than the flight over.
If I rated the first leg of the journey a 10, I would give the 4 hour flight to Delhi a 2. The turbulence was INSANE. I got up to use the bathroom truly at my own risk, it was a full body work out in that little container being tossed around in the ass end of the plane. One lady came running to the bathrooms when I exited exclaiming, "This is the worst turbulence I have ever had!" I tried to chat up one of the attendants, "So how much longer till we land, some turbulence huh?" I wanted to gauge how scared he was but I quickly was yelled at by a crotchety attendant- "Get in your seat!"
Arrival in Delhi- 4am...surprisingly our bags came through and the airport pickup I had arranged was patiently waiting! Walking out of the airport the streets were packed with people. There was such a pulse I had forgotten is was 4am, thought maybe it was only 8pm. The air in Delhi is thick, smokey, fills your lungs...incense burning, rubbish torching, food cooking..all melding together creating an unforgettable scent.
During the half hour drive to the Hotel Godwin in the Paharganj section, I had a brief introduction to the driving in Delhi (literally an inch within hitting various rickshaws, people, animals, and cars). We sleep for all of 3 hours then decide to venture out...where this day would lead us, we never would have expected.
