Delhi: 1st Impressions

The trip to the airport and the flight to Delhi went smoothly. Understandably, was tight upon boarding the plane in Kathmandu. Our bags were scanned, checked, and rechecked, which was just fine with me. The view from the plane, once again, was fantastic; the Himalaya seem to stretch on forever. The Delhi airport was clean and customs was efficient. Not too bad, I thought.

But then, the hassle of Delhi hit me. The signs pointing to where you wait for taxis were unclear, so much so that an Indian woman from North Carolina was also confused. After waiting in the wrong place for 15 minutes or so, we asked someone and were directed to the correct place. But it turned out that, even though I had called the hotel to confirm my complimentary airport taxi ahead of time and sent an email, they were not there. (By the way, sending emails to confirm anything in Nepal or India is pointless. I'm sure no one reads them as I have never received a response.) I called again and the hotel asked me to spell my name 5 times and then said a driver would be there in 10 minutes. Sure enough, a driver appeared in 10 minutes and took me to the correct hotel. Phew, I had negotiated the whole transport nightmare and was on my way to the serenity of a nice airport hotel.

But when I got to the hotel and was in the process of checking in, they told me that the airport transport was NOT complimentary. I had passed up the prepaid taxi stand at the airport (56 rupees for <5 kilometers) because I was told I had prepaid hotel transport waiting for me. Now the hotel insisted on charging 500 rupees (more than $10)!!! This, even in the US, is a complete ripoff. But I was stuck and didn't have much choice. I didn't have rupees (because the exchange rate at the airport is pretty low), so I paid with a $20 bill and received 400 Indian rupees change (a 45 rupee/$1 exchange rate, which will become important later).

My room was nice, the bed was the nicest bed I've slept in since maybe my parent's house in Chicago, and the shower was hot. But the hotel had no Internet services (which was my only requirement when I booked), which made it impossible to confirm future reservations with my travel agent. And to top it off, with 70+ channels on the TV, only one was English-speaking and played the same news stories over and over. Ug.

Upon checking out, the hotel again tried to rip me off. They tried to charge more than was quoted for the room, they tried to charge me for breakfast (which was clearly stated as complimentary on the booking form), and this time, conveniently for them, the exchange rate was 49 rupees per dollar (which worked in their favor when converting a US dollar room rate into rupees). And then they wanted to charge 750 rupees to hail a taxi for me to Majnu Ka Tilla (my next stop in Delhi). The rate should be in the neighborhood of 500 rupees. I walked outside and hailed a cab myself, paying 650 rupees, which was still too high but, at this point, I didn't care.

After that, it's been smooth sailing. The driver stopped at a bank ATM, as requested, and the drive here was actually not too scary. The trip from the far southwest corner of town to the north side took only about 45 minutes with very little traffic. There's more green space in Delhi than I imagined and I only had one person knock on my window asking for money (I expected swarms). Majnu Ka Tilla is a small, quiet Tibetan refugee neighborhood in north Delhi and is where you can catch the overnight bus to Mcleod Ganj. So far, everything here has gone smoothly. I found an internet cafe (hence, this blog) and a free place to store my bag for the day (Wongdon House). I walked into Tibet Trek and Tours and bought my bus ticket for the price advertised. Hallelujah! This time tomorrow, I should be at the Chonor House Hotel in Mcleod. Of course, between now and then, I will be taking a 12-hour, overnight bus ride. Should be interesting.

That's all for now. I'll write more in a few days : )

Namaste!