Wednesday, March 4, 2020; part I
Unfortunately, even arriving 50 minutes late, we did get a parking position far from any gate – and I wanted my bed !
And now something started I really hate in India: every passenger wants to be first, so the complete back of the aircraft pushes (and I really mean ‘pushes’) in front, not allowing you to take your belongings out of the overhead bins. As I understood long time ago, Indians think we foreigners are always friendly and they can do what they want. So they’re always shocked when a European also is using his elbows – and I’m good in that if something annoys me.
Don’t stop at the stairs down the aircraft, they’ll just overrun you !
And everybody tries to get in the Business-Class bus, of course.
When we arrived at the terminal we first had to pass the ‘Corona-test’: handing out the filled Corona-form, asking the question if you’ve been with the last 14 days in China, Korea, Japan, Iran or Italy, then temperature measurement. Of course it was all chaotic, because everyone wants to pass the test first, pushing from the back and from the side.
At passport control I walked right towards the eVisa counters where has been a short queue, but nevertheless I passed within less than 10 minutes.
My luggage has been already delivered, so I went through customs, got some Rupies at a really bad exchange rate (1 US$ = 68 Rupies), bought a local SIM card which should be activated the next day, and went outside the terminal for getting a taxi.
There’re different taxi companies: the once inside charge more, have nicer cars – but I just needed to go to ‘Aerocity’, 5 minutes from Terminal 3. Outside, on the far left there’s a small office, where they sell taxi tickets, to Aerocity at 300 Rupies
– but you’ll get one of the ugly black taxis instead of the newer, white cabs (which cost 1’200 Rupies).
The driver stored my luggage
and off we were. Of course he wanted to know how long I’m staying in this hotel, where I would drive next, how much my hotel room costs… but no answer from my side.
At around 0200 I reach my hotel for the night, ‘ALOFT’, which opened less than 2 years ago.
We underwent the normal routine check, then the personal check – and I arrived inside the very nice Lobby, where I received my keycard, was asked what welcome benefit I wanted, points or drinks & snacks. Since I only wanted 2 Pepsi Max, no snacks, the receptionist gave me the 500 welcome points in addition.
Up to the highest floor where my standard room was located, ALOFT style – I like it !
I unpacked, went to bed – but couldn’t sleep. Well, I slept 3 hours in the plane. I decided to write my TR, went down for a smoke, until I was able to fall asleep.
In the morning I have been awake before the alarm rang, enjoyed a refreshing shower and went down. On the way I had a nice view towards the hotels atrium,
very nice for an airport hotel at US$ 100/night, could stay here longer, a real alternative to a city hotel.
Also breakfast,
for an ALOFT, was surprisingly good, with a wide selection,
a station for freshly cooked food.
I remember the self-serving breakfast areas at US ALOFT hotels.
India, yes it starts with Indian breakfast, something I really adore ! I ordered ‘Plain Dosa’ (a thin kind of pancake from rice- and black gram) with Sambar (a lentil based stew) and coconut-chutney, son jummy, with a side of plain yoghurt with mango-pickles.
Mango pickles… I remember I ate it first time and thought it’s disgusting, taste like soap. But by the time you’re getting addicted. When I brought my girlfriend to India first time we had a flight with Jet Airways – and they were serving plain yoghurt and mango pickles. I told her ‘it’s sooo good – and she tried, has been disgusted, didn’t understand how I could eat it. Today, when in India, the first thing she takes is mango- pickles.
After my first dish I went for more Indian delights, like Idli (a kind of rice cake) with tomato- and peanut chutney.
ALOFTs are great, much better than the very basic MOXYs. I really don’t understand why Marriott needs a second similar brand. They should have extended the ALOFT brand instead of adding the too basic MOXYs.
I check ‘Flightradar’ to see that my girlfriend just arrived at DEL airport,
so I knew I had to wait another hour for her arrival.
I went down to the beautiful Lobby with the Octagon-style marble floor, quite stunning, wrote my TR, uploaded photos until at 1120 the taxi with Valentyna arrived.
She told me how much she liked LOT business class, far above Lufthansa or Austrian airlines because the seats were wider, totally flat and straight, no narrow tunnel for the feet. I saw the photos, it’s quite similar to AI Business Class with their B787’s.
We stored her luggage in the room and went of for lunch because she announced that she was hungry for Indian food.
Aerocity has offers some malls with decent Indian fast food options, but nothing we tried in the past has been really good. So after a short walk
we decided to return to the ALOFT, to have some lunch there.
The buffet looked pretty good, the smell clearly said ‘welcome to India’. I didn’t try, but Valentyna was happy, I saw she really enjoyed.
While Valentyna had a shower I had a look at the gym & pool, really nice.
Yes, ALOFT Aerocity is a good option, especially when you’re in Delhi for business, because you avoid the traffic inside the city.