Friday 5 January 2018

India Day 13 - Delhi and home to Brisbane

This morning set the alarm for 7.30 as after breakfast we want to head to the Red Fort before returning to check out at midday. Lovely pancakes for me (after healthy fruit salad) and waffles for Isabel. Beautiful hot shower again this morning, soooo good after the last fortnight; it's the little things.
We grabbed a taxi from out front after a quick photo opportunity with the Sihk doorman for Isabel and headed straight to the Fort. Once we found the right gate, inside and exploring. Great place with an eclectic collection of buildings from the Mughal to the British and is an important site in relation to the first indian uprising in the 1850's. Like so many sites and monuments it is in a sorry state of disrepair or patched up. The opportunity in India for fantastic sites is so evident without resorting to Disney and there is certainly no lack of manpower available. Spent a couple of hours here before grabbing our last tuktuk ride back to The Claridges hotel to check out and then relax in the lobby with a coffee and a gorgeous chocolate truffle cake, yummy O:-).
We had booked an airport transfer through the travel agent before leaving and this was worth it. Nice taxi, guide through to customs, a very good indulgent experience. Once through it was some lunch, still vego, before relaxing on the reclining chairs awaiting our departure on Jet Airways to Abu Dhabi at 5.55pm. Hopefully no delays as it has been very foggy / smoggy today and we only have 70 minutes between landing and next flight to Brisbane in Abu Dhabi, fingers crossed.
Ok so it's now 7pm and we are just starting to taxi from gate 11B, 65 minutes late. Not looking good for the connection in Abu Dhabi, we will just have to wait and see.
Oh dear not a good start to the flight, Isabel has started vomiting and I'm not feeling well myself, hoping it wasn't that pizza we had at the airport. Well Isabel has stopped and now I've started, not good. Got to Abu Dhabi and we've missed the connection. Etihad are good and we have vouchers for accommodation, transfers and food ( not that we need food). Finally get to the hotel around 11 and hit the sack for a very uncomfortable sleep.
Finally get up around 9 and grab a taxi to a pharmacy to grab some more Imodium and electrolyte as running low (not the only thing running) before returning to the room to sleep and eat till our 7pm transfer. Thank God always carry spare undies and socks in carry on.
Get to airport and all good, wish I could say the same about myself, Isabel much better and holding everything together. Almost called a stop to getting onto the flight but persevered and we are on our way. More sporadic sleep and with 10 hours gone and 4 hours left feeling a hell of a lot better. Can only guess food poisoning as we find out later at least another 6 from our group suffered the same fate in a similar time frame.
Landed and Jane was there to pick us up. Finally home and the end of a fantastic adventure, made all the more memorable by being able to share with my beautiful daughter Isabel, thank you.






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