Saturday 27th April - Delhi

Well arrived OK. The flight was good, the seats were comfortable and the food much better than the average airline food.  The business cabin had a bar in it complete with bar stools, again very different from BA!

The Discover India rep was waiting at arrivals, although at first I missed him since he didn’t have the usual cardboard sign, but a hand painted banner proclaiming ‘welcome to India Mr John Kendall’, and if that didn’t make me feel conspicuous enough he then put a garland of marigolds around my neck.  Then with my banner and garland I had to walk through the airport and the car park to the waiting car. All I needed was a bell and an orange robe and I wouldn’t have looked out of place walking up and down Oxford Street.

The hotel (Maidens) is about 3/4 hr from the airport North of Delhi. It’s a nice old building probably dating from the 30’s. The interiors are reasonably original, more through lack of updating than conservation I suspect, rather like most things here.

Delhi has a different feel from cities in Pakistan.  It has the appearance of being slightly more wealthy, but obviously still very poor by Western Standards. It is slightly more clean and well kept than Pakistan, but that is only relative.

The transportation is better, there are more newer cars, and many of the public service vehicles run on natural gas not diesel. I have seen very few horse/donkey pulled carts, unlike Pakistan where they were commonplace.

I took a nice unintentional tour of the city when I went to the publishers to pick up the books I had ordered.  The taxi driver drove for hours (well half an hour anyway) before admitting that he didn’t know the way. He got out and asked, and then managed to go straight there, hmm...   However he did wait for me for 1/2 an hour and then drove me back and the bill was £4. I was going to send him away to get an autorickshaw (tuk-tuk in Thailand), but felt it safer whilst I had a driver to keep him.

I’m now (6pm) sitting in the garden having tiffin. It has cooled down somewhat since earlier.  It was 104 degrees, and today was not as warm as the past few days apparently!

There are quite a few noisy birds flying around, particularly some parrots and some which look like mynah birds.  There are also some very large ants on the terrace, which I keep imagining are crawling up my trouser leg.

I may go for a swim now - or I may not - then have dinner at 7:00 before I depart from here with Dev at 9 to go to the airport to pick up Pop.

That’s the plan anyhow.