Kochin to Dehli - 5/18/2026
- 1 day ago
- 2 min read
After a sea day yesterday we left the ship this morning with some of our luggage, headed for a 4 day overland tour to the Taj Mahal. The ship was docked in Cochi or Kochin India, and we went through another Idian immigrations process in the terminal at the port but it was brief. We met our local tour guides and headed off on a bus to the airport to fly to Dehli. After some discussion at the check in counter between our guides and the airline representatives about whether the guides would check in all of the luggage or each passenger would do it, we got our boarding passes and headed off. ecurity was thorough but efficient and the people manning the checkpoints were very nice. We got to our gate in plenty of time and then boarded to find that we had been asigned an exit row, a nice surprise for Conrad's height.
Air India was very nice. The plane wa clean, they served a full hot meal during our 2 hour and 45 minute flight and we arrived on time. We took a short bus ride to our hotel, the Oberoi Gurgaon. We had been told that it was a5 star hotel, but we just weren't prepared for how opulent it was. Our suite includes a large bedroom/sitting area and desk combination, a separate walk in closet with safe, a vanity area and then a huge bathroom with soaking tub, large shower and separate toilet room. The hotel itself is really gorgeous.
We walked around for a few minutes capturing a few pictures.
We headed to their restuarunt for a group dinner, which included a huge buffet of lots of types of dishes. Fresh grilled Naan was served in place of a bread basket and that was also quite good. We were also served an Indian Chenin Blanc that was delicious. Our waiter told us that the best photos of the hotel were had at the new barwhich was across the reflecting pool, so with the help of a waiter who offered to escort us we made our way over to the bar. It's 110 degrees here and the bar was open air but above our heads there was an air conditioning vent blowing a cool breeze. The weatheris also very dry compared to what we experienced in other places so we were quite comfortable and decided to have a glass of wine and take in the hotel views before heading to bed. This hotel is really gorgeous, and not what we expected on a tour.
We have an early departure in the morning headed to Agra and the Taj Mahal. We will stay in another Oberoi hotel there so we're looking forward to what we hope will be another lovely location.