Tuesday, March 8, 2011

New Home in New Delhi

Hi all -

After two rather long and cramped flights, we wearily arrived in Delhi last night at around 2:00am.  All I have to say is thank god for my very good friend mr. ambien.  Second flight (Frankfurt to Delhi) was a cramped, overcrowded mess, wedged into the very last row with a large talkative Englishman blocking the aisle and NO in fight personal entertainment tv thing --good god it's the dark ages!!  We literally dove for ambien, justifying that we really needed some sleep to prepared, and were asleep before the flight left the ground!

So, anyway being back in Delhi.  The first thing that hit me was the familiar smell of smoke in the air.  It seriously always smells like a campfire in this city.  It's worse at night when people are using open fires, but even during the day it lingers in the air.  Camping was never my thing (but mostly because sleeping outside seems unnecessary) - but the smell of camp fire I am going to have to get very used to.

The driver in Delhi came through and brought us safe and sound from the airport to our apartment in Sukhdev Vihar.  It's always a little unnerving to hand over all of your worldly belongings to someone in a crowd holding up a handwritten sign with your name misspelled (Gaelan S) - but part of this whole experience has been about letting go of a certain amount control.  And so it goes.

The airport is much improved since last year when we were here (thanks Commonwealth Games) and the road from the airport is a seriously almost normal highway.  I have to report that we did not see a single cow on our whole ride the apartment.  No fair!! It's like we arrived in a completely different city altogether last night (but we'll see about that).

Anyway, our Delhi home is a 3 BR apartment in the posh neighborhood of Sukhdev Vihar.  "Posh" seems to be some sort of code for "westerners will find that adjective pleasing and will want to stay in neighborhoods called posh."  Will keep you posted on whether "posh" is actually applicable.  I'm just hoping for (1) safe, (2) not too loud (ie limited people yelling in the morning trying to sell fruit), (3) limited stray dogs, (4) close to a market and (5) some greenery (tree, bushes, etc).  

The apartment itself is huge.  Twice our NY apartment really.  My FL family has very different ideas on how many rooms are necessary to live an adequate life,  but this 3 BR place is almost  too much.   If anyone wants to jump on a plane -- we have plenty of space (and we are in very POSH neighborhood).

We also have two huge outdoor areas and lots of natural light, good wifi connection and a lovely caretaker named Deelap who hung out with us at 4am showing us the apartment and offering water/tea.  He went over the lighting in detail - there must be 100 switches in each room.  I wanted to say - please stop as I don't even know what the 5 switches in my own apartment do (that's why you just turn them on and off until you get it right) but instead I politely followed him from room to room nodding my agreement at the various options.  Deelap was back up this morning to cook us a lovely breakfast and is now cleaning our rooms.  We've seriously only been here for 12 hours - how much mess could we have made?  When we get the citizenship process under way for the baby, I'm going to work on the same for Deelap as I don't think I can do without him.  

What was that? Oh - ok.  That was Hamish admonishing me for playing ACDC too loudly on my fancy and much loved new MacBook Air.  A truly spectacular device!!  OK -- so not that either?  He's just rejected Jai Ho as well and has installed itunes genius mix on my computer.  We are now very quietly listening to the Adult Alternative Mix.  Good grief!!   I thing the days of late night dance mixes are ending -- table is glass here, so don't even think about getting up there!

On the baby front -- all is very quiet.  No signs of baby arriving anytime soon but as we all know that can change in a flash so we are standing by.  Plan to buy diapers, etc this afternoon to be all ready.  Boy name is settled and girl name is down to two choices (3 if you're in my brain).  So, here we are ready and waiting to be parents.  Wow - that statement made a little water come to my eyes!

Cross the world, check, buy tons of stuff that you don't even know how to use on tiny unborn person, check, wait, check.  Some pics of the apartment below.

Love to you all - thanks for coming along with us!!!

G&H


Frankfurt Airport -- had to sample the beer!

Living Room

Master Bedroom


Dining Room

Hamish's new office

Outdoor deck with stairway to nowhere.

6 comments:

  1. Dear Gaelyn and Hambone,
    Wow! I am so impressed with the blog. I love it! I love hearing about all of the details and now you can share them one time for all of your loved ones to read. Your apartment looks ginormous (as Jackie says). And so your adventure begins. Can't wait to hear more. We are all waiting anxiously on the other side of the world for the arrival of baby moose.
    Moo,
    Lauri

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  2. We miss you so much already!! Thank you for sharing this adventure! It looks like you made the king size bed a requirement? ;) You are a natural blogger, what a great read. Ruby Ray is looking at the pictures now.

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  3. GE -- I think it does look pretty POSH. And the stair way is quite poetic :) Thanks for the vivid details. Your helper sounds like a real keeper.
    Can't wait for the next installment.

    Love to you and Hamish,

    Margi

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  4. Welcome to blogland and it is so incredible to see the flat that hosted so many good memories for us last October!!! Enjoy every single moment that is coming your way at lighting speed!!!!

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  5. Hi There!! Just come across your blog linked to Edward and Paul's and its great to see more people blogging! We are 20 weeks pregnant and due in July and at present trying to find somewhere to stay in Delhi....your place looks great! Is there any chance we could have the contact details or website?? Thank you!! Look forward to hearing some good news soon!! All the best!

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  6. Hello and congratulations! We booked this apartment through VYLodging (www,vylodging.com). It was very large and we liked the neighborhood. Cons were no cell service and lots of mosquitos. VY has other spots in Delhi, so you should contact them to see what's available for your timing. We are actually heading back ourselves at the end of April to pick up our twins! This time we are staying at Apartment 18 (the 4BR). Contact information is apartment-18.com. Send me your e-mail and I can let you know what we think when we arrive - I am gaelynsharp@gmail.com.

    Gaelyn

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