Some views of Rishikesh…I loved the nature around. The town….not so much
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24 reviews
Hola amigos!
Here's another chapter of my India 2019 series, this time covering a flight from Dehradun to Delhi.
The previous flights on this series are:
Considering the early departure time and that there was some distance between Rishikesh and DED, I booked the taxi to pick me up at 5am.
The taxi showed up, and I was picked as agreed. The very kind hotel manager was up as well and handed me a baggie with fruits for my breakfast (lovely detail). I dosed off for the roadtrip to the airport…
…I woke up at DED, and I was already used to the "drill" that entering an Indian airport involves.
Check in was painless…and I was good to go to the waiting room. No VIP here.
DED boasts a very modern building (considering it is not a "primary" airport).
Reaching the airport early and without much hassle at check in, I had a lot of free time before boarding. So it was time to eat the goodies I was given by the hotel
We were called to board, and then we were bussed to our airbus. Its windows fogged because of the difference in temperature…
While it is not my preferred boarding method, it is nice to do it on foot sometimes, you get all the noise, smells and sense the size of the plane.
Nice and trusty CFM56s
Lovely skies this morning, with a lovely moon overlooking us….
Air India proposed an ATR for this hop… I chose IndiGo for this flight as I had already ticked Air India between BOM and HYD.
I found these platforms interesting, compared to the usual stairs…I also liked the use of informal messages.
The cabin looked fresh, and well kept… way more than enough for our short 40 min hop.
A look to DED's terminal, being expanded…and the snow peaks at the background.
The ATR besides being boarded
I wonder if that text in Hindi says "ATR"
Seatpocket contents
SpiceJet's flight from JAI (I think)
Boarding completed…good to go!
We passed by the little ATR on Taxi to our runway
One last view to the Terminal
The SpiceJet crew
Views on takeoff…the Himalayas become visible as we gain altitude (YAAAS)
But then we turn and then they are visible no more (NAAAY)
But in the end I managed to see these majestic mountains.
The rest of the flight was pretty much eventless…(this bin opened by itself and was kept this way almost all the way).
The moon kept checking at us.
We soon descended and crossed the haze and smog into DEL
Touchdown!
Oh look, I had a seatmate…hi there!
We also had stairs to disembark and were bussed to the terminal. A shelved A320NEO was visible…
My bag came out quick (I expected a long wait as the bus ride was a bit long)…and in no time I was grabbing an Uber to my hotel
Like the other LCCs, IndiGo did its job. Although I am inclined to think I like IndiGo better than SpiceJet and GoAir.
DED felt like a small regional airport without much to do. Probably this is not the case anymore with the expansion.
DEL was okay, clean and efficient. I enjoyed my ride to New Delhi and my hotel, to do my final stint of my India trip.
Thanks for reading!
4 Comments
We were booked on the one and only daily Indian Airlines flight DED-DEL, to be operated by a Hawker Siddeley HS 748. The airport at the time was basically the runway. When we arrived at the airport, we were surprised by the amount of people there, many very well dressed, even school classes were there, singing and dancing, waving flags.
Shortly afterwards, a HS 748 landed, though I immediately recognized that it was not our Indian Airlines HS 748 but one of the UK Royal flight. HRH, Princess Anne, was visiting a care home of Mother Teresa at Dehradun.
We also learned that as long as her plane is at DED, no other plane would be allowed to land - no surprise any more since her plane was parked on the runway. So we waited a couple of hours without any further information, then she arrived back the airport, boarded her plane and off she went. Now it was an issue of timing, because the runway had no lights and it wasn't sure whether Indian Airlines would operate the flight on that very day. But luckily, they did.
On the flight to DEL on board we learned that on this very afternoon, Indian's Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was shot. When we landed at DEL, news was that she didn't survive and there was already a curfew in place at Delhi. We somehow managed to get a driver to bring us to our next destination, Agra, where we spent the following couple of days with a lot of unrest in India.
Seeing DED in your report again, almost 40 years later, seeing how it has developed was a great pleasure, indeed. Thank you.
Nice tourism bonus. The area looks very pretty. A sticker in Spanish in the middle of India?
Thanks for sharing!
Yes it does, good guess!
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