The Sights of Delhi

Our itinerary described the activity for today as "a full day of sightseeing around Old and New Delhi", and supposedly included a drive past the Red Fort (well, we saw it from some distance away, with no opportunity for a photo!), a walk through the "fascinating Chandri Chowk Bazaar" (which turned out to be a fascinating - but nerve-wracking- pedi-cab ride!), a visit to Jama Majid (the biggest mosque in Delhi, or even in the whole of India?   And cameras permitted only on payment of a fee), visits to the Narayan Hindu Temple (interesting, but no cameras at all permitted) and to Humuayn's Tomb (highlight of the day), plus views of India Gate, Parliament House and various government buildings.

What wasn't stated was that although the distances between the sights isn't great, the day did involve lots of time negotiating Delhi's traffic as well as time out for lunch (Indian food, very good).  Delhi is split into Old Delhi and New Delhi, and the traffic in the narrow streets and lanes of Old Delhi as well as on the wider, tree-lined boulevards of New Delhi is all horrendous!    And the road network (all over) is complex;  I tried to follow our progress on the map, but for much of the time couldn't do so.

As I've said, Humayun's Tomb was definitely the highlight for me.  This is said to be a landmark of Mughal architecture, having been built in 1570 for the Mugul Emperor Humayun.   It was commissioned by his wife, and was the first garden tomb in India.

Lakshmi Narayan Hindu Temple

India's famous discriminatory admission charges!

Approach to Humayun's Tomb

Humayun's Tomb (I assume)

Humayun's Tomb, exterior

....the traffic!

India Gate (monument to Indians who died in WW1)

To Delhi

We've arrived in Delhi, but I intend not to rush in with too many generalisations.    So just some initial impressions.  The traffic in from the airport, at times, was every bit as bad as I'd expected.     The must be some female drivers, but maybe they know to keep away from the most congested roads!  I suppose they employ drivers, anyway, as it seems from the newspaper that anyone who can afford a car is likely to employ a retinue of "helpers".   Although Delhi is dusty, it's got a lot more trees and so is greener than I thought it would be (the wet season finished a few weeks back).   The city seems rather spread out, and in my walks, I haven't felt unsafe (but of course I haven't ventured too far).   Most of the people we encounter are friendly and helpful, but of course the numerous people who approach you in the street are just touts!

Our exploration has been based on the area around Connaught Place, not far from our accommodation.   All colonnaded (relics of a British past) but now very overlaid with lots of Indian character (that is small shops selling everything you don't want and nothing that you do want, like bottled water).  And numerous touts!

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Delhi sunrise, through the mist ...err, smog

For the record, our trip, from Bangkok to Delhi, involved a 7.35 am departure, so in line with the hotel's suggestion, we were up early – and ended up with more time at the airport than we needed. Oh well, better than running late and then encountering holdups.  There was a delay before we took off from Bangkok due to congestion, and our approach into Delhi was also marked by a few minutes in a holding pattern,    However, we arrived in Delhi satisfactorily, to be faced with crowds in the immigration hall which seems unable to cope with the number of travellers - especially given the very thorough  check of everyone's passport and visa.  But we emerged, and were met by the "meet & greet" person that the tour organiser had arranged (at our cost!).  This was followed by the drive to the hotel through Delhi's Saturday traffic (awful).

In Delhi, we've eaten a couple of times in the hotel's coffee shop which is expensive - even by Western standards.   The reason for the high prices is that there's nothing else in the immediate vicinity that most Westerners would accept.   We have also eaten at Connaught Place, but that's a few minutes walk along fairly ordinary footpaths.

Tomorrow our tour officially starts, with a tour of Delhi.

The authorities are ready for anything

Flagpole at centre of Connaught Place

Auto-rickshaws - everywhere

Colonnades

A quieter part of Connaught Place

Farewell to Thailand

We've arrived in New Delhi, but before starting on my initial impressions of India - a matter on which I really do need to collect my thoughts - I'll record some final thoughts about Thailand.

Australians like Thailand, of course:    they drive on the left, and eat with a knife and fork!   English is widely spoken, especially by people with whom tourists are likely to have contact with (although perhaps not so much in the case of taxi drivers!).  And the traffic, although challenging at times, has the benefit of some reasonable roads (a contrast to Delhi, at least).
 

The Thai people are all charming, of course, although I do wonder if high levels of staffing sometimes leads to a loss of efficiency (or, at least, don't compensate for this).   It's come up on a couple of occasions, and while we don't have any complaints, the service on Thai Airlines so far hasn't had quite the edge that you find on at least some other airlines.

Nurses (on TV)

But right now, the Thai's respect for the monarchy is on full show.    13 October marked one year since the previous king's death.    At 3.52 pm (the time of his death), many places observed 89 seconds of silence (he was 89 when he died).  Several channels on the TV gave extensive coverage to 9 minute period of silence at the hospital where he died.   All the nurses were out in the street, and I read in the Bangkok Post that there were a number of memorial events around town, with people being turned away from some.

The Post also reported numerous people being in tears and "heartbroken".    Hmmmmm, I'm really not sure about this but I suppose I'd better be careful:  under the extremely strict lese majeste law, an 85 year old historian is currently under threat of prosecution for wondering aloud three years ago whether a 16th century story involving a king of that era prevailing in an elephant battle with the then king of Burma (taught, I read, in all Thai schools) actually happened.   Even the Post thinks this might be over the top.

A Day in Bangkok

What do you do if you have a single day in Bangkok?    Go shopping?   Explore the sights?   Well, actually, no.

For starters we had a leisurely breakfast.   It had been included in our pre-paid, advance, non-changeable hotel booking (advance purchase without breakfast was, by some quirk of the Accor system, actually more expensive).     So we availed ourselves of the extensive buffet and set ourselves up for the day.

Then we headed by airport train then the Skytrain (with a change at Siam) then a walk to the British Club.

 I had arranged an introduction, and we were warmly welcomed (once we produced a credit card!).    And indeed it has some of the characteristics of an oasis as described on the website - nice gardens, a pool, tennis court and an extensive menu, but it's clear that the membership is varied and in fact there were a lot of children in the pool!    I don't recall Somerset Maugham mentioning them.

We had a nice meal in the dining room (I'm told the duck l'orange, and the apple blueberry crumble which followed, were great), overlooking peaceful gardens before adjourning to the outdoor area, between the pool and tennis court with the gym behind, to enjoy a cappuccino and watch a little of the Shanghai Open on the TV.

Did I say that the Club isn't on a direct train route from the airport (where we're staying)?    The thought of retracing our journey in our by-now relaxed frame of mind late on a Friday afternoon when even more people would presumably be travelling was a little intimidating,and anyway the rain was starting. 

We knew we had to negotiate to get a good taxi fare, but on arrival back at our accommodation we gave back the amount we'd negotiated off the opening offer from the driver, thus reinforcing the impression that Westerners are a soft touch, but he was happy!.

To Bangkok

Our trip took us first to Bangkok, with a 2-night/1 day stopover there. A kindly dropped us at the airport in plenty of time. In fact we had a short wait even before the checkin counter opened, but this was part of “the plan” - namely to have something to eat (and drink!) in the lounge! Thai use the Air New Zealand lounge at Tullamarine (they're Star Alliance partners).

If my memory serves me correctly, the lounge has been expanded, because now it's quite large, and it wasn't very busy at the time we were there. Anyway the New Zealand bubbly was fine!

The flight was on an Airbus 350, which Thai have only recently started to operate on the Melbourne route. I really just can't get excited by the concept of flying on a "new" type of aircraft;  in spite of what the enthusiasts say on the internet;  basically, all planes are just metal tubes and minor differences in things such as the size of windows just don't "grab" me.   And each airline/plane seems to have a different control system for the inflight "entertainment", so I had to work that out.   Even so, I couldn't find any movie of interest (although S watched a couple).

At 8 h 45 m (and a 4 hour time difference), the flight was longer than I'd anticipated, but things went smoothly enough, and after finding our way around the barn that Bangkok airport is, we had a quick passage through immigration and were on our way through the well-marked passageway to the Novotel (last time we were here there was a shuttle bus, but apparently no more). UPDATE - on checking next morning, the shuttle indeed still operates.   But from the 'arrivals'  level (Level 2), not the 'transportation' level to which I had instinctively headed.

The hotel is large, modern and very functional, but my body was telling me that it was nearly 3 am (although the clock said 11 pm local time), so after a much needed shower, I was in bed! 

Updating the netbook

It's been a few months since I've given the netbook a decent workout.    These days, when we travel domestically, I take my normal laptop.   However, I thought I ought to take my relatively elderly netbook to India:  it's more compact and, frankly, it wouldn't be a disaster if it came to grief while we were away. It's track record has been quite good, and I've used it on previous overseas trips, including to Fiji late last year.

But the issue is that in the last few months there have been some big upgrades, especially to Windows 10 (the "Creators Upgrade"), as well. the usual updates to the anti-virus software and email and word processing programs.

It's just as well I started using the netbook a few days before leaving.   Each time I powered off, there was a message "Getting Windows Ready, Don't Turn Off Your Computer".  I lost track of how many times this happened!   And on at least one occasion, it seemed to last a very long time, so I concluded that it must have frozen.

But I was patient and gave it time to do all these things.

However, even when all seemed to be done, the netbook was still really, really slow. I can only conclude that it it just now doesn't have the grunt required by modern programs.

Hence, this will be the last trip with my up-till-now trusty netbook.    I hope it can cope with this blog while we're away.    When we return, I'll turn my mind to a more modern device, perhaps a tablet.

Visas

Supposedly Australians can now obtain an Indian visa (an e-visa) by applying on the internet, but the tour company evidently has misgivings about this process.    Hence, the tour cost included the cost of the visas - as well as, I strongly suspect, a fairly hefty handling fee.

Be that as it may, we completed the application form supplied by the tour company, which gave us an introduction to the notorious Indian bureaucracy.   It's clear from the questions that anyone with any connection with Pakistan will be looked at very closely, and even a Chinese connection arouses interest (including, from what I read on the internet, an Australian citizen who happened to have been born in Hong Kong!).

However, our visas appear to have been granted without any particular issues arising.   They've now arrived, so we've started packing!