A Day in Delhi

Go Air - our transportation to Cochin. All the flight attendants are models

6/25/07 - 6/28/07
We woke up way to early and headed off to the airport for an uneventful flight in to Delhi.  While waiting in line for immigration, we started taking with two Canadian kids who have been traveling in India and Nepal for several months.  They were very excited to be able to buy Teachers Scotch for $12/bottle.  One of them is on his way home and the other has a few days left before he flies out of Mumbai.  His buddy who is going home is trying to convince him to buy two Royal Enfield motorcycles and ship them to Canada.

SpiceJet - our ride back to Delhi

We taxied to Darshan and Murly’s house in Shivalik and settled down to try and figure out what to do.  Darshan is taking care of her sister’s B&B so we will be hanging with Murli for this visit.  A bit of internet research and the next thing you know it was time for dinner (our favorite local chicken place called Rimpys)

The next morning, Murli and I took apart his PC which is on the fritz and re-booting sporadically.  We reseated everything, reloaded drivers and all to no avail.  Afterwards, we went to MakeMyTrip.com - a local Indian travel agency that advertises all over - and tried to talk with someone. Unfortunately, they moved their sales agents to another office so we went back to the house, stopping at a tasty iced-coffee place on the way.

Air India takes us to Goa

We got a hold of a woman named Garima at MakeMyTrip who was vaguely helpful but wasn’t much of a travel agent.  We explained to her that we had just under three weeks left and that we were considering going to either Manali and Ladakh or down south to either Goa or Cochin and needed her suggestions.  All she wanted to do was quote us on a specific itinerary and dates.  This was all going nowhere so finally, after talking with Cindy and deciding that perhaps we should take a break from the Himalayas, we asked her to put together airfare for a Delhi-Cochin-Goa-Delhi flight.  She said she would do this and call us back.  That night, Murli introduced us to something called “Kathi rolls” which are from the Calcutta area and are sort of like burritos with a thin layer of egg inside and stuffed with chicken, paneer cheese, or mutton and really excellent.  Afterwards, Murli and I stayed up drinking whiskey and talking about America and India - all good fun!

The next day we spent in dealing with Garima who sent us a complete tour package instead of just airfare and straightening things out.  We finally got things arranged and she promised that we would receive a call from her office before they charged the card (we didn’t) and that we would receive an e-ticket shortly (we also didn’t).  The most hilarious part of the day was when we tried to configure my laptop to use Murli’s DSL connection.  Airtel, the local provider, messed something up and Murli ended up having to call them.  For someone who worked for an Indian/American software company and had to deal very often with less than spectacular or understandable technical support, it was absolutely hilarious to watch and listen to Murli having to put up with the same shit.  I was cracking up (of course only Todd M. and Kevin R. would probably find this as hilarious as I did…)  Having spent the whole day cooped up inside, we tuk-tuk’d out for some shopping at Lajmat Nagar market for gifts and supplies before having a tasty vegetarian Thali dinner and heading back to Shivalik for the night (and a nightcap with Murli J)

The next day was frustrating, waiting for Garima who at this point I could strangle.  She finally (around 3:00) got us our e-ticket and the paper tickets for the Goa flights - all of this after at least half a dozen calls to her.  Wish we could have just booked the tickets on the web.  Once we finally got things done, we headed out for a walk and an ATM and of course it started pouring.  We hung out under a balcony till it subsided a bit and then splooshed our way over to the iced coffee place to relax.  Another dinner of Kathi rolls and we were off to bed early since we had to wake up at 3:00 to head for our 5:00am flight to Cochin.  Hopefully the monsoon won’t drench us and it will be a bit cooler and less sticky than it is up north.  Beaches here we come…