Joan was up with the sun (around 5:00 a.m.). In two weeks, she never completely got her clock turned around. We packed and caught our ride to the airport just after 7:00. It was a short ride to the airport where we said goodbye to Lhab and Namgay. We hung out in the small, basic business lounge and then ambled around until our 9:45 flight for New Delhi.
The takeoff between the mountains is something. And then you have views of the grand Himalayas.
We arrived shortly before noon. Since we had a long, 11 hour layover, we had visions of visiting old Delhi. But after getting through customs and claiming our bags, we had no good options for storing our bags as it was way too early to check in (they wouldn’t allow us to the check-in security area). Also, the temperatures were around 90 degrees and the air looked thick with pollution. Wasn’t a very inviting scenario. We were able to get in the small, landside Encalm lounge. It was a two-hour limit, but we stayed five hours. We spent time conversing with a fellow who lives in NJ but is originally from India. We eventually got moving and got upstairs but we found we still couldn’t check in yet. So we decided to walk laps with our bag cart.
We made almost seven laps before we saw that they had begun check-in. After giving our bags and getting through security we made our way to the Encalm Prive lounge which is much bigger and nicer than the previous one. We are biding our time until we board our plane at 10:30 p.m. Joan is putting up a good fight to stay awake until then. The next flight to JFK airport in NY is 15 hours. Ugh. Hopefully we can sleep the time away.
Ed & Joan Walk in Bhutan: Land of the Thunder Dragon 
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