Blogs from National Capital Territory, India, Asia - page 19

After months of planning, saving, daydreaming and talking about India it finally arrived. D-Day. After a tiring but uneventful flight I landed in Delhi, first step into what promised to be the exhilerating, illuminating and insane world of India. Exhausted, sweaty and slightly crabby after having to wait what felt like an eternity to retrieve my pack from the carousel, I stepped out into arrivals expecting to be greeted by a placard bearing my name held aloft by a Pre booked driver. 25 minutes of scanning the multitude of faces all scrutinising me and hollering names of varying nationalities (none of them mine), I admitted defeat and made my way outside, sidestepping the dozens of taxi wallahs, touts and plain conmen all offering to take me anywhere I desired. After locating the Pre Paid Taxi booth ... read more

To tell you the truth, I was a little scared of India. I was travelling alone too, my comfort zone nowhere in sight after the cushy organised tour I was booked on got cancelled. I flew from Bangkok with the overtly budget IndiGo Airlines, expecting an overcrowded expiring plane with smoking engines on the outside and cigarette smoke on the inside. It was a pleasant surprise then, when I found a plane that was way newer than anything Easyjet has to offer, and with well dressed (and attractive!) friendly staff to boot. I'm impressed. My Indian experience also started on the plane, where I assisted a bunch of turban wearing & wickedly bearded Punjabis, who needed help with the English wording on their boarding cards (English being an official language in India, alongside Hindi). Turns out ... read more

Having to leave Rishikesh was actually really quite sad. Here we found a place that was calm, spiritual, friendly and a place that we both really liked. What probably didn’t help was the fact that our next destination was Delhi. It’s not that we had anything against Delhi, I mean, how could we, neither of us had ever been, however coming from such a place of peace and into India’s frantic capital, we were just hoping that our calm state could hold out until we eventually left the country a day later. Having shared a Tuk Tuk with Ali and James, we exchanged our contact details, said our goodbyes, and were again back to ‘flying’ solo. Having been put on the waiting list for this particular journey to Delhi, neither of us had any idea how ... read more

Flying via Bangkok arrived into the capital of India, Delhi. First introduction to this crazy new world was via a psychotic auto-rickshaw driver, holding on tight as we hammered through the busy streets at maximum speed while he shouted abuse and just missed crashing his flimsy battered vehicle. Breathed a temporary sigh of relief on reaching the hotel, before heading out to the train station to book a ticket to Agra – ambushed by several lying travel agent touts en route, I was diverted via a couple of fake “official government” offices before eventually discovering the genuine bureau back at the main station. Next day meandered through the twisting, stall-lined backstreets of old Delhi, assaulted by a panoply of smells from the stench of festering garbage in the hot streets through to the mouth-watering aromas of ... read more

My 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 – ... read more