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| Family Motorcycle |
After an early breakfast, we begin the drive to Delhi. The drive takes 5 ½ hours, and is very similar to the earlier drive, except that it is all in daylight. We pass through several provinces. At the boarders, highway taxes are collected for trucks and buses, leading to long queues of vehicles. As we near Delhi, we pass through a congested industrial area. The police provide useful signs: “Helmet or Hell, Your Choice.” The trucks all carry the slogan on the back, “Please Honk.” Everyone does. A single motorcycle often has a father, a mother, and two children.
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| View of Golf Course and Hotel Pool |
In early afternoon, we check into the Oberoi Hotel, for lunch and a chance to freshen up before a tour of New Delhi in the late afternoon. The hotel is located between a golf course (barely visible through all the trees) and Humayun’s Tomb, which we will visit this afternoon. We see the area designed by the Dutch Architect Lutyen. The effort, commissioned in 1911, prepared Delhi to be the capital of India - which it remains to this day. We see government buildings, residences for high officials, India Gate - a memorial to solders who died in World War I, and the rows of embassies along the tree-lined streets.
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| Humayun's Tomb |
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| Double Dome Interior |
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| Mausoleum Interior |
In the late afternoon, we stop for a tour of Humayun’s tomb. Our guide informs us that the emperor died as a result of an accident. At the appointed time for a Muslim to stop for prayer, he was on the stairs, perhaps high on some drugs, knelt for prayer, lost his footing, and tumbled down the stairs resulting in his death. His first wife, Haji Begum, went to Mecca in grief and there decided that her husband was in heaven, and that she should return to Delhi and build a mausoleum for him that reflected the appropriate serenity and peace. The tomb she constructed upon her return has many of the characteristics of the Taj Mahal, although on a smaller scale. The tomb had the first double dome, and the same symmetric gardens. Humayun’s tomb was constructed some 75 years before the Taj Mahal.
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| Live Entertainment at the Delhi Airport |
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| Delhi airport |
We have our bags out of our rooms by 6:00 AM in the morning - breakfast at the hotel - and a drive to the airport for the flight to Dubai. We fly on Emirates Airline. Even in Economy there is a Screen in the seat in front with access to 100 feature films, hundreds of hit songs, 20 video games, and pod casts concerning Dubai and the wonderful things you can do there.
It is a three hour flight to Dubai, so a full lunch is served, with wine or beer. It is a full multi-course Indian lunch. Emirates Airline was rated the best airline in the world a few years ago, and it deserves the rating.
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| Dubai Airport |
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| Dubai |
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| Dubai Hotel |
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| Streets of Dubai |
The international airport in Dubai is enormous - and well designed. It takes some time to clear customs - especially since the Canadians traveling with us require a special visa that must be checked separately. This is apparently a retaliatory move by Dubai because of problems Emirates Airline is having getting access to Canadian airports. As a result our tour of Dubai is brief, a drive-by of several buildings including the Burj Khalifa (the tallest building in the world at 2,716 feet), their enormous mall with over 1,000 shops, and the Ski Dubai building - the regions only ski dome. We arrive at the ship as they are beginning to roll up the carpets and gangway. After some confusion (both Jean and Sumner forget to pick up some of their bags after they clear security and must return at the last moment), we return “home” to our rooms, tired but happy.
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| Back On Our Balcony |
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