Flight to India

The flight from Toronto to Chicago on American Airlines on May 14 was a little early (arriving at 3:15pm) and pretty uneventful. My bag was checked all the way through to New Delhi, which made things a little easier. As some may know, due to a slight delay in booking my flight to India, I ended up having to travel Business Class on the flight from Chicago to New Delhi, so when I landed in New Delhi, I went to American's Admiralty Lounge (a Business Club perk) and meet my school-mate, Louis D'Souza and his wife Margaret (see photos on plane). We caught up for the next few hours before heading off to catch our 7:05pm (Chicago Time) flight. The flight to New Delhi took about 14 hours (and three full meals). Since the time difference between Toronto and New Delhi is about 9.5 hours, we arrived on Tuesday, May 15 at about 8:30pm. There was no line-up on arrival and Customs was a breeze. We were met by a driver from the Shervani Hotel who ferried us there in about 1/2-an-hour and where we had time to grab a quick bite.

The temperature in the city was about 46 degrees Celsius (about 115 Fahrenheit), but the car and rooms were air-conditioned. One thing that struck us right away about New Delhi were the busy roads and what appeared to crazy drivers (buses, truck, cars scooters, rickshaws, bicycles) and equally crazy pedestrians. However, by the 2nd day we realized all the apparent chaos was very carefully choreographed by all involved.

Despite an interesting combination of No Jet Lag tablets, catnaps on plane and coffee with all our plane meals, I slept like a baby.