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Asia » India » National Capital Territory » Delhi
January 8th 2011
Published: January 30th 2011
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For those of you interested in following my travels around India, the purpose of this trip is twofold. Firstly, to catch up with Damon & Sarah, who I haven’t seen for over 12 months now, who are also in India, albeit on a vastly different level of tour. Secondly, to retrace some of the places around Rajasthan that I last visited with a pack on my back in 1974. With regards the former, D & S’s trip is a freebie, courtesy Sarah’s employer, who is in the travel business. The land content of their 5-star packaged trip costs around $7,000 for 10 days, while I’m planning to spend less that 10% of that for the same time period on my 2 to 3-star journey. While I’m sure they will eat better and sleep more comfortably than me, I suspect I will see more of the ‘real’ India than them. I will be travelling solo, for a much as Joan was wanting to catch up with D&S, she reckons she’d rather swallow razor blades than accompany me on my low budget trip!

In keeping with my minimal budget, the only competitively priced flight I could get from Sydney to Delhi at relatively short notice was via China Southern. The downside is that this required a 12 hour transit stop in Guangzhou going both ways, and obviously the flight time was a bit longer. I shall report on my brief stay in Guangzhou in a separate blog, but I can report now that the China Southern flights were pretty ordinary, but I guess you get what you pay for. The entertainment system didn’t work on either flight, the food was pretty ordinary, but fortunately I managed to snare some extra leg room via exit aisle seats on both legs.

On arrival at Delhi, it didn’t take long to get into the swing of India! I had booked an overnight hotel very close to the airport, as I was arriving late at night, and planning to fly out the following morning to Varanasi. I knew I was being ripped off when charged Rs500 (around USD12) for my taxi, but I’d been on the go for over 24 hours and badly wanted some sleep, and at that hour of the night, my negotiating position wasn’t strong. I knew the ride was only about 10 minutes, and was a little surprised when the driver didn’t know the whereabouts of my hotel, Eurostar International. I thought it would probably be situated somewhere between the Radisson and the Hyatt, but not to be! First question asked by the driver, which is standard in India, is “Do you have a reservation?” (Yes), and “Have you paid already?” (Yes), as they always have a better hotel option to offer you, with its inherent commission benefits.

So we travelled the 10 minutes or so to the hotel area near the airport, and saw a strip some kilometre or so long, with wall-to-wall 1 or 2-star hotels, all lit up looking like a mini Las Vegas. Our man doesn’t know which was the Eurostar, but that didn’t stop him going the wrong way up a busy & congested one-way street, weaving in and out of the oncoming cars, headlights straight in their eyes, searching for it. Finally, after about half an hour and after asking directions several times, we found the Eurostar, off an alley that goes off another alley off the main hotel road. Only in India can you reach your hotel with such efficiency!

The trip back to the domestic airport in the morning was another half hour, not because we got lost this time, but just with the chaotic traffic. The good news is that it only cost Rs200 this time (and that was probably paying too much!), but gave me my first taste of traffic bedlam, Indian style. The message for my future travels is to give myself plenty of time to make it to the airport or train station, as at times the traffic here just doesn’t move at all.

I have attached to this blog a few general pics of Indian life, just to give y’all a taste of things to come. How come I have these on my first blog? Well the truth is there is a time delay on the posting of these blogs, as internet facilities in India are slow and temperamental, so I have in fact completed my trip (safely, I’m pleased to say!) and submitting these via my home computer, so I will post a new blog every couple of days.



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