Back in India

Friday, July 3, 2009--Bangkok to Delhi (Continued)

My suitcase has remained clean and nice so far. That will probably end now that I am going to India where taxis, buses, trains, etc., are always filthy--especially the storage areas for luggage. That's too bad. It is a nice suitcase and is attractive right now.

I got to the airport and checked in within 1 1/2 hours of leaving the hotel. I was happy to see that the airport authority had acted on a suggestion I wrote when going through here on my way to Cambodia. They have TVs operating just outside the security areas where people must wait until their gate opens before being allowed to go through security. All the TVs were set with a security lock to either Animal Planet or Discovery. I suggested that they put one TV (out of about 6) in each area on either CNN or BBC so that people could watch the international news. Well, one TV (not one at each area, but one in the entire terminal) is now set for BBC. The problem I had, however, is that about 10 men were spread out on all the nearby chairs sleeping. There was no place to sit. I sat on the floor to watch the news. Then I filled out another slip suggesting that they establish an area for sleeping at the dead-end points where they are not operating gates and have no TVs due to less air traffic these days. About 25% of their gates are no being used at the current time, and they have concentrated these in wings that are completely closed off.

Spending Update: During the 18 days I was in Thailand and Cambodia, I spent $680.91 including the cost of two supplemental air tickets for an average of $37.83 per day. Since leaving Texas, I have spent $2261.76 over 53 days for an average of $42.67 per day.

I gave the copy of The Quiet American which I had finished reading to an English-speaking woman in the waiting area for the flight to Delhi. She seemed pleased to get it, and I was happy to be rid of it.

The flight reminded me of one of the horrors of dealing with some Indians--that attitude that they are more important than anyone else and should receive preference and have rules overlooked for them! I hope I can tolerate 16 days there this year. Each year the number of days I can stand being in India seems to go down. Given the right circumstances, they can be wonderful people, but in a line or a crowd, many become intolerable. One man was yelling because they ran out of lamb and had only chicken to serve by the time they got to him. Another man was rushing ahead to get in front of people in a queue and then calling for his whole family to come join him in the queue. While the plane was in the air still landing, people all around me were turning on their cell phones and operating them to check text messages without regard to the fact that they could interfere with our having a successful landing. While we were still rolling down the runway (not the taxiway, but the runway!), people were jumping out of their seats and pulling things from the bins. That's India!

Delhi, especially around the airport, always smells like fertilizer. It's not a pleasant smell to have when arriving somewhere. I'm glad this will be my last time to come into their airport.

I didn't get to my hotel until 23:45. We had two major problems. First, the Delhi airport was clogged with arrivals, so we were required to circle (6 times in a big loop) for an hour before we could begin our landing approach. Then, it took over an hour before our luggage began to come onto the belt. When it did, it dribbled in for about another half hour before my bag came, and I would guess that I got my bag in the first half of those being unloaded. As usual, there were many people returning with huge boxes containing new Sony Bravia flatscreen TVs. And the Indians were all scrambling to buy at the arrivals duty free shops as if they provided great value that would cause the rest of their lives to be a greater success.

Saturday, July 4, 2009--Delhi

Happy Birthday, America!!

I got up early so I could try to get train reservations that I need for the next few days. I went to the special sales office for foreigners at the nearby New Delhi Station. The employees there fit the stereotype of Indian government employees. There is an accepted knowledge that a person does not have to work after he gets a government job. He will never be fired, and he will get a good pension upon his retirement. There were employees sitting around talking as I stood in line for assistance. One then told me to fill out a form and wait for him. I completed the form in 2 minutes and had to wait about 10 minutes while he visited with a woman at the reception counter. How frustrating!

I did get tickets, however. I will go to Agra tomorrow morning at 11:30, arriving there around 14:30. I will be there all day on Monday to go to the Taj Mahal. This is my 7th and last trip to India, and I have never visited there. I think I must, although I imagine it will be one of the worst days of my life due to hassles from touts, resentment for it being overpriced for foreigners, etc. Anyway, I also have a reservation at a hotel for two nights in Agra. And I have two train tickets to get me from Agra to Amritsar on Tuesday. I had to use two tickets, because the two express trains that go directly from one to the other were already fully booked. Again, that's India. Train reservations are needed at least 5-6 days in advance in many cases.

I returned to a restaurant where I have eaten often to have my lunch today. It is near the train station and is one of the few places in India where they serve foreigners the typically spicy food they serve everyone else. I had dal makhani (a spicy lentil/bean/tomato/onion/cheese mixture) with chapatis. It was good and cost less than $1 U.S.

I walked to Connaught Place this afternoon. It's not far from where I am staying and is the "center" of Delhi. For the first time EVER in my trips to Delhi, I did not have the shit-on-the-shoes trick pulled on me there. It's a common tourist trap where someone shoots a substance on a person's shoe from a distance. It immediately foams up and hardens to luck like a turd. Then the person points it out to the tourist and offers to clean his shoes for him. The cleaning makes more of a mess than ever, and the cleaner wants to be paid several hundred rupees for his effort. The two previous times it has happened to me, I warned the shooter away and told him that I didn't want it cleaned--that I would leave it on my shoe all day to show people what happens to tourists who come to their city.

I have nothing else left to do here. I will just relax at my hotel and get up in time to catch my train tomorrow. I'm reading a good book about India, so I will continue to read it and to watch some TV. I'll probably go to dinner at the same restaurant where I had lunch.