After 5 days, we said good-bye to Sydney and Australia this morning and fly to New Delhi via Bangkok on Thai Airways. I had high hopes for Thai Airways for its famous service. Also looking forward to its flagship lounge in BKK.
We checked out the Air New Zealand lounge at the Sydney airport this morning. Although they didn't have the made-to-order omelette, I was impressed with their offerings of a decent breakfast buffet. Yi also managed to locate the champaign for our breakfast! Breakfast for the champions!
Australia is so far from everywhere that all flights in and out are long haul flights. For example, our flight to BKK would take over 9.5h. That's the same as flying from YVR to Heathrow or Frankfurt! After 2h connection, we still have to fly 4.5h more to reach New Delhi.
Whew! It all worked out! We landed in New Delhi at 9:20p. After going through custom and their e-visa process, we found an ATM and promptly withdrawn 35000 INR! That's one of the major concerns I have for this whole trip - get/exchange Indian rupees after arriving in India. Believe it or not, it's illegal for any tourist to bring ANY Indian rupees into the country! This is their way to control the flow of cash and economy. Recall their recent famous move to invalidate all 1000 INR notes overnight in the name of combating underground economy. So how can I ensure I can get money in India? If their ATM is not working (a week before our trip, we came across a BBC News article about many India ATMs have run out of cash!) We couldn't rely on going to the banks since tomorrow is the 2nd Saturday of the month and all banks will be closed. So it's a big relief to get all that thick rupees notes into my hands!
Going to the hotel from airport was a breeze also contrary to all the horror stories we heard since I had decided to take the metro. It's very very modern and fast and cheap. After a ten minute walk from the Shivaji Stadium station, we arrived at our hotel, Radisson Blu Connaught Circle. Due to my Concierge status, we were treated like royalty. Welcome drinks, roses, and free breakfasts. We were also upgraded to their deluxe suite. By the time we settled, it's closed to midnight, 16h after we started the journey from Sydney!
Very impressive hotel and room !
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