December in India, Part 8

After our whirlwind tour of Jaipur, we headed back to Delhi to the airport for our trip home.  We got to see some different country than the trip down to Agra.  There were more hills and it was noticeably drier.  We saw a lot of camels for the first little while coming out of Jaipur.  We also stopped and watched troop of monkeys being fed.  The traffic was heavier than the day before with all the long-distance lorries on the road coming up to Delhi.  The road to Agra was a toll expressway with no freight traffic and the road from Agra to Jaipur was not nearly as busy.  We stopped several times at intersections where the traffic backed up.  And once or twice we got delayed by construction on overpasses.  It was a long trip, but still interesting.  We stopped at great roadside restaurant and had chicken pakora and meat samosas.  The latter were very good and I wish I had tasted them earlier in the trip.

We arrived at Indira Gandhi International Airport several hours before our flight.   The plan was to spend the time in the airport lounge where we had bought a pass for the evening.  Unfortunately, we were flying Air France and their ticket window was not open as they have only a couple of flights.  We waited an hour or so before we were able to get boarding passes and then get into the boarding area.  It was very relaxing when we finally got there.  We had a buffet Christmas dinner, took a shower, drank a lot of Diet Coke and generally lounged around in the cushy chairs.

Christmas Dinner

We left Delhi at 1:45 a.m. local time and landed in Paris almost 9 hours later at 6:00 a.m.  We had a four hour layover there including the obligatory harassment of American tourists by French airport security.  From there we caught a blessed non-stop flight to Salt Lake City.  That took 11 hours and I slept a great deal of that flight.  We arrived at 2:00 in the afternoon.  Three of the kids: Evan, Alan, Joan and our dog, Stretch, were coming down from Idaho Falls where they spent Christmas with my parents and we actually made it through customs and immigration before they could get to the airport.  This was now December 26th, even in Utah.  We opened the presents and handed out gifts from India in the afternoon.

Yeongmi at Charles DeGaulle Airport

With a badly sprained ankle, this chair was a godsend

Waiting for a ride in Salt Lake

From our post-India press conference

This was a trip of a lifetime.  I may never get back to India again and I am glad I took this trip when I had the chance.