Arriving at the hotel was interesting. There was a long line of cars, and the driver told us there was a wedding party here. It was after 10PM, so we wondered what sort of party had people arriving at that hour! After check in, and dropping our bags, we went to the Executive Lounge. Before this trip, we got the AMEX that gives priority for Marriott (which hurt a bit since we're Hilton people!) so Theresa would have access to the lounge instead of working in the hotel room all through the week. It was about 11:15, and the lounge was open, or at least they didn't refuse letting us in, although the look on the guy's face was a mix of "Welcome!" and "I can't tell you no don't come in!" Regardless, in we went! The bar was closed, but we had access to soft drinks, so we had a cold beverage and took a can of soda back to the room.
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| Delhi has pretty bad air quality right now! |
After a pretty decent night's sleep, and a lazy morning, we headed down to breakfast at the buffet. There were several "stations" with meats in one place, breads in another, an (East) "Asian", and a couple of Indian food stations. So, after scoping it out, we started sampling the variety of options. It was all pretty good! They cleaned the room while were ate, so we came back to a straightened room, fit for pictures!
Bill took some time to work a bit while Theresa took a good nap.
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| The "walk in" shower was a bit bereft of "walls"... |
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| ...but had a great view of the TV!! |
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| Not too bad of a place to spend a week? |
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| Heading into the "real" experience. |
After some time in the lounge, we headed out. Bill needed to get a picture (2x2) for an airport badge (later in the week), and we did not realize it in order to bring one. So, off in a foreign city to find a place to get a "passport photo". Yeah. It was as normal as that sounds! We walked out of the hotel into the wild. Ok, so most of "Aerocity" is very Western feeling. Big hotels, a few big "foreign malls" with tourist or "spendy" food and shopping options. But we left that behind and followed a sidewalk by a busy road. The sidewalk was almost wide enough for two side by side, but with over grown greenery on one side and a fence on the other, and oncoming people...not really. Anyway, we finally emerged into exactly what we expected for India...a vague grundge on roughly everything; the ground, the buildings, clothes, even the air. Nothing seemed clean, but the dinge muddled everything into a common theme sort of. And the tuk-tuks. Hoards of yellow and green tuk tuks, veering amidst people and cars.
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| Busy street and sidewalks are full of vendors. |
We found a sign for a photo printer, and headed down the alley. Two dogs lay in the path, casually aware and unconcerned with our presence. Down into the basement we found an open door and room with two men and a printer. For 200 INR (about $2.50) we arranged to get Bill's pictures.
On the way home, we made it back to "Aerocity" and the shopping area. Getting into the shopping area requires going through a metal detector. We found a "24-Seven" (same colors as a 7-11, but no trademark, apparently?) They had some food options for Theresa for the week. Nothing fancy, but at least an option if she's too busy to find something better.
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| Hazy Delhi |
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| Aerocity just "feels" different??? |
Once back, we returned to the lounge and enjoyed dinner and a few drinks, and Bill ran into two people that will be at the conference this coming week. Interesting conversations about SAP (not the kind Theresa deals with) and general airline-ism. It was a different - but overall decent day!
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