We arrived at Delhi International Airport at 1:20 pm. Once again the plane landed in the middle of the strip. If I thought Bangalore was bad in terms of heat and humidity then Delhi is hell in comparison. I stepped off of the plane and instantly into 32 degree weather with intense humidity. Man I'm glad I was wearing shorts. We were bussed into the airport which was a step down from Bangalore airport. The ceilings were falling apart and the conveyor belts in the baggage claim looked like they haven't changed in 20 years.
We walked out with our baggage and I noticed that they were slowly upgrading this airport with new architecture, probably to match Bangalore's. As we walked out, we saw signs from two different drivers who were waiting for us. We nodded at both but were confused as to why our Bed and Breakfast (Adithi) would send two drivers. We called the place up and they told us that the guy with the bigger car was the correct person to go with. We hopped into his toyata safari which is equivalent to the toyota solaris and started driving into Delhi. It was evident this place was rich with historical culture with the scattered statues and big parks. The traffic wasn't as bad and it wasn't as busy as I expected.
We drove by the president's estate which was a huge achorage. We drove by connaught place which is this circular ring road with a whole bunch of shops. It turns out that this is the central hub of New Delhi. As we drove past connaught, my dad started asking the driver where he was heading. He said he was taking us to Adithi palace hotel which is further on. My dad was pretty sure it was in connaught place but decided to see where the driver was taking us. About twenty minutes later we crossed into Old Delhi into a place called darya genga Our driver took our huge jeep into a tiny gulley (alley way). The place looked very sketchy... I don't know how to describe it thoroughly but I know for sure it wasn't safe and this wasn't the main part of Delhi. We stopped halfway down the gulley and our driver pointed to a little hole in the wall called the Hotel Aditi Palace. We didn't even go inside. We took one look at the place and also the area and told the driver this wasn't the place and instructed him to take us back to connaught place to the other Aditi. He said he didn't know any other Aditi Hotel. We told him it was a bed and breakfast and once again insisted that he take us back. Now the fun part... He tried to drive out of the gulley but the cars parked on either side, the number of pedestrians motorbikes and cars coming head on made it impossible. So we backed out of the gulley, which tok us 10 minutes to get in and 45 minutes to get out off .
Once back on the road we travelled back to connaught place and found the other Aditi bed and breakfast. The place was decent and it was close to the central hub. However the room wasn't that great. The funny thing is we ran into the other driver from the airport there... If only we went with him in the first place lol. Anyhow, we decided to take a look at another place and this driver was insistent that he take us there free of charge and so he called up another driver in a nicer jeep. Along the way it came into light that he was also a travel agent and he wanted us to see one of his hotels in the same area. We drove into a place called Karol Bagh, which was apparently close to where we used to live 20 years ago. This area was equivalent to the commercial district in Bangalore. Just buzzing with people and all different types of shops. By now, the weather, especially the humidity was getting to me and I was finding it hard to breathe.
We reached the first hotel and my dad, sis, and mom left me with the driver to make sure our luggage didn't magically dissapear. The travel agent went with my family into the hotel while the driver attempted to chat with me in hindi. I understood him perfectly, however I couldn't string a sentence together for the life of me in hindi so we ended up talking in hinglish. The driver's name was Gurvinder and he was from the neighboring state Rajhastan. He came to Delhi five years ago and lives in the company office along with 85 other drivers. Crazy crazy. I should have taken a picture of him but I was trying my hardest to keep breathing. Damn Asthma. The first place turned out to be worse so we spent the next hour and half driving the tight and busy gulleys and only within 500 m of the district trying to find the other hotel called Southern Travels. Once again my family left me with the driver who had to drive about 400 m down the road so that he wouldn't be honked at anymore. It was funny to see the look on my family's faces when they looked around and didn't see me or the jeep. They must have thought I was kidnapped, but I waved at them until they saw me and they walked on over.
We finally decided to drive back to Aditi Bed and Breakfast. The travel agent wanted us to come check out his office but insisted we take rest for half an hour. I was dying of hunger and the lack of ability to breathe by now so I laid down. I wish I had taken some pictures of our adventure thus far but I was too weak. Half an hour later, my dad and I headed into the central hub of connaught place to see the travel agent's office. We drove behind the circular building and into a tiny gulley, got out and walked to a hole in the wall which was an 8 x 8 space divided into half for two offices. We met the brother of the travel agent and half an hour later he had convinced us to add a Kashmir visit to our North India tour along with Delhi, Agra, and Jaipur. We have 5 nights and 5 and a half days to do this in. As we drove out of connaught place I noticed in the midst of all the shops there was a subway, pizza hut, starbucks, baskin robbins, and a mcdonalds. Well the Mcdonalds was really a shack that only served the chicken burgers.
We got back to the bed and breakfast and ate a little dinner which wasn't that great. I then went and fixed their wifi internet connection for them. They've got two linksys wireless routers but have no idea how to use them. The manager did but he was out on business of course. So after they tried fiddling around for half an hour I went and fixed it myself in 5 minutes and uploaded some stuff to my blog. I was dying so I decided to hit the sack.
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