Delhi Airport Welcome Sign

My Eventful Arrival in India –

Troubles Galore Without Leaving the Airport!

Anyone who’s been following my recent travels knows that because I’ve been so scared to visit India for 15 years, I finally devised a Sneaky Plan for an Easy Trip to India. A plan in which I hoped, for my very first trip to India, to avoid all the worst of India – massive noise, crowds, hassles and dangers.

That being my major goal for the trip, it’s awfully ironic that within 24 hours of passing through immigration at Delhi International Airport, and without even leaving the airport property, I managed to get into heaps of trouble.

Before so much as setting foot on Indian soil I accidentally got myself  ‘kicked out’ of the airport terminal building, nearly got taken-in by a hotel tout posing as an airport official, became weak from hunger because the entire airport has nothing but fast food shops, and endured a bus break down on a highway late at night.

Here I am during a bus break down on my 1st night in India

Soon after, I was astounded by the great inadequacies of the airport’s supposed upscale Luxury Lounge room. The next morning my onward domestic flight was delayed by two hours. And to top it off, even the trolley ferrying all our luggage out to the plane broke down!

By that point, before even arriving at my first destination in India, I had already deduced that “Things just don’t work properly in India, do they?”

It all started out well enough. I passed through immigration quickly and easily. ‘CHOP’ went the officer’s stamp in my passport. And, ta da, I was officially in India for the very first time in my life.

Lash arriving at Delhi Airport

My flight from Delhi had just arrived at 3:30 pm and my onward flight to Dharamsala departed the next morning at 11 am. I had plenty of time to kill at the airport since I had no intention of setting foot in chaotic Delhi.

I had not booked any accommodation for the night so I was planning to sleep at the airport. Either I’d find a quiet spot in the Arrivals Hall or Departures Hall somewhere, or else I’d book a room in the airport’s Luxury Lounge which offers paid rooms on an hourly basis.

From examining the airport’s website, it seemed the brand new Terminal 3 building was the best place to stay firmly put until my flight the following morning.

I breezed through customs and into Delhi’s Terminal 3 Arrivals Hall. That proved to be a massive, high-ceiling hall that’s nearly empty most of the time due to the exceedingly tight security. The only people even allowed inside the building are ticketed passengers, airport staff and hotel escorts officially greeting guests with name plaques.

Every doorway has security guards. Dozens of police, military personnel, airport officials and security guards roam around the building, both inside and out. They’re all armed with guns. Some have pistols, some automatic rifles.

view of Himalayan peaks on my flight from Kathmandu to Delhi

Because of the strict security and all the guards, Delhi airport’s terminal building is a great place for travelers to stay: safe, empty, hassle free and relatively quiet. It seemed I had a good plan.

As it turned out, there was one big glitch in my plan that I hadn’t been aware of: my domestic flight the next day departed from the airport’s older Terminal 1 building, not T3.

That simple fact ended up causing me a lot of trouble! For one, I was not permitted into T3’s Domestic Departure Hall, one place I’d hoped to spend the night. It’s also the main reason I found myself ‘kicked out’ of the terminal building and why I ended up in a bus break-down late at night.

If my domestic flight had departed from T3, like I thought, I would not have had any of those problems.

After being denied access to the Departures Hall, I wandered around the lovely Arrivals Hall, scouted out places to eat (Amazingly it was ALL crap! ONLY fast food joints exist.) and potential places to sleep, either on seats or the floor with my yoga matt. I also checked out the airport Luxury Lounge room prices & availability.

The Lounge staff informed me that T1 also has a Luxury Lounge, one that is slightly cheaper and less busy. The staff recommended that perhaps I stay over there instead. That way, in the morning I’d already be at T1 where my flight departed. Made sense, although I suspected the brand new T3 building to be much nicer than T1.

They also directed me to the free airport shuttle bus which runs regularly between the two terminals. With so much time to kill, I thought I’d take a quick stroll outside to smell Delhi’s air and to locate the shuttle bus. I immediately noticed that Delhi’s air reeks of chemical pollution. I was not at all surprised considering the massive smog clouds I’d just seen from my flight.

Not wanting to poison myself with Delhi’s toxic air, as soon as I located the shuttle bus, I headed back into the terminal building at the most convenient doorway. As I entered I noticed a huge sign reading ‘EXIT ONLY’.

thick smog over Delhi

Hmm… I walked inside anyhow without incident. Almost. A few moments later a guard came chasing after me to tell me I couldn’t enter and to escort me back outside.

That’s when I realized I was ‘in trouble’. Because my flight departed the next day from T1 nobody wanted to let me back in the wonderful, empty safe T3 building! I wandered from door to door and security guard to police to military man, explaining my ‘error’ in stepping outside for a moment and pleading my cause to be allowed back inside.

Eventually a very helpful & friendly uniformed airport official (or so I thought) explained that the entrances were upstairs at Departures Area and he helpfully guided me up a series of ramps. When I told him I needed to get back inside to stay at the Luxury Lounge, he informed me that many inexpensive hotels were located very close to the airport and I’d better go stay at one of those instead.

interior of Delhi’s great modern airport

Before I knew what was happening, he was ‘helpfully’ calling a nearby hotel to book me a room! He handed the phone to me and I found myself talking to a hotel receptionist who told me about their hotel, rooms and prices. She further explained that a complimentary car & driver would come pick me up at the airport and take me to the hotel.

That’s when my alarm bells finally kicked in. I realized that I actually did not know who the heck my very helpful ‘airport official’ escort really was, nor who the heck I was really talking to. Sure, my escort could really be just a tout looking for hotel guests so he could collect a commission. And I could really be talking on the phone to a hotel clerk.

Then again, they could be anybody! I most certainly was not going to get into an unknown ‘complimentary taxi’ that would supposedly take me to a hotel that I’d never heard of. In Delhi, India!

Wow, was I in the midst of a scam? I quickly handed the phone back to the ‘airport official’ and walked away.

After a few more attempts at entering the building, I was finally directed to the Visitors Lounge. That lounge guard didn’t want to let me in either. So I took a stronger stance, saying that I’d already booked 8 hours in a Luxury Lounge room in that building. How could I follow through with my reservation if I couldn’t get back in the building?

The guard eventually called an airport colleague to sort me out. After much debate and me further pleading my cause, the guard escorted me downstairs to the Arrivals Hall and, to my great surprise, let me go on my merry way. Whew, I was back inside!

one of the Delhi Airport security check areas

After that I stayed inside that safe, quiet guarded hall. I made a test run of sleeping on benches but quickly concluded that I’d get no sleep whatsoever. Even though the building was relatively empty and quiet for an airport, there was still constant hustle & bustle.

So I gave in and actually did book myself into the Luxury Lounge (at great expense) – at T1 as suggested by the receptionist. I stayed in T3 until about 30 minutes before my reservation time then went out to catch the shuttle bus, which was supposed to take 15-20 minutes to reach T1.

That turned into a one-hour ordeal. After waiting 30 minutes for a shuttle, we finally got underway. But T1 proved to be a very long distance away. We had to leave the airport grounds and go out onto a major highway before re-entering the airport property at a different location.

And so on my very first bus ride in India, on my very first night in the country, I landed in a bus break down on a highway in the middle of the night. With a bunch of Indian men.

shuttle bus break down at Delhi airport

It was so absurd that I spent the whole time laughing and snapping photos. Luckily, we didn’t have to wait too terribly long for the next shuttle bus to come rescue us and deposit us at the much more rundown T1 building.

Finally, almost at midnight, I reached the Luxury Lounge, exhausted and incredibly hungry due to lack of decent food at the airport. It took them ages to process each guest’s arrival.

Eventually I was escorted to my tiny room. The girl never gave me a key, so I couldn’t leave my room, or else couldn’t get back in. The room phone didn’t work. The shower floor was so blocked up that it flooded my entire bathroom. The complimentary ‘sandwiches’ were so horrid that I could barely force them down, despite being weak and shaky from hunger.

My room was freezing, so I went to ask how to adjust the a/c. Turned out the a/c was centralized and could not be adjusted per room. What? I’ve never heard of an upscale hotel where guests cannot set the temperature of their rooms.

Not only that, but the staff could not adjust the temperature at all. They could only turn the a/c on or off! So to accommodate me, the receptionist turned off the a/c for their entire hotel!

I don’t know how long he kept it off. When I awoke the next morning, my room was icicle-y cold again. But at least I got a hot flooded shower. Then I tried to gulp down more horrid ‘sandwiches’ for breakfast before heading to my flight check in.

another Delhi Airport security check

At least all I had to do was go upstairs, check in for my flight and walk to the gate. There I was informed that the flight was delayed two hours due to technical problems. Gulp – an Indian airplane with technical malfunctions? Hmmm.

But I was actually very happy to have time to browse through the electronics shop, try on new perfumes, check out designer fountain pens complete with long feathers and grab some food.

Sadly, the Departures Hall also has only fast food shops. I’d never been in a major international airport in all my years of travels that doesn’t have at least one real restaurant with quality meals. I was astounded that in India, which is world renowned for its delicious & varied cuisines, that the country’s premier International Airport has none of it.

At Delhi airport my only choice for meat was KFC. Are you F-ing kidding me? I actually had to stoop to eating fast food chicken. But it did fill me up, I’ll give it that.

boarding my flight to Dharamsala

Eventually passengers to Dharamsala were ushered out to the waiting – and hopefully properly repaired – plane. At long last I was almost underway to my very first destination in India.

When the captain announced his further apologies because the luggage trolley bringing our bags had just broken down on the tarmac, all I could do was burst out laughing.

What on Earth was India going to hand me when I finally set foot outside the Delhi airport?

I was about to find out soon…

QUESTION:

Where in the world did you have a difficult or eventful arrival?

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