Flights
We are on the way. All checked in
and ready to go. Relaxing in the Business Class (BC) lounge and checking out
our fellow travelers. Food and drink is flowing free and easy. Spot a guy in
the airport lounge who looks like Julian Assange. Well a little bit anyway.
Jules clocks us and smiles, he seems friendly enough.
Time to go now and we board and
make ourselves v comfy in BC. Very nice. Our new friend Julian sits across the
aisle from us, he seems a frequent BC user and knows all the buttons and where
stuff is, so we surreptitiously watch him and follow suit. Ok, so that’s how
you open the foot rest, and ahhh that’s where they keep the inflight magazine. The take-off is ridiculously smooth and we step into the sky with hardly a roar of engine. From here on in, its relax until Singapore. Watch some movies, chat for a bit, eat, drink etc. Life is good.
Land in Singapore and after some
poor direction from Qantas staff about where to go, we jump a train to Terminal
3, dash though the airport at maximum speed to be checked in to next leg of
flight.
Hmm, this is not business class as
we remember it. The Air India Plane is cramped, hot and OLD.
Air India Leg over. It wasn’t that
bad after all. We both managed some sleep thankfully. We draw a big breath, we
are about to step into Delhi full-on. Let the craziness begin.
Actually, it’s all very civilized.
After realizing we were waiting at the wrong luggage belt, we found our luggage
easily, cleared immigration and customs with nothing to declare and then we are
outside. Our man is waiting and easy to spot, our driver easy to find and then
on the road to home. There is surprising little traffic as we head through
slums and housing estates etc. Our hotel looms large in the distance so we know
we are on the right track. Check in simple, room very nice and clean. Sleep
most welcome at 4.30 am India time. Alarm set for 9, but awake by 8 to start
the day and our adventures in India.
First Day – Delhi Orientation
Hotel staff send us to ‘Community Centre’ next door to arrange phones etc.
Walk into very dodge, sad little shops, but
eventually get what we need and sort phones out. - $58 per mobile and $10 Sim which equates to
250 minutes of local talk time.
We wander remaining shops looking for local grocer,
they check out our money for counterfeit and when Jase questions if they get a
lot of false money, we are told…’they don’t sell that here’… hmmm.
Head out again in the arvo – in opposite
direction. Don’t find much of anything
really. Lots of chemists…No shops or
hidden temples, just lots of people standing around, and some sitting in the
street among the traffic. We eventually
grab a Tuk Tuk and go to a nearby
temple, Bahai (Lotus).
It looks like a big Sydney Opera House lookalike to us. The temple is without religion and is a general place of prayer and reflection. There are hundreds of people of all creeds there. (Not so many whiteys) but it’s quiet, except for the occasional large bore rifle shots we hear in the back ground. Not sure what is going on there. Probably best not to know really. We head back to hotel, we are both quite bushed.
Mixing it up with the locals
It looks like a big Sydney Opera House lookalike to us. The temple is without religion and is a general place of prayer and reflection. There are hundreds of people of all creeds there. (Not so many whiteys) but it’s quiet, except for the occasional large bore rifle shots we hear in the back ground. Not sure what is going on there. Probably best not to know really. We head back to hotel, we are both quite bushed.
Mixing it up with the locals
Bahai (Lotus Temple)
Indian Dinner in hotel restaurant. There does not seem to be a lot of choice
that we would be brave (and sensible) enough to try locally, so for the moment we
are a captive audience in this place for eating purposes anyway.
Up to room for shower and bed. Discuss the diversity of the day and then
crash. Completely Shagged!
