Tag: Delhi

Bollywood!

Ten years ago, when I stopped in Delhi on my way to Bhutan, I took a Bollywood class. It was so much fun, I decided to repeat the experience.

Because this visit I was staying in a different part of town, I had the concierge find the studio and make the transportation arrangements.

My private lesson was at “Moving Souls”, with an instructor who trained in NYC. Thanks to my fantastic Zumba instructors at the Y, (Uma, Kamila, Nancy and Daysi) I was able to learn TWO routines during my hour there. I also amazed my instructor who was surprised I learned so quickly and wasn’t exhausted after an hour of bouncing around. (Thanks again, ladies—you’re the best!)

So, for those of you who had no idea what Bollywood IS and those who requested video, here ya go. They are now on YouTube as 2 shorts. Why? Because I wasn’t able to upload the full video remotely. I wasn’t even able to upload a partial video, but breaking it into two short segments worked. That’s okay, because you probably wouldn’t want to watch almost 3 minutes of me prancing around.

If you are interested, here are the links:

I can’t check to make sure these work, because the internet here is slow and kludgy with videos.

On the way back to the hotel, my driver took me to Khan’s market. It reminded me a little of Marrakesh—a maze of streets packed with little shops and food places. Given my legendary sense of direction, I was afraid I’d never find my way out of there, or my driver, so I didn’t stay long. Just long enough to determine I didn’t want to ever go back!

The tour officially starts in a half an hour, with an information session, followed by a tour of Delhi and a welcome dinner, so it’s time to sign off.

Delhi On My Own

Oh my God! Or should I say “Oh my Buddha”? I think I just stumbled into Paradise.

For the price of a mediocre hotel room in New York I got all this:

PLUS an included breakfast! And what a breakfast it IS!

That is just a small sample of the delights offered at the buffet.

I’ll be lucky if I only gain my usual 5 trip pounds!

My Indian friends have introduced me to their wonderful cuisine, but I can’t remember the names of my favorite foods. The dish on the right is called Doha—at least that’s what I THINK it’s called. Here’s my problem: The Indians here are all very soft spoken. Throw in their accent and my piss poor hearing, and I’m challenged to understand what I’m being told.

The service is truly amazing. I’ve been “namasted” countless times since arrival. When you ask for directions, the staff doesn’t just point, they ESCORT you to wherever you want to go. Good thing, because I never, ever would have found the ATM. It’s in the basement, down three flights, and behind an unmarked door.

I’ve toured the spa and used the exercise facility, and enjoyed the infinity pool on the 11th floor. I figure I should take advantage of the pool while I can still fit into my bathing suit!

Never before have I been given a cooler with cold cloths and drinks. In fact, at some hotels in my past, I was lucky to get a chair and a towel.

The bathrobe and the covered chair were not made for jumbo sized Americans, but I’ve learned to scrunch.

What a great way to get over jet lag!

TWO photos of me in this post. (You happy, Jean? These are for you. You see, I DO take requests).

I have NO desire to leave this heaven on earth today. Tomorrow, I have a Bollywood class before the official start of the tour. That’s why I needed to go to the ATM. The 1 hour Bollywood class is 3,800 rupees, or about $44, and they wanted cash.

The concierge wasn’t able to hide his surprise when I told him that’s what I wanted to do. I guess they don’t get many requests for Bollywood classes. At least not from someone my age.

I loved the breakfast buffet so much, I decided to return to the same restaurant for lunch. The food was so beautifully presented, I wanted to sample EVERYTHING, which meant I made a colossal pig of myself. So much so, that I was really not in the mood for a big dinner. Although Le Cirque’s menu shows only prix fixe options, I inquired, and I was allowed to order only the soup of the day and a glass of wine. I didn’t even have a reservation! Good thing they aim to please at this hotel.

My table at Le Cirque

Tomorrow I hope to complete my transition to India time. I leave for my Bollywood class at 9:30 AM returning in time for lunch and to meet my new travel buddies at 1:30 PM.

The Skies May Be Friendly, But United Sure Isn’t!

Our 40th Anniversary trip starts with a multi-day adventure, known as “getting there”.

For the first leg of the trip, OAT’s proposed itinerary included a stop in Dubai, landing in Delhi after being in transit for 18 hours.  Not what I call ideal, particularly when I saw our return flight would depart at 4 AM.

Letting my fingers flutter over my keyboard, I was thrilled to discover that United has a direct flight between Newark and Delhi for about the same price, but only (!?!) 14 hours travel time.  Best of all, the return flight departed at 11:30 PM.  So, instead of sitting miserably at the airport, waiting to board that 4 AM flight, we’d leave the night before, and would be several hours into winging our way home.  Sweet!  Not only that, but for years, I had been hoarding frequent flier miles for an occasion exactly like this.  Business class, here we come!

EXCEPT

When I tried to upgrade on line, I got a message that we were put on a “waiting list”.  How could that be? The flight was five months out, and our flight’s seat maps showed only one seat in business class was occupied.  Clearly not a lot of OTHER frequent fliers had already upgraded on OUR flight.  I thought it was strange that the same seat was occupied, coming and going, so I did a little checking.  Seat 5D  was the only one occupied on every flight that I checked.  Perhaps reserved for a member of the crew?   Well, I was confident that a quick call to United’s customer service would fix everything right up.  Did I mention that I’m a hopeless optimist?

Here’s what happened.  The customer service rep confirmed that we were indeed put on a waiting list.  Okay.  When I asked how many others were on the list, he explained he couldn’t tell me for “security” reasons.  (Security??? I didn’t want to know names or home phone numbers.  Just tell me where I am in line so I can figure the odds of getting the bloody upgrade!)  He also was going to charge me $20 for the pleasure of speaking with him, but after we exchanged “pleasantries”, he thought better of it.

Those frequent flier miles that we accumulate, expecting one day to trade in to make a long trip both pleasant AND affordable?  Well, it appears that United reserves the right to let us know at the very last minute whether or not they are going to allow us to redeem the miles, perhaps because they MIGHT be able to sell the seat we covet for the full price. They just don’t know yet.   By the way, in addition to redeeming 140,000 miles, our roundtrip upgrades weren’t free.  We paid an additional $2,400 for them.  To me, that’s a whole LOT of money!  

United took our money and deducted the miles from our account, which sure felt like we had purchased seats, EXCEPT we couldn’t choose which ones they would be.  We will find out the day of the flight whether or not we get the upgrade, and where we will sit.  There is no guarantee that we will even be next to each other.  Normally that would not be a big deal, but 14 hours is a long time.  Call us crazy, but given the price we paid (in dollars and miles) we’d like to be able to choose who we sleep with.  If we don’t get the upgrade,  United WILL refund our money and will redeposit our frequent flier miles, without charging a penalty.  (Yes, the representative actually did say that.)  If we had paid for the tickets with a United credit card, would they also refund any interest?  I think we all know the answer to that one.

As luck would have it, at the end of December, I received an email “signed” by Sandra Pineau-Boddison, the Sr. Vice President of Customer Relations, asking for feedback on a United flight we’d just taken.  Now that I had a name, it wasn’t difficult to find her personal email, so I shared my tale of woe with her.  How about that?  FREE feedback from a long time former Continental Airlines frequent flier.  No need to hire a market research company or do a focus group to find out how they are doing.

So what happened?  Nothing.  After almost two months.  Not even an automated acknowledgement.  From the SR. Vice President?  Of Customer Relations?  That speaks volumes.

Let this serve as a precautionary tale to all you Mileage Plus Members out there.  United doesn’t care a bit about you or your miles or your loyalty.  Think about that the next time you book a flight or get a solicitation for a United credit card that offers points for “free” travel.

But if anything changes between now and our flight, I’ll certainly let everyone know.  Come on Sandra, do your job!