Our flight ends up being an hour late, which does, in fact give us 50 minutes to get across 3 terminals to our LHR flight. No problems. We’re get there just as they are pre-boarding, which is perfect. No down time, no waiting, we’re on the plane in a jiffy. And the plane is virtually EMPTY! It is incredible. There are only 99 people on a plane that holds 360. And most of those passengers are up front in the premium cabins. We have the entire economy cabin to share with about 30 people. Needless to say, once we are above 10,000 feet we all spread out and get entire rows to ourselves. Since we have a day room in London, we aren’t planning to sleep on this leg – which stinks since we could have laid out! But, even so, it makes for a much more comfortable flight.
We arrive in London a little bit early, and make our way out of passport control in a jiffy. We have a little bit of indecision on how to get to the hotel – the pay bus or the free bus (which is a longer walk), but in the end, we opt for free – because, well, it’s free, and also, because a longer walk after being cooped up in the plane will be nice. We luck out and get a bus right away, and are at the hotel in just over 10 minutes. Nice.
Our arrival is perfectly timed with the day room scheduled, and we are checked in right away. We ask the desk clerk for a nice dark and quiet room (the rooms at the front of the hotel are notoriously loud from the airport. She puts us in a room around the corner, facing the pool with only one room next to us, which sounds great. We get settled in and all comfy in the bed, ready to snooze, when there is this horrendous racket from next door. Huh? As it turns out, it’s a supply closet, and they are doing painting in there – moving huge big metal storage racks to get to the walls. Argh. I actually go in there and ask the guy if he can try to be quiet because we are trying to sleep. He’s very sweet about it, and does try to be quiet and we finally get to fall asleep in peace.
Of course we are up before the alarm, and into the gym (with a slight mishap with the key being deactivated), then showered and repacked and out the door back to the airport. Seamless! Easy through security, into the lounge, and then onto our Delhi bound flight – which is the complete opposite of our inbound flight and packed to the gills. We are lucky though, and manage to have an empty seat between us which makes for a much smoother flight.
And just like that – we are in Delhi! Passport control is quick for me – because of course, I have the 5 year visa – or “sticker” visa in Indian terms. Ed has to stand in the e-visa line and it takes a lot longer, but we aren’t really in any rush. We’re here and have the whole day ahead of us. When we finally get through, the luggage is already arriving on the carousel, and after a few minutes we are on our way to find an ATM, the Police Taxi booth and the Airtel booth for a SIM card. All are easily available right outside in the arrival terminal. Ruppee’d up, SIM card in hand, we go to get our taxi fare receipt (400 rupees to get into town – that’s like $5! The guy at the taxi booth is shelling and eating peanuts, and he very sweetly gives each of us one to try. Oh God – we can’t be rude – so we take and eat the peanut and thank profusely, which encourages him to give us each both a handful of peanuts to take with us. So, off we go, rolling our luggage in one hand, clutching the handful of peanuts in another. Such sweetness, but, even so, we round a corner where he can’t see us and throw the peanuts in the trash. As lovely as the gesture was, we’re not going to risk getting ill from peanuts in our first hours in the country!
Out into the melee we go – it is actually unexpectedly not so crazy. We find the “black” cabs across the street easily and get herded into the rickety old van, with a lovely – if quiet driver – who takes us on the best introduction to Delhi you could ever get! It takes us over an hour to get to the hotel – and during that hour we are continually amused, amazed, enchanted, with all the scenes and experiences we watch through our windows. First the traffic – oh dear! Lanes are only a suggestion – who knows how many lanes these streets are supposed to be, because vehicles just make their own space. Turns? Ah, where ever you want. Far left lane? Want to turn right? No problem, just go. The horns, of course, the horns! The cows on the sidewalk, the kids trying to sell us flags or beg for money when we get stuck at certain intersections. The pictures don’t do it justice, but you can probably get a little idea.
Finally, after navigating through every back road and roundabout way to get to the hotel (through the university area where the roads are completely torn up (for the subway maybe?) with mud everywhere, piles of rocks and hundreds of students walking in the road, making it impossible to pass) and around the roundabouts past large gardens and rock walls, we arrive at the Metropolitan hotel where the guards proceed to search the van for bombs with the mirror under the car, looking through the back of the van and in the engine compartment. Cleared to enter, our suitcases and all carry items are passed through a scanner, we walk through a scanner as well, and are finally ushered into the lobby to check in. We have a great room facing the road, and after depositing our luggage, we go in search of the liquor store to buy beer.
We have a general idea of where the store is located, only a few blocks away from the hotel. But of course, the map is only so good in the little warren of streets and shops that branch off the main road. I think it is on the main road but the map shows us it is on a side road. One man points us down the street and says it will be on the left. But when we get turned around again, another guy helpfully walks us to the liquor store, then talks to the shop guys (probably getting a commission) and waits while we make our purchases (at least he didn’t ask us for money – which is what we were expecting). We get our beer (overpriced because we are tourists – we know – but what can we do?) and retrace our steps to the hotel.
Now it’s time to explore! I have a path all mapped out to go to the Sikh temple with the lake, then onto to Jantar Mantar and up to Connaught place for drinks and dinner at Lord of the Drinks, so we head off in that direction. As we are walking down the road from the hotel, a guy comes up to us from behind and says, “hi, it’s me again.” Oh, hi. Don’t you remember me? I work at the Metropolitan hotel. Being the nice people that we are, we don’t want to tell him we don’t remember him, so we say sure, how are you and proceed to get into a discussion with him about his job (been there 3 1/2 years), if he’s working tomorrow (no, big holiday), etc. He asks where we are going, and we tell him and he says, oh you have to be all covered up to go to the temple (which is true, and I didn’t remember to bring our scarves) so he suggests we go to the monkey temple –and he can walk us there because he is on his way home that way. Ok, sure.
So, we walk, and we talk – and we get to the monkey temple which, sure enough has monkeys. We have to take our shoes off to go inside, and we’re not really all that into it anyway, plus, now we’re starting to think this guy isn’t really a hotel worker and possibly a tout, because he’s sweet and everything, but he seems a little too willing to stay with us if we go into the temple and he’s already said he want’s to practice his English (a sure tout come on). He’s glib enough to tell us in his position at the hotel he doesn’t get a chance to practice a lot. He asks us if we want to shop – and goes into a whole spiel about the Emporium which has handicrafts from handicapped people and supports them. Some people who visit also give donations to help the handicapped people. We tell him that is great, but we aren’t interested and as we continue on, we get to Connaught Place, and we spy Lord of the Drinks – so we tell him we are going there for drinks. He helps us find the underpass to get across the street and then leaves us at the door of the pub, telling us he’s going to meet his girlfriend for drinks over there (he vaguely waves in another direction) and reminding us we can take a tuk tuk to the emporium for only 20 or 30 rupees and we should go. Ok, thanks, bye bye.
Hmmmm….tout? Or nice hotel guy? The jury is out! But we did want to come here- just hadn’t planned on coming quite so early – but what the heck? We can nosh a little and then get something small at the hotel later.
Up the stairs we go – into the kitschy semi- but not really medieval bar where we are seated at a little sofa arrangement, order beer, wine and tandoori chicken wings and listen to a great mix of music that gets volumes louder at precisely 4pm. this place has the reputation of being a raucous party place, and we can see why – even at 4 in the afternoon!
It’s a great hanging out place, and we waste and hour or so, just enjoying the atmosphere, munching on our wings and watching people. We decide to jettison the sightseeing for the day, even though we can walk to Jantar Mantar from here. At this point we want a shower and to hang out for the rest of the evening. As we leave, I miss the entrance to the underpass – turn around – and of course somebody wants to help us and asks us where we are going. Rule #1 – don’t look like you don’t know where you are going! We wave him off and cross under the street to head back to the hotel.
On the other side of the street, who is waiting for us? Our pseudo hotel guy. Hi again! Yeah, hi! Where are you going? Back to the hotel. Oh, are you sure you don’t want to go to the emporium? Oh, ok, that’s his gig! No, thanks, we’re going back – and with that we are off – and to his credit the doesn’t try to follow us or hound us – but now we know. He either out-touted the other touts – or out-touted himself! But he’s definitely not a Metropolitan worker!
Retracing our steps is easy enough, dodging the people crowding the streets and avoiding racing, honking cars at intersections. We pass some awesome architecture, and these guys dressing up a horse drawn carriage, presumably for a wedding.
Later, after a fantastic shower that totally rejuvenates us, we wander downstairs to grab a bite to eat, both of just ordering appetizers – Ed with I don’t remember and me with this special chicken with creamy cheese and something on top. And while the photo doesn’t look all that appealing, what ever it was, it was fantastic!
Very sated, we meandered up to our room, hoping for a nice long sleep before meeting Maggi and Richard and beginning our tour in the morning. Turns out we did manage to get a good sleep, but not until after the wedding procession past the hotel around 10pm (the drums were so loud they came right through the insulated windows (although it was fun watching from our window as the lighted displays went by – and if we weren’t so tired, we would have definitely gone down to see it in person) – and the people next door finally went to bed (after talking incredibly loud for a few hours.
Just the sights and sounds of India to lull us to sleep on our first night!
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