Advertisement
Published: July 16th 2013
2005-12-31 23.00.00-195
First view of the Airport in New DelhiMy flight from London was jammed back – not an empty seat on the flight. One odd thing was at the end of the flight the flight attendants came through and sprayed some stuff in the air. According to the lady sitting next to me it was due to something regarding the World Health Organization.
While preparing for the trip to India, various individuals kept telling to be prepared for the massive amounts of humanity once I get off the plan. So, I was preparing myself for that. However, I got off the plane and the only people in the airport were the ones who were on the plane with me – so much for massive amounts of humanity. Customs was really quick and easy because I was able to go through the “foreign’ line – most people from my flight were from India. Our baggage came on carousel #13 – Lucky 13 to be precise. Again, lucky for me, my luggage was some of the first to come off the plane (again, I get to avoid the massive amounts of humanity). Then, I made my way to gate 5 where I was to meet the driver Oshkosh Corp –
2005-12-31 23.00.00-196
As the Brits would say, "Fancy a fag?" New Delhi was providing me. My flight landed at 11:00 A.M., I was in the car by 11:20!
One thing I did notice right away was the lack of personal space – my driver and other drivers were huddled around the pay station at the car park (I took a picture). Once we got going, I was introduced quickly to the Indian way o driving – beep the horn and move out of the way (or move in to the way). At the first traffic stop we came to, my car was bombarded by children begging for money – the driver apologized, but thank goodness he locked the doors. At one point we passed a dump that was about four feet tall and on top of the dump was a dog going through the garbage. There was nothing around the dump so I was very perplexed as I have never known a dog to jump four plus feet in the air.
It took about 45 minutes to get to my hotel in Saket, a more posh area of the city. My first impression of the hotel was very positive – friendly staff, clean, safe – made me feel
relieved, especially being all alone. The best part of getting to the hotel was being able to take a nice shower and get clean and changed. My room was on the 6th floor. Everywhere I went in the hotel – lobby, restaurant floor, etc., everyone was calling me Madam and eager to help and curious how my services was.
A couple hrs later my driver re-appeared to take me around the city (which again made me a little nervous as I was all alone). The first place he took me was to Qutub Minar and some ruins from the ancient times. When I got there my driver, who did not speak much English told me to get out! Get out! This freaked me b/c I was all alone, didn’t know anyone and had no idea if the guy would be around after I was done walking through the park. There was nothing I could do but trust the guy and at least I had Yash’s number in my cell phone. I went to the ticket booth to pay and they asked for either 250 rupees or five American dollars.
The ruins and the Garden park
2005-12-31 23.00.00-198
Everyone from my flight. You can't see it but WAY in the back is the nonexistent line for foreigners. As you can tell i pretty much had the last seat on the plane were absolutely lovely. However, it was VERY HUMID – I don’t know why I even bothered to take a shower. I did get an audio tour, but I didn’t really understand much of the significance of the area, other than these were some ancient ruins that were there from the beginning when Delhi was first established. Something that did strike me as I was going through the ruins was how open everything was – people gcould climb all over the monuments however they felt. All this was for $5, it was a good site to see and it only took me about an hour to go through. Thankfully, my driver was there when I got done and then he took me a more of a site seeing tour of the political parts of New Delhi, which is the capital of India. The next thing I saw was The Gate of India and to the Presidential Palace, Parliament and where all the ministries were located. That was pretty cool to see as well. I think it is funny that I am a political science major who has worked in the House of Commons in England, been to the UNHQ, now I’ve
been to the Presidential palace in India, but I have never been to my country’s own capital city!
The net place my driver took me to was the Indira Gandhi Museum. This was another spot where he basically pushed me out of the car, but I felt a little more at ease with him doing this now. The Indira Gandhi museum was free. It is located at the house where she lived and was assassinated in 1984. Interestingly enough, in order to into any of these tourist attractions, men go through one set of security and women go through another. At the museum, the Gardens were beautiful. I noticed that all the trees has numbers spray painted on them and so I asked one of the guards about this – he said that they count the trees because it is illegal to cut them down.
After the little excursion at the museum, my driver then took me to the location of the Oshkosh Corporation offices, which were located in the Grand Plaza Hotel. There I got to meet Yash for the first time in person. There we chatted some about the business and about my business in India,
2005-12-31 23.00.00-200
That sign is for me! Must be my driver! we had tea and he showed me around and introduced me to the other people who work there – most support JLG or Corporate. Upon wrapping up, I had my driver take me back to my hotel so I could go to sleep. I was very tired and had to be up early the next morning for my trip to Agra.
In New Delhi proper the driving is absolutely asinine. I notice that bumper repair was a big business and most cars had an external bumper attached on both the front and/or back bumper.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.319s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 12; qc: 58; dbt: 0.123s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
