We woke early for breakfast and to check out of our hotel. I think we were all a bit sad to leave Bhutan, where the air was clear and fresh, the hotels comfortable, the meals interesting, the experiences exciting and of course, sharing time with our guide Passang.

A short drive got us to the Paro airport where we easily checked in and got through security. Once again flying Drukair, the Royal Bhutan airline. This time a larger jet. We left right on time with quite the flight path to get up and beyond the mountains. The view was rather spectacular.

A little over two hours later we were landing in Delhi. Not that you could see a thing with all the haze. My weather app says the air quality is 379 – very poor. Guess we’ll be pulling out our masks.

After much ado trying to get into lines at immigration that actually made progress, we all finally got processed through. Bags collected we found our OAT driver. Before climbing onto our rather cushy small bus he presented us each a marigold necklace.

We drove through the city for quite a while until we reached our hotel, The Park. We were rather spoiled in Bhutan with smaller, regional hotels where check-in was a snap. This was not that. Eventually we got our rooms. I quickly pulled clothes out for laundry then Cyndi and I went out for a quick bite to eat.

We had time to regroup, unpack and settle in. At 5pm we met our main tour guide, Dev in the hotel lobby. After we introduced ourselves he took us on a short walk around the hotel, showing us key places, such as restaurants and snack and bar shops.

But the fun part was when we came upon a more open section and we saw a man mixing something foaming in a pot. I inquired what it was and was told he did chai tea. Apparently he was quite popular as he had a large group forming around. Dev managed to order chai for all of us as well as a buttered bun that he said is usually served along with the chai. Both were delicious.

There were also many henna artists at work decorating many hands.

We began heading back to the hotel when we came across a monkey temple!

By then it was time to consider dinner. Cyndi had made reservations for the two of us at another hotel restaurant called Sorento. We felt we needed a change of pace. It was about a 15 minute walk to a beautiful hotel. We ordered wine and dinner with all being fabulous. We enjoyed watching them smoke the bread that was initially brought to the table. Not to mention all the delicious food and great service. Good thing we can sleep in tomorrow.