Challenged myself why I was surprised, after all we were going to India, but logic kept telling me that passengers arriving in Singapore and travelling on could be going to 10s of destinations in Asia, Europe or Scandinavia even, so why India!
And that was the retort we got when talking to a Swiss woman and a Norwegian/Swedish couple (he a Norwegian, she a Swede) as we waited to board,
Why India he said! Told him we had had a reasonable fill of Europe and thought we would go somewhere quite different. He had lived there for a year and told us that while he loved the place he also hated it because of the sheer inequality that exists.
He made some other comments, not necessarily complimentary (said quietly because of the folk standing around) and wished us luck. Not sure why as we are only going on holiday and not buying a lotto ticket but if it is luck we are to need then hopefully we get it in bucket loads.
First flight uneventful, if you call stopping service twice because of turbulence uneventful, and arrived in Singapore a little bleary eyed.
It takes a bit to fill in 4 hours in an airport however we managed by walking up and down terminal 3 a few times and having a coffee in the lounge and finally at 1.55 am Singapore time we boarded and soon we’re winging our way to Delhi which was another 5 hour trip - correction, another 5 hour trip affected by turbulence over a reasonable portion of the journey.
Alighted at Delhi, some 20 hours after leaving Auckland and was greeted by a rather cold 9 degree morning.
Came through the airport reading all the signs held by the tour drivers, cabs etc. looking for our name as we had been told that our driver would pick us up outside “ Gate 5 of Terminal 3” but no luck.
Rang the number for the driver, a number only provided to us yesterday but found that the number didn’t exist.
I won’t say that panic creeped in as we started to be concerned that we had been scammed big time but the chest was starting to tighten up.
Found a number for the travel company in Mumbai who had made all our arrangements and were sitting on a stack of our cash and though it was 6am I was rather glad when they answered the phone.
Told Ailyia that we were standing where she had told us to be just the day before and also the number she had provided was not on the network and asked her to resolve.
She said she would ring us back in a few minutes and in no time at all our driver, Ashok, appeared holding a card with our name on it and the sense of panic started to subside - he had been outside Gate 4!!
We loaded the Toyota Innova and started off to our first accommodation - and the sense of panic started to come back, were we going to survive another day given the way vehicles are driven?
We made rather quick time, unpacked, had breakfast and then out into the new day to see what Delhi was all about.
In summary it is chaotic, noisy, traffic everywhere many of whom seemed to have us in their headlights as the tore down the street leaning on their horn. Dogs lying around everywhere and no sign of any cattle on the road.
Had our first bite in India at one of the many restaurants close by and then rang Ashok to pick us up to take us for some sightseeing which he duly did dropping us off at Connaught Place an area in the centre of Delhi.
CP was an absolute hive of activity, people galore many trying to make a living, even if it is only cleaning my shoes something that was offered to me at least 10+ times.
After a coffee in a cafe chain (would make a good story when told) spent over an hour window shopping, though that turned out unsuccessful as came back with a few items.
There were two weary oldies by now so it was a slow trip back to our accommodation, slow because of the fact traffic clogged the roads but Ashok put the car in the right place at the right time and we got back unscathed
By now it was dinner time so then foot slogged it back to the restaurant we had had lunch at for an evening meal, returned to the hotel and started to write this blog - I’ve fallen asleep at least half a dozen times so far and will publish this as is in case I do so again.
Tomorrow we have a full day with an a English speaking guide.
I’ll post some photos when more mentally alert as not functioning well right now
1 comment:
Perhaps you shoulda had clean shoes on to start with … :-p
Post a Comment