Aug 31, 2007 - The Hotel

Left Greenville on time. Hung around the American Airlines Admirals Club for 6 hours. Read 47 work emails of which 26 required action and answered/forwarded 18 of those. Left Chicago on time and arrived in New Delhi 1 hour ahead of schedule. The flight was quite uneventful besides a gentleman who coughed in his sleep through out the flight. Another man left his computer on with its WiFi card on so it was searching for an access pint every 6 seconds. I know because I counted each time the hard drive was accessed as the WiFi port searched. He also slept with his reading light on his white shirt and a newspaper over his face. I don't understand why he didn't turn the light off and use the airline provided blindfold. My business class priority bag was next to last off. I think they take them off the plane alphabetically. Getting through passport control and customs was no problem and actually walked out of the airport 1 hour after landing.

Vaidyanathan met me at the airport. He escorted me out to the driver and arrived at the Crowne Plaza about 30 minutes later. The Crowne Plaza is south of the airport and south of the Fluor offices in Gurgaon. It is brand new and quite different from Uppal's Orchid where we stayed on the first trip. It is much more cosmopolitan and energetic with an Indian flair. The bar is a large oval with red lit counter top.

In fact, the whole room is oval with fiber optic lights.

Here is a photo of the bedroom. There are electric motor operated curtains everywhere.

Including the window between the bathroom and bedroom!

The whole hotel is wireless. It is a 5 star western-style which, I think, means the rooms are western-style with large bed, privacy, shower, tub, and sitting commode.

There are two other restaurants, Cafe G which is the main restaurant and served the breakfast buffet. The other is a Brazilian restaurant, "the only one in Delhi," and is named Wildfire.

There is an outdoor pool designed so that the water comes up to the edge of the concrete. I almost walked into it thinking it was a puddle. The hotel has lots of dynamic art that moves in the breeze or changes color. There are lots of lit candles which I thought was unusual until the power went out 4 times Friday night (only for 10-15 seconds).