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Published: April 4th 2006
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Rather than make use of the hotel's enormously expensive transfer service to the airport, I took a normal taxi instead, which came to about one fifth of the price. At check-in, I noticed that my luggage was up to 23.8 kilos, so I've added 14 kilos since I arrived in India. Delhi airport has the worst shopping section I've seen in a long time - with all the departing tourists that pass through its doors, the pitiful selection of gifts and souvenirs seems like an opportunity missed.
The flight back to Heathrow was without incident, though I did manage to win the top prize on the "Who wants to be a millionaire?" video game. It was about 20 degrees (Centigrade) colder in London than Delhi and was spitting with rain, so I felt at home immediately. With rush hour approaching, a taxi seemed preferable to the Tube so I found myself speeding along the M4 in a black cab. One thing that immediately struck me was the sheer variety of cars on English roads, compared with the restricted options on Indian ones. Not a Tata Indica in sight, but plenty of Porsches, Mercs, Subarus, etc.
Since I was going to be in London for 5 nights, I'd chosen the cheapest hotel I could find, which was the Park International near Gloucester Road. It was more expensive than all the places I'd stayed in in India bar the Taj in Delhi, for which I was getting a room smaller than anything I'd had in India, though with 24 hour hot water (!) A quick recce of the area revealed a mammoth 24-hour Sainsbury's, a large Waitrose, and a Tesco Metro - all of which will be handy when I begin to reacquaint myself with English chocolate bars.
I was very much feeling unsure whether I was glad to be home, or worried about the uncertainty of what lay ahead. After all, for the last 4 months I'd had a defined goal - to travel around India - and every day had been devoted to doing that, whereas now I had to actually start thinking again about what I was going to do. Though my original plan had called for a few weeks in the UK to sort out my US tax return and a few other admin issues, followed by several months going through China and South-East Asia, I was now not so keen on the idea of that destination. Travelling through India had been difficult and, at times, stressful, and from speaking to various travellers it had sounded as though China especially would be more of the same. Somewhere a bit "easier" might actually give me the chance for some proper relaxation.
Such thoughts were never going to reach a satisfactory conclusion when sitting alone in a hotel room, so I deferred them in favour of heading out to the nearest pub, where a steak and kidney pudding and some Kronenbourg comprised my first meal back in the UK. Seeing all the groups of people laughing and joking over their end-of-week pints almost, just almost, made me miss the camaraderie of work. But there'll be plenty of time for that in 2007, when I sink back into the mire for the next 30 years.
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Loy
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good fun
It was almost like I taking the journey with you. It was fun reading your blog and I guess every good thing has to end. It is sad that I will no have this to read with my morning coffee. Maybe your next stop is Americas. Planning a trip to Las Vegas in October. Want to join in.