Delhi, India – November 3 Arrival

We arrived at 8:30pm. Our flight was very pleasant and I slept my normal pattern. I was asleep by 10pm and up at 6am. But now I had to change my watch and start adjusting to Indian time. As we exited the plane the first thing I noticed was a fully geared security guard.

As we entered customs a wall decorated with bronze circles and large hands greeted all of us. There was this little girl in New York who I had noticed and said a couple words to. When we got in line for customs she was just smiling as big as she was in New York her beautiful big brown eyes sparkled. Her father had the classic handlebar mustache. We enjoyed small conversation with the entire family. As we were leaving the luggage area the father came up to us to invite us to his home in the north. He had 60 acres up north. Parth let us know that north is the Himalayas. I asked if he would bless us and say a prayer for our journey. He said, “Lord, bless this family, keep us safe and bless their journey. Make sure that the princess (Michelle) is cared for. Keep an eye out for this one, she is the Snow White princess”

As we got in the car to head to our airport we laughed as the steering wheel is on the opposite side of US cars. It was very dark and we could not see the sky, nor could we see the smog. Our hotel was incredibly secure, as our Marriott driver had to stop at the entrance, open both the hood and the trunk, get smelled by a dog. Once in the compound of the hotel our luggage had to be scanned to enter the hotel, and so did we. We were feeling safe. The hotel’s flowers were some of the best I have ever seen. There were tall vases filled with water as the flowers just barely hung out of the vase.

What really struck me was the smog in the hotel. The air just lingered above us, but you could see it and smell it. Incense burned, so the smell was sweet, but either way there was a very strong fragrance as you walked inside. We had a very late dinner at the hotel, that had a buffet that was simply amazing. Each station was separated by region, Indian, Italian, Chinese and the food tastes jumped in the month. So full of good flavor and texture with so many options. Our hotel was very close to the airport and you could see all nationalities enjoy late meals as they must just be arriving too. By midnight we knew we had to get to bed, as we were starting at 10am the next day. It would be very hard to get to sleep even with pills, as India is exactly 11.5 hours ahead of Denver so it was like going to be at noon.