Day 1 – Toronto – Dubai – Delhi
What the fuck did I get my self into!? A word of advice, do NOT play any extreme sports when you are about to leave for a long trip, such as bowling in my case, and risk twisting some part of your body, ie my back! If it wasn’t enough having a bad back that can go off like a firecracker, add Bowling to that and… well yea.. your’re going to be in more pain.
I pretty much have a 16-hour journey from Toronto with a 21:50 flight. 12 hours to Dubai, stop for 2 hours, and get on another 4-hour flight. Prior to this bowling incident, I had reserved a window seat. Knowing that would screw me, I got lucky and was able to change my seat on the long haul flight to an aisle. Stretching is key! All in all, the flight on the giant A380 was decent. Decent food and loads of entertainment options available. Emirates is pretty darn nice, there were no issues with the service either. A tip; do not sit towards the front of the plane, this is where the babies are, this is where the babies cry and this is where you will not sleep!
Dubai: Freaking massive airport! I had to switch planes to a 777-300 and the walk was long, at least 1.5-2km and with a bad back. A massage looked tempting but I cared more about getting caffeine in me. An expensive $8.30 CAD regular Americano.. wtf? With the long walk and a short time to take in some caffeine, it was time to board the plane. Window seat, woohoo! It could have been worse but it ended up being okay. I sat beside a big Punjabi guy and we ended up having Whiskey towards the end of the flight. As he said, its good for the digestive system and I wasn’t going to argue with that.
Delhi; landed and stranded at 3AM. There was not much I could do since the guesthouse check-in was at 11AM. Luckily Delhi has a lounge, (the Plaza Premium Lounge) where you can get a room with a shower. After a long journey this was a welcoming sight. They charge per 3 hours so I ended up getting a 6 hour window which cost about ₹4500. After an okay rest and shower, I waited until about 10AM. In the mean-time, I got an Airtel simcard for ₹1000, which in my opinion for the whole month, is not bad at all!
Next order of business; get an Uber. Delhi has quite a few options for getting around including metro, Uber, Ola, regular taxis, and tuk tuks. I played it safe since the payments with Uber are “uber” simple (lol). I made it to the Airbnb homestay around 12pm and met the host, Brampal. After a brief convo I headed to the room and literally passed out for the entire day onwards.
Bad idea.