Advertisement
Published: January 15th 2009
The day we have been waiting for has finally arrived! which meant setting off from Gorleston at 12pm on 14/1/09 and heading for Heathrow.
After a 8 hour flight with some extra delays we finally arrived in Delhi at 1130am there time (5.5 hours ahead here).
Now as some of you know we are not the most prepared for the trip of our life, however we had done some research into what happens when we arrive and how we get from the airport to our hostel - going for the cheapest option we had set our minds on the bus! which we would have to buy a ticket from the airport for, then get off in New Delhi and walk 5 mins to our accomadation. Sounds Simple...doesnt it???!!
We changed some currency at the airport so were ready for our bus journey, but couldnt find anywhere to purchase a ticket - all we were told was "the green one outside", this is where our journey really began...
We stepped outside Delhi airport, backbacks on, to be greated with millions of taxi drivers, tuk tuk drivers, and probably the odd camel rider all trying there hardest to get us into there ride!
We were prepared for this as our guidebooks had warned us about them as its said that once inside there taxi they will take you to a different destination as they get commission for doing so. So we stuck to our guns and kept walking away saying no thanks.... and the odd 'Nahin' thrown in for good measure (indian for NO), we finally saw a green bus in the distance, Ami's eyes lit up.... we headed towards it...people got off.....then it drove away...never to be seen again!
Feeling slightly disheartened, hot and bothered we finally gave in.... and agreed to a taxi, 150 rupees (2 pounds) to take us to the town centre where we would still walk the 5 mins to our hostel. The bus is 50 Rs each so we were happy with our negotiational skills, and enjoyed the sights on the 30 min taxi ride.
We got dropped off outside a tourist information centre and was greated by a man asking us to come in and take a map to help us get around, once inside it was clear that this was not a real tourist information centre and that the man was mearly trying to get
money out of us, with the taxi driver stil waiting outside wanting to charge us a further 300 to 400 rs to take us to our hostel, the stuborn brits that we are decided to walk, even when we were told it was about 3 miles away!! (our backpacks, the heat, the begging was all ading up at this point!)
so off we went anyhow, not knowing who to trust and having a constant stream of followers we decided to go with it, and took the advice of one man who put us on a train, 2 stops later we were aparently really near now! then two more men walked us to our hostel, the smile inn in Paharganj.
I think we are going to have fun here! we are now off to try and find somewhere to eat....this could be interesting!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.243s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 14; qc: 60; dbt: 0.17s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
mummy lynnell
non-member comment
lol bless ya!
well day 1 sounded interesting to say the least!...been thinking bout you and how u'd coped with the natives! hope the meal was good?? very queit here in the old household..lord charles is looking at me in that bored, pathetic way like "wheres all the action gone"! keep safe and keep in touch, always in my thoughts...mum xxxxx