And that’s how our trip to India started. A 1 hour air traffic control delay at the gate, and then both of us sitting on a partially loaded plane showing us that we were not going anywhere really fast because the delay was extended. (The only good thing about it was that although it was 103° outside, the inside of that plane was COLD, and it was great!)

It was an ominous start to a trip that involved A LOT of flying. 2 flights to get to India. 4 flights in country once there. And 2 flights to get home. To make matters worse, the front page of the Times of India on the day we got there showed this article:

And we were flying into and out of Pune! I don’t like to fly all that much, and the delays to start the trip and then this article didn’t inspire peace of mind to say the least.

All in all, our travel went off pretty well. Every flight in India was at least 30 minutes late, but that’s not that different than the U.S. come to think of it. When we flew back into Delhi from Pune, the pilot informed us we were going to spend 55 minutes circling the airport and that we were number 22 for landing. It reminded me of Die Hard 2 where the planes have to circle forever and are running out of gas. I’ve never seen a landing delay like that before. Delhi is very busy in the evenings.

Here’s a summary of our travel:

• from the time we left to the time we returned, approximately 192 hours passed.
• we spent 44.5 hours flying and covered 21,432 miles
• we spent 14 hours in trains and cars and covered 387 miles
• we spent over 22 hours sitting in airports or train stations
• all in all, that means we spent 42% of those 192 hours actively engaged in what you’d call travel
• finally, we travelled almost 22,000 miles. The circumference of the earth is 24,900. You do the math.

Next post, I’ll talk about the culture we experienced.

Meanwhile, here’s a few more pics related to travel to and in India:

Lots of ways to get around. I personally wish we’d have used the horse-pulled rickshaw at least once.

We flew on Kingfisher Airlines twice. Great service, all new planes. Imagine my surprise as I was walking in one of the airports and I saw some bottles of Kingfisher Beer. Come to find out, Kingfisher airlines was started by the owner of the world’s 2nd largest spirits company, The UB Group. Do you think ‘flying the good times’ has something to do with that combination? I’d probably enjoy flying more if I had some spirits in me too. Maybe we should have Anheuser-Busch Airlines here in the US?

Can I contract some of my travel on the back of one of these babies? Or AT LEAST get a Quarter Pounder w/cheese delivered piping hot to my front door here in the US?