Hello Delhi!

Arrived yesterday evening at 9pm local time. It was a comfortable flight in the new Boeing Dreamliner, very high tech. The lowest tech was the movie entertainment, English comedy section was all black and white movies. I especially liked the window blinding system - check out Youtube what I mean.

Cultural experience
The flight was 90% filled with Indians and I must say it was a very comfortable flight. People are not loud or walking around all the time. A very pleasant experience. I was also surprised about how relax and slow people get off the plane.  Caught myself going HK foot pace and decided to relax more and take it easy.

Met this guy from Mumbai, Varun, who just spend a week in Hong Kong partying with friends, who works as a beer brewer in Mumbai :D. Was interesting to see that there is someone else like me that goes and visits local supermarkets and checks out the beers first haha. I promised him to visit Mumbai after we visit Shirdi, so he can show us around and give us the local beer and food tour.

During the flight, I suddenly realized I forgot my malaria pills in Hong Kong, I have faith in perfection to be as it is :P As Varun told me, what do you want: 3 weeks bedridden or 6 months no beer. Well the answer is clear for the Drunken Buddha.

Security
New Delhi airport is nice, but security is everywhere. As we entered the parking lot of the Hotel, we were checked, then when I entered the hotel I had to move my stuff through the scanner again.
Same for boarding the plane, just before entering the plane, we were checked again. Think I have to start getting used to this.

Taxi sir?
When I came outside the airport taxis were buzzing everywhere. One guy came up to me he asked RS 950 (HKD 90) for a 10min drive to my hotel. I remember reading something about prepaid taxis and that to the city is only about 350rs, so I laughed at him "WAAYYYYYYYYY TOOOO Expensive" and he was shocked "How much? Name your price." and I thought screw you. So I walked to the prepaid area and saw a foreigner standing there and thought that must be right.

In the end it only cost me RS250 and then for their convenience I had to share a taxi with another guy. These taxis are small and are half the size of Hong Kong taxis (almost like a Smart), and I was thinking how the hell I would fit (the other guy was fully occupying the back seat)

The guy whom I shared a the taxi with, was a guy from Delhi , J.T., who was very nice. We had a brief talk in the car and was asking about my old job, and he asked me to stay in touch with him, because he wanted to do some product design in the future haha.

Enjoying my last beer

After check-in, I decided to go downstairs in the lounge to enjoy my last night of beer. I will have to go cold-turkey for at least a month while I am in Leh, Ladakh. It could literally kill me if I would drink at high altitude. To my surprise they only had Western beer, Amstel, Erdinger, Hoegaarden, it felt nostalgic hehe.

Lessons learned
With all the hectics and overload of new information, I caught myself chasing my thoughts, my projected ideas, and possible problems that one may encounter. It made me realized that I should stop doing that. If I keep myself busy in my mind, I miss the chance of enjoying the experience of where I am. Enjoy the moments as they are, appreciate and become more aware of it with clarity…come to think of it, isn't that how we should go through life in general? 

The journey begins
Marcus arrived this morning, and was good to catch up with him. It felt ridiculous to be at the Holiday Inn for our journey, yet it was nice to enjoy our last day of luxury, nice breakfast and coffee.

Tonight, off to Manali! A 9 hour bus drive :)

Marcus quote of the day
"I have Rinpoche's underwear!"