Day 1: Delhi

Here we are in Delhi! Back at the Anoop Hotel, where I have stayed on my previous 2 trips.
The flights here went fine. Walker did SO GOOD.


It was hard because the flights were long, and 2 times he got hyper before crashing. (Coincidentally....that is occurring right now, too.) I couldn't be prouder of this little rascal. He was a Pa's boy the whole way...

...except when the Afghani in the rear of the plane freaked out.

Let's talk about that. We were sitting on the tarmac in Amsterdam, 15 minutes late because someone checked their baggage and then never boarded. So they had to go and remove the baggage...you know, in case it was a bomb or something. Suddenly, 3 rows behind us, this person starts FREAKING OUT. Screaming in this high pitched way. I thought there was a mental patient who was losing it. There were guys restraining the person, and Jamie jumped up to help, but the steward told him to sit. The man was screaming something about Afghanistan...and everyone was looking around, feeling confused and frightened. Finally he stopped screaming, and we were told the man had been trying to get asylum in Holland but was refused, and that there were four air Marshalls with him who were returning him to Afghanistan, where he clearly did not want to go. It was sad, and interesting, scary, and confusing. Whoa! Then in the end he sat there, watching a movie quietly and we all forgot about it.

Here is the sign we saw for us upon our arrival.


This has to be the worst spelling of my name...umm...ever. Ha! Our ride into town from the airport was great.

We hung out and had a beer from the rooftop restaurant, then all went to sleep. We woke up because some kid was talking really loud in the hall around 7 am.

Then we ordered a cup of chai, Pa's 1st. He liked it! People, chai is way better in India than in the US. My friend Raina says it is because it is made with unpasteurized water buffaloe milk. When they make chai, they boil the milk and water, spices & tea, so it is Ok about the lack of pasteurization. then as Walker was still sleping, we ordered room service (no additional charge, BTW) and got the "Spanish breakfast." Which was delicious! Yum yum! I mean, YUM!


Then we figured out how to turn on the geiser, which is an individual hot water heater in he bathroom, and cleaned ourselves up, got dressed, and went for a walk to the ATM. Here are some things we saw along the way:
Back to the room for a rest, then out for lunch where we sat at a roadside restaurant, and Walker sat on my lap and drank lemon with soda, Pa and I had ginger lemon honey tea (amazing) and we watched everyone go by. Super nice. I got mixed veg curry, Pa got veg eggrolls, Walker got fries. All delicious.

Back out for a walk, then hopped into an autorickshaw over to Lodi Gardens. Kind of like the Central Park of Delhi. Awesome! I am so glad we went. There were lots of lovers lolling about in the grass. There were several tombs, including one for Mr. Lodi. OLD tombs, like from 1500AD. We saw lots of geese, parakeets, and birds. LOTS. They chirped like crazy. You can hear them in this video:


Back to the hotel for a nap. It was VERY HARD to get up from the nap due to jet lag and Walker was PISSED. We made him wake up by going out for a walk. Then dinner on the roof of Pad Thai (Indian style) and Pizza. Now, we have a very hyper child on our hands and are waiting for the crash. (We also met a very annoying Dutch hippie man who shot his insulin right in front of us without saying anything, then criticized our parenting about how we were trying to get Walker to eat dinner....umm...SEE YA!)

All I can say is that it has been a great day.