{"id":9863,"date":"2018-03-09T01:13:21","date_gmt":"2018-03-09T01:13:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/?p=9863"},"modified":"2019-05-25T07:32:57","modified_gmt":"2019-05-24T21:32:57","slug":"on-our-way-to-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/?p=9863","title":{"rendered":"On our way to India \ud83c\uddee\ud83c\uddf3"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Travelled : 12622 kilometres from Sydney to Delhi via Melbourne and Columbo in Sri Lanka<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bookings : TripADeal and Sri Lankan Airlines<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stayed : Radisson Blu Paschim Vihar<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well here we are doing something a little different.  We normally enjoy independent travel rather than an organised tour, but this 2 for 1 special to India popped into our inbox and we thought what the hell.  Basically everything is organised by the tour operator, except for our visas which we chose to arrange ourselves rather than through a visa service (half the price).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We introduce Jessie (our dog) to Rick and Jenny, who are housesitting whilst we are away.  Jessie likes having someone at her beck and call 24\/7 so after the introductions Rick kindly drives us to the airport and the long days travel commences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As I stated above our flight is via Qantas to Melbourne, then SriLankan Airlines to Colombo then changing planes for the final 3 hours to Delhi.  Whilst the flights are all on time etc its makes a long day\/night.  Shortly after crossing the West Australian coast I sense the plane has altered course.  Looking around I notice a bit of a commotion at the rear of the plane, near the toilets.   Having a look at the inflight information system the plane has turn back in the general direct of Broom WA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apparently a man (a very large man) collapsed in the toilet, blocking the door.  Long story short it took a long time to remove the door, unfortunately he had passed away.  So we did another 180 and continued on to Colombo in SriLanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Quick picture inside the main terminal at Colombo Airport. More like your local shopping plaza than an international terminal. No Prada or Tag Heuer here, just local tat. No air bridges everyone gets bussed in and out.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The flight from Colombo to Delhi is very quiet and we get a couple of hours sleep.  We arrive at Indira Ghandi International Airport at 4 am local time and the place is buzzing. Doing the eVisa entry has us waiting at the baggage carousel within 10 minutes.  An hour later only one of our bags comes through.  A quick check it appears our large bag never left Colombo.  So another hour passes filling out forms and being promised the bag will be found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So we finally exit the customs hall and meet the rest of our tour group.  They are very understanding of our loss and the delay we have caused them.  Our small group is very small, only 6 people.  Four Queenslander and ourselves.   A short briefing from the tour company representative and we hit the Delhi traffic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It\u2019s still before 6 am and the roads are already choked with cars, buses, tuk tuks and scooters., We have travelled a bit, but this is beyond our experience.  Just over an hour later we reach the relative calm of the Radisson Blu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Radisson Blue from across the way. It\u2019s a huge hotel, rooms are spacious and the food excellent.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The view from our window, it\u2019s a misty or perhaps smoggy morning. By 8am the stumps are in and a very serious game of cricket \ud83c\udfcf is underway.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

We only have a couple of hours to tidy up and have breakfast before we jump back in the little bus again to start our tour of Delhi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Our gang of 6 ready for the a day in Delhi.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Michael and Pam<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Travelled : 12622 kilometres from Sydney to Delhi via Melbourne and Columbo in Sri Lanka Bookings : TripADeal and Sri Lankan Airlines Stayed : Radisson Blu Paschim Vihar Well here we are doing something a little different.  We normally enjoy independent travel rather than an organised tour, but this 2 for 1 special to India […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":10191,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[99],"class_list":{"0":"post-9863","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-india","8":"tag-trip-a-deal","9":"czr-hentry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9863"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9863\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18271,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9863\/revisions\/18271"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}