Off to Delhi

15.2.19

The alarm went off at 3. 15am and thankfully we had both slept well.

Nervously waited for our Ola taxi confirmation but all was well.

While waiting outside, Nexstays’ night manager apologised about all the issues. They have had problems with their laundry and have many new untrained staff at the hotel. Was good to leave on a happy note.

Our driver turned up on time much to our relief. The hotel could have arranged a transfer but it was 300 rupees more. Doesn’t sound a lot but 300 goes a long way here.

Ola was 827 rupees.

Google maps said the journey would take 50 minutes. They’ve obviously never met Kripalal. We didn’t feel unsafe though, his very frequent over taking was done with breathtaking accuracy!

Check in hadn’t opened but we were approached by a friendly ground crew lady who tried 2 different machines to check us in. Neither worked but she got a good selfie with us and explained that they are encouraged to interact with passengers!

Had a lovely fresh filter coffee. The food photos looked lovely. Paneer Masala and a chapati was cheaper than in most restaurants. (Dalaman airport take note) But 5am was a bit early.

Poor John is suffering with a bad tummy, maybe the ice cream or the fried bananas. Luckily we are 20 minutes delayed despite what the board says.

We missed our call for rows 1 to 7 and I was panicking but he emerged from the loo looking slightly better. He is coughing and sneezing too.

It was a tiny little plane with propellers.

It’s only just over an hour to Bangalore then about an hour and a half wait before our flight to Delhi.

The waiting time flew by, a couple of chicken puffs and a delicious Lavazza coffee helped.

It’s very noticable here that the women are dressed casually in jeans and tops with their hair down. In Kerala almost every woman was wearing traditional long dresses over trousers, or saris with their hair tied back or in a bun.

Time to board 🙂

A normal sized plane and no propellers this time but a weird ramp.

The flight to Delhi was a simple and pleasant 2 and a half hours. For a budget airline Indigo is fab, plenty of leg room, clean and comfy.

From March 2019 they are going to be offering direct flights from Istanbul.

We landed on time and by 2pm we were outside waiting for an Uber. The taxi company inside the airport quoted 8000 rupees, the Government one outside 4,400 rupees plus tolls which he said are about 1000 rupees.

Ubers quote 2400 plus tolls. Hope this is correct….

The traffic was horrendous, 5 or 6 lanes being made out of 2 or 3, of course the incessant beeping. Most cars have loads of dents and scratches including our Uber.

It was super scary!

After 45 minutes we joined a faster road. I checked google maps and it said 5 hours 1 minute to go. Felt tempted to ask the driver to turn back and get a flight home ! My nerves aren’t up to that.

Redid google maps and unticked the avoid tolls option and it changed to 2 hours 40 minutes. Thank goodness for that!

The roads became large and clear for miles and miles. Once we reached the outskirts of Agra it was pandemonium again.

I’m not sure why I thought the area would be affluent around the Taj. It’s incredibly scruffy and run down and so noisy.

Our hostel instructions said that Tangaj gate is the closest and no cars allowed. Paid our driver, 3100 with tolls and airport pick up fee. Remarkable, no way I would drive anywhere near here for double that.

Google took us down a narrow alley, little children playing down there were shouting no, no!

The locals are obviously used to it and told us the right way to get to Joeys hostel. 2 backpackers were having the same problem!

A warm welcome at Joeys. It’s definitely not the prettiest place, it’s very busy but everyone seems happy to be here.

Our room is nice enough although right by the stairs on the ground floor so we will have everyone in the communal area just outside our door.

We made it!! By 6.15pm we were on the roof terrace for THAT view. The whole reason for booking Joeys.

John still isn’t feeling good, his tummy is better but the cold is getting worse. We were a bit scared to go out in the dark here until we know how safe it is and know our way around.

We ordered from the hostel menu. We thought chicken soup might help the poorly soldier. What came was garlic soup with a hint of chicken. If nothing else it will keep the vampires away.

We were so down with the kids in the communal area, one of the staff joined us to play rummicub.

Fell asleep pretty early considering the noise, 15 hours travelling certainly took its toll.

So excited to see Agra properly tomorrow. Just hope John is up to enjoying it.

Onwards to Delhi

17.2.19

Breakfast was served.

After gorging on salted butter again we went up on the roof top to get just one more photo.

We said our goodbyes and were advised by Joeys that a tuk tuk to the train will be 100 rupees.

Of course the driver we found wanted 100 each, so we said no and of course it became 100 for both. He asked where we were going and what time our train is and sure enough a guy was waiting to offer us a taxi as soon as we arrived at the station.

We had wanted to go by train both ways originally but it was difficult to book an exact train to Agra in case our flight was delayed, everything you read online says trains have to be booked in advance but our experience in Kollam a few days ago was that we bought a ticket at the counter, not sure I would risk it on a busy tourist route though.

Our train is at 10.25am from Agra Cannt station. Currently on the platform, early of course to make sure we are in the right carriage area.

It’s so simple at this station, an electronic board at the entrance to tell you what platform to be on and carriage numbers all along the platform so it was easy to find B5 waiting area.

This train is a 3 tier sleeper, it’s the Kerala express to New Delhi and originally departed from Trivandrum 2 days ago! Just crazy.

Just our luck we will be sharing a carriage with these people.

Well, luckily they were on a different train.

Amazingly ours was just a couple of minutes late and we found a family spread out in our seats with their child sleeping. We sat in the seats the other side of the aisle and the ticket man was ok with it and we were happy too.

The poverty and living conditions along the way are heartbreaking.

We arrived in New Delhi at 1.45pm and waited 10 minutes for an Ola taxi. I could see him on the app going round in circles. Google maps said it was only a 4 minute walk but John said no to struggling with cases.

What a nightmare. Our driver had to negotiate through the main bazaar road, battling with tuk tuks, rickshaws, street dogs, beggars, sunglasses stalls and scooters.

Then he was asking us for directions to The Hotel Dollar Inn, so we told him to stop and said we would walk. We then had to walk the now 3 minute walk amongst the mayhem and constant hassle from tuk tuk drivers – back the way we came!

Google then said turn left. There were no left turns, so we asked some guys outside a restaurant and they said down the small alley by the ATM. We looked, there was no alley. We asked at the nearby shoe shop, yes down there.

No way!!!! John went to see how far up it was and came back and said the place looked ok. The shoe shop man said to ask them to carry the luggage. I began walking along there to ask, got freaked out by the workmen staring at me, began to cry and went back to John.

He went off and came back with a lad who helped carry our bags.

I asked if I could see our room before committing ourselves and actually it was clean and nice.

The guy on reception then did some calculations and added service tax to the amount confirmed by Booking.com. I refused because he was wrong to add it but more because of the state of outside! He told me to ring booking. com so I said to John lets go, and he gave us a discount which made it what it should have been.

I’m seriously fed up of this now, any opportunity to get extra, it does my head in, on top of the journey, the hassle, the staring, the spitting, the old ladies begging the dropping litter, it’s relentless.

I even had a quick look at flights from Delhi to home, but it’s not really an option. Maybe tomorrow will be better.

We went off for a stroll, surprisingly without luggage the drivers left us alone and very little hassle from the bazaar. I found myself relaxed and enjoying the buzz of it all.

We stopped for a late lunch, a great toastie, John had eggs, beans, chips and ham. Followed by curd and honey, all very tasty.

We are very happy to see that the street dogs are friendly, not so scared, well fed, some had coats on and we even saw a dog on a lead!

We enjoyed browsing the shops and getting ideas for places we must see over the next 2 days. We could do a one day tour with a driver but we fancy buying an unlimited metro ticket and exploring that way. Endless traffic mayhem and beeping isn’t exciting us.

We went back to the room to unpack and discovered no hot water. A guy came, they did something upstairs, that didn’t work, so we’ve had to move rooms to 2 floors higher.

Unfortunately we hear the elevator remix of ‘I just called to say I love you’ on a regular basis now and have a very noisy neighbour who had a very lengthy conversation with a woman on a very loud speaker.

We ate at the Drunkyard Cafe a very short walk up the main street from us. It was very busy and the food was well worth waiting for.

A couple of guys we spoke to earlier warned us against going too far up near the railway station at night as there have been muggings up there by people who get drunk and carry knives, so we are lucky to have eateries nearby.

The centre of the road is strewn with rubbish, we like to think they’re expecting a street cleaner but more likely this was all hiding under all the traffic earlier.

Feeling more positive.

Night night.

A day around Delhi

18. 2.19

We were awake til gone midnight with the idiot in the next room on his phone, people upstairs moving furniture and the ‘I just called to say I love you’ remix from the lift.

At 6.20am I politely asked the people across the hall to be quiet as they had been banging the door, talking very loudly +and their child was running around shrieking outside our door.

Went back to sleep and neither of us woke until nearly 10am. We obviously needed it.

We explored day trips with drivers yesterday but you’re at the mercy of where they get the best commission, their time keeping and Delhi traffic.

We’ve spent enough time in cars to last a life time recently.

So we made our own itinerary, with the help of a great blog that we found, we bought a one day metro ticket for 200 rupees each and set off.

The metro is spotlessly clean, and relatively simple to work out.

Our first stop Chandi Chowk. Apparently full of fab eateries, just in time for brunch and the Paranthe Wali Gali street, legendary for deep fried paratha bread.

The reality was extreme poverty, women and children sitting along the street, one child playing happily with a broken dolls head will stay in my mind.

It was crazy, noisy chaos and our map couldn’t find Paranthe Wali Gali and we could hear a protest going on.

Someone told us that Old Delhi is pretty much closed today with protesters.

We got back on the metro to Patel Chowk. A 20 minute walk along big clean wide roads brought us to Gurudwala Bangla Sahib Sikh Temple Complex.

It was every bit as fabulous as we had read about.

We were directed to the Foreign Tourist Area where we had to remove shoes and were given scarves to cover our hair.

Our guide explained about the Sikh ideals and gave us a tour inside the temple.

We were shown their holy book which is removed each morning and returned to its ornate resting place each evening.

Then we were shown the eating area, kitchens and foodstore. Everyone is welcome to have a meal there regardless of their faith.

At the end of our tour we asked if we could eat there and were taken back and shown what to do. Chapatis have to be received with both hands, as taking one looks like you’re grabbing. We were given a metal tray and dahl and potato curry were brought along.

The cooking and food serving is done by volunteers. The food was delicious. You can have as much as you like. An old man next to me had taken plastic bags to take some home for his tea.

From there we walked to Rajiv Chowk metro as it was slightly nearer and walked along the huge Parliament Road where there are huge banks, Police Headquarters etc and went past Nandos and other western venues to a market area where we were told clothes are great value and better quality than our bazaar street. There were some lovely things but nowhere to risk trying anything on.

A couple of guys told us we must go into the Government Tourist Office nearby even though we protested that we have maps and know where we are going. They hovered and watched so we went in just to keep them happy. Once inside we were greeted like long lost friends and encouraged to sit down. No idea what it was all about but we left pretty sharpish.

We then got another metro, changed lines to Khan Market to go to Lodhi Gardens, about 20 minutes walk from the metro.

This area was very smart, with designer shops on small streets, and chain brands including Accessorize, Body Shop, L’Occitane and even M & S.

We saw many Europeans, Asians and wealthy looking Indians here and shortly after we were walking along another huge road, with imposing houses and some Embassies along it.

Lodhi Garden was superb.

Apologies for so many photos, I have loads more!

More info here

https://www.inditales.com/lodhi-garden-walk-new-delhi/

From here we decided to make our way back to our base in Bazaar Street, and did go slightly
wrong with where we got off the metro. But easily sorted by changing lines and we were soon back in the chaos.

We had dinner nearby, once again we saw a desert called Hello to the Queen on the menu. We googled it. Vanilla ice cream, biscuit crumbs, banana, caramel. Not sugar free but we have walked 14km so we deserve it.

It was ok, no caramel, pieces of cheap biscuit, but the ice cream, banana and chocolate sauce was good.

Tomorrow we are going to visit the other places on our list.

We thoroughly enjoyed today, so glad we didn’t give up on Delhi and have seen what else it has to offer.

We realise just how huge Delhi is, we covered just a very small part of the yellow metro line today.

Really looking forward to more escapades here tomorrow.

More Delhi travels

19.2.19

We were up and about a bit earlier this morning, first stop the metro to buy more one day tickets and receive 50 rupees each deposit on yesterdays.

We ventured off to the Lotus Temple, which is a Bahai temple set in beautiful gardens. We weren’t allowed to take photos inside.

From there we got off at INA station to go to Dilli Haat handicraft and food market which is right by the metro exit.

We did it in this order because we read about all the food stalls and that there is almost a stall for every states cuisine across India.

Never mind the handicrafts, we cut straight through to the food!

We we very pleased to opt for Odishas food, a state in the east of India.

Really tasty and excelllent espresso coffee too.

We started a tradition of buying xmas decorations from places we’ve visited a few years ago so we had to buy this. He will look fab next to our kangaroo with his xmas hat.

To seek revenge on our Turkish neighbour and his noisy windchimes we bought these cute elephants.

The crafts there were fabulous, free from hassle,tuk tuks and beggars. Really well worth a visit.

Our next stop involved quite a long walk after Green Park station that ended with getting lost inside a gated community where some building work was going on, some birds were having lunch and a stunning temple and tomb buildings sat on the side of the road.

Back on track we found Hauz Khas which is what we had been looking for. Fabulous architecture, very similar to yesterdays tombs and very popular with young posers getting fodder for their Instagram accounts, having a sneaky fag, or a romantic smooch.

Surrounding the complex were several high end boutiques and really expensive roof top bars and restaurants.

We worked out that if we hurried we could just about fit in the last thing on our list and got a tuk tuk back to Green Park station. We went from yellow line, to violet line to blue line like locals and from our last stop Akshardam station it was a short walk to Akshardam Temple.

What a drama. You are not allowed to take anything inside except a clear water bottle or ladies purse. Adamant I wasn’t leaving my mobile phone I hid it in my pants and got through the bag search but lost my nerve when we saw there was a full security search later on, so it was either not go in or leave our bags at the locker room.

I almost felt sick and had separation anxiety watching my bag and phone being replaced with a metal disc!

The queues were horrendous, several lines separated by metal barriers with officials putting rope barriers across. Every time they opened a section it was like watching a herd of wild animals running and pushing until they reached the next queue, security scan.

It took almost an hour to get through both.

The Hindu temple opened in 2005, and is the 3rd largest in the world.

It’s certainly impressive but the queuing and leaving your bags ruined it for us. No idea why that level of security is necessary.

These images are from Google.

I did manage to take this one from the metro station of it lit up as we were leaving.

Back to our Old Delhi area and time for dinner at a cafe not far from our hotel.

The noise in the hotel is worse than ever tonight. Mr Arguing on his phone til all hours has been replaced by a group of very loud men in and out, in and out and a load of glass bottles and very loud tv. Great.

John reported them to the night guy at 11.30pm, he did speak to them, but it’s made no difference, if anything it’s worse. I had to watch tv on my tablet with the volume up high with headphones until 1.30am to try and drown out their noise.

Booking. Com have been great, I sent the photos of the rubble alleyway, reported the fact that the double rooms are not on the ground floor, that the stated kitchenette, tea making facilities, soundproofing, hairdryer, iron, bathrobe and seating area don’t exist. I also sent noise recording clips and within 2 hours 25 euro have been credited to my bank account.

It doesn’t compensate, but they have promised to update the room details and hopefully others won’t be fooled into booking here.

Can’t wait to checkout of this place!

Back to Kerala

20.2.19

We were woken at 6.15am by door slammers. John went back to sleep and missed the 8am earthquake. The hotel swayed for a few seconds, a little scary, but thankfully just a 4.0 magnitude.

It was fabulous to leave Hotel Dollar Inn. We literally have nothing good to say about it.

We decided to get an Ola to the airport and after negotiating rubble, rickshaws, tuk tuks, handcarts, and beggars made our way up Bazar Road to a large hotel as a landmark for the driver.

We gave a young lad that came up to us begging a tshirt John bought and has never worn, he looked it all over critically, obviously not a Primark fan-, he was umming and ahhing, as wanted money, but when I offered to have it back he decided it was ok.

Time now 11am. 50 million tuk tuk drivers asked if we wanted one while we waited.

We waited, and watched the phone screen seeing the ETA go from 9 minutes, to 14, to 8 and back to 14. Rang the driver, he said we would have to meet him at the station. We cancelled him as main reason we didn’t go to the station was the issue of Johns homemade bag strap and getting across the crazy main road.

Tried Uber, same problem, made our way to station via beggars, people trying to sell battery packs for phones and so on. No sign of uber, various phone calls, made our way to where it looked like he was on map, no sign. Gave up.

Starting to rain, grabbed a tuk tuk. Literally stuck in traffic with nothing moving for ages. Time now, 11.45am.

Check in time 12.30pm. ‘How long will it take?’ About an hour.

Anyway, thank goodness we didn’t go by car as the tuk tuk was able to weave in and out of the tiniest gaps and he got us there, somehow, by 12.25pm!

Self check in and bag drop were simple, lovely guy on desk wished me a happy birthday for a couple of weeks time, his is 4 days before mine. I really love Indigo, such a friendly efficient company.

Had KFC burgers for lunch and boarded on time.

Landed in Cochin on time at 5.30pm. 33 degrees and sunny.

Alfa Inn is very near the airport, but they offer a free shuttle and had messaged this morning to tell me to ring when we arrived.

Rang, ‘manager 30 minutes, not here, get taxi, no English’

We negotiated the big main road and were at Alfa 10 minutes later, the young guy got a telling off from manager who had been outside having tea and had said to call him if any tourists ring.

Why is it always us?

I asked if the room is quiet, yes, he promised. I explained about Delhi and he said North Indian people always big problem in hotels.

Our room is massive, huge soft comfy bed, rummicub table and great wifi.

We went out locally to a place called The Food Court. Had an amazing chicken tikka, but John was out of luck, no biriyanis.

My best tip for Delhi….

Stay in New Delhi outside of the crazy Old Delhi bazaar area, just do it as a visit. We fancied being in the midst of it all but had no idea just how mad it would be.

We’ve been so lucky with the weather in Delhi, 20 degrees was perfect for our sightseeing, so glad we were then as rain for next few days.

Had a great few days and so glad we made the trip up there, have seen some incredible sights and some incredibly heartbreaking sights.

Time to sleeeeeeeep 🙂