Allyson's Travels: Arrived in Delhi!

I was more than a bit nervous about my trip to India. I'd talked to many people (thanks to you all!) about what to expect, what to bring, where to go.

Here are the top things I was worried about:

Being mobbed by begging children every time I went outside
Being mobbed at the airport by ruthless taxi drivers
Getting bitten alive by malaria-infested mosquitoes
Gagging from the horrible smell leaving the airport.
Getting super sticky and hot with the heat and humidity.

Except for the last one, none of these fears have materialized.

But...arriving at the airport after 23 hours of travel, feeling pretty darn good after 3 hours of sleep, I'm looking forward to seeing Tekla and having some tea.

Unbeknownst to me, she's written us all an email (which I hadn't read)--her parting words were: "but be prepared that your preparations may not be what you prepared for". So true.

Guess what I forgot? Contact numbers and guest house address. Hmmm... I got a little inkling that this might be a problem when I filled out the airport landing form. I just left it blank and hoped for the best. Sailed through the immigration. Phew, no problems.

Walked through a shiny and immaculate airport, headed for the doors. Looking expectantly for my name on a sign. This was the first time that I'll have been met at a foreign airport--what a luxury! I wouldn't have to contend with the pesky taxi drivers, I'd just sail up to the person holding the sign, smile and get into his car.

I see no sign with my name. I double check. I check again. I'm getting stinking hot and it's only 8:30 in the morning. What to do? I don't have a phone number or an address. My first mess up in an otherwise perfect trip.

I decided no to fight it, and take it in stride.

I began the somewhat frustrating experience of trying to find a computer with internet connection so that I could check an older email from Tekla that had contact information. I dealt with guards, airport staff, telephone attendants...Thank you to the kind people at visitor services who lent me their work computer to log on and find the email.

Two and a half hours later...I had my driver! Hussein drove for an hour through Delhi traffic. (I really want to share a short video that I took while driving, but technology is not cooperating: either the Internet connection is too slow or the software is too old. But here's a picture of Hussein. It really doesn't do the trip justice. Stay tuned for the video for when I get the perfect combination of speed and software in an Internet cafe.)