Diary of an Internet Addict

As we stepped out of the airport, it dawned on me. Never, in my wildest imagination had I expected, what more, planned to be in India!

The day was hot, but still bearable. Coming from the sunny Singapore that had been hitting some 34 – 35 degrees when we left, we were already somewhat conditioned for the heat. How the sun burned though!

So we sort of cheated on the first day.

We were fetched from the airport in a private car, where we had breakfast, and then had a mostly city tour in the car. This costed us around 2300rs, but it could be ‘friendship’ price. I’m not too sure on that.

We stopped at several places:

1. Red Fort
2. India Gate
3. Connaught Place (for brunch)

Cafe Coffee Day – They served pretty nice cold coffee.

Enroute, we passed several buildings such as

1. President’s home
2. Parliament house
3. US embassy
4. Secretariat buildings

We had our lunch/dinner at Vasant Vihar area, where there were three malls that were side by side. We walked about Ambience Mall and DFS Promenade. This was the first time I experienced having to go through security scans at malls. Phew!

Our original plan was to bum around at the airport before our really early morning flight (6 am), but between the 2.30am flight and running around in hot weather and dusty roads, we had already begun to feel the strain towards the evening. We hit as many places as we could, but we knew we were going to regret it if we continued, having another flight that required waking up at wee hours in the following morning.

We changed our plans and sought a place to lodge at for about 8 hours.
Some of the hotels along the road,  near the airport looked pretty seedy inside when we went into the lobby to check them out.

At last we asked the driver for a recommendation for our price.

We lodged at Star Hotel, a kind of clean, with sheets a bit wanting, and suspiciously unlocked windows, type of hotel. But with the price (2000rs) it was going for, we couldn’t really complain. The service was actually better than expected. We got our wake up call, and they really did arrange for a taxi to the airport early next morning.

(I can’t find the hotel on Trip Advisor)

Tips

1. At food places, you might see red and green circles enclosed in squares.
   • Red – meat
   • Green – vegetarian
2. There is no halal certification system here. So far only KFC claims to have meat from halal-certified sources.
3. Always bring bottled water around.
4. You can inspect rooms first.
5. You will probably need a travel adapter. Even with ours, somehow half the time, the adapters won’t fit probably. No idea why.

Bonus images: