Shanghai --> New Delhi No frills, you think?

Shanghai to New Delhi. Easy. A non-stop flight, you'd figure.

No.

At the Pudong Shanghai Airport, I found no direct Air India flight to New Delhi. All I see on the screen, with the same flight number, was to Bangkok, Thailand.

Bad sign, not good.

The airplane, donned with the Dark Red Air India logo was a small, weak looking piece of machine. I should have felt what was coming there and then. For what I had imagined to be a short simple ride turned into a 24 hour ordeal spanning 4 airports.

This was the flight itinerary for what I'd hoped would be a simple flight over the Himalayas. Here goes,

Shanghai --> Bangkok --> Mumbai --> New Delhi 24 hours.

The plane after leaving Bangkok at 3 am turned back, mid-flight, to Bangkok, due to "a Minor Technical Problem". We were then stranded on the termac for another 4 hours, we even had a meal them, though in my half-sleep state, I couldnt figure out whether this was breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Then another 3 hours at Bangkok with little explanation. But after much complaining from a fierce Indian woman the Air India staff offered to take us to Mumbai, then from there we boarded a flight that was headed for Tokyo (of all places)and got off at Delhi, more than 24 hours since departure. I must have had seven , or eight meals in-flight meals, that stretched from Chinese, Thai, to India. This seems nice in print but Ive learned my lessons on flying cheap...

New Delhi

The breeze is warm here, even at night.
The crowd, there is always a crowd is lively, but not aggressive,
as you walk past stray dogs, cows, tourists and locals.

Visited the Humayun Mausoleum,
a red brick colored tomb (build like a palace) in the mold of the Taj Mahal.
The insides of the Mausoleum; the pattered- windows the star-carved ceilings had Islamic influences and looked a bit like the Alhambra in Granada Spain. Saw peacocks and stray dogs (again) in the large lawn garden.

Next stop is Jaipur (*called the pink city for reasons I shall find out) and Agra ( home to the Taj Mahal) then to Benaras on the Ganges. We've arranged this with a tourist office off the street. Hope the guy actually picks us up. Because I just remembered that the old man did not print out a receit for the 10,000 Rps Bill (230 USD) Fingers crossed,