Our Interesting First "Day" and Night in India!

Our flight arrived in Delhi at about 6:30am.  Needless to say, we did not get much sleep.  With the time change, we also lost about 1.5 hours – so, we were very, very tired.  But, we were excited to finally land - and be - in India!

We had purchased our visas for India before we left the USA, so we assumed it would probably be pretty easy to enter the country.  For once we were correct.  We were able to jump into the line for foreign arrivals, which was very short, and we got through in about 5 minutes.  From there, we needed to get our baggage which also came quickly.  We stopped at an ATM, then headed to the prepaid taxi operated by the Indian Police.  (Our tour company guide had suggested we use this option so we wouldn't overpay).  We showed the agent the name of the hotel and the address and paid the fee.  He gave us a receipt and told us we could hand it to any of the yellow and black taxis outside. 

We went outside the airport, found the section with the proper taxis, and gave our receipt to an official who demanded it, who in turn assigned us a driver after an active discussion in Hindi.  The car was decrepit, with no seat belts and a non-working trunk.  Once we accelerated, we forgot about the shape of the car's interior, and started worrying more about what would happen to the exterior in the event of an accident.  We had been warned that the traffic in India is crazy – and, it was.  First of all, the driver sits on the right side of the car (as they do in the United Kingdom), and they drive in the left side of the road.  However, people drive all over the streets paying little attention to any rules or markings on the roads.  They honk constantly, they yell, and they ride in various forms of transport in the same streets (cars, bicycles, rickshaws, and motorcycles).  Two-lane roads become 5-lane roads, and there might be 7 cars jockying for position for two lanes at any given time.  There is no way to really describe it other than to say it is crazy!

About 5 minutes into the journey, the taxi driver told us he didn't know where the hotel was.  The situation was very similar to what happened to us in Egypt.  We were both really anxious to get to the hotel because we wanted to catch our tour group before they left for the day.  The driver began yelling out the window trying to ask other drivers and people on the street if they knew where the hotel was.  We stopped at once place and the driver left us alone in the car while he asked for directions.  He came back and seemed confident, but he still was lost.  At one point, we both saw a place named “Good Times Hotel,” which was the name of our hotel.  James pointed it out to the driver and he told us that it was not our hotel.  We showed the driver the name of our hotel, and realized where the confusion came from.  The driver thought that our hotel was called, “Joining Hotel,” which were the instructions above the hotel name and address - the hotel where the group would "join" - at the Good Times otel.  We did our best to explain that no, our hotel was not called the joining hotel, but rather The Good Times Hotel.  So, he took us back to where we originally thought we should have been.

The Good Times Hotel...apparently a bit difficult to find.

Unfortunately, our tour group had left at about 7:45am, or about 30 minutes before we arrived!  We were pretty disappointed that we missed them.  The hotel front desk staff was kind enough to call our tour guide on the phone for us, and we explained to him that we had finally arrived at the hotel.  He said that the group would be coming back to the hotel around noon to get their belongings before boarding an overnight train, so if we waited at the hotel we could meet up with everyone then.  So, we did.  We checked into our room, showered, reorganized our luggage a bit, and slept for about 2 hours.  We returned to the reception area around 12pm and waited a bit for our group.  While we were waiting, we noticed the power went out a few times and then came back on.  These types of “brown-outs” are common in India (and areas where the electricity grid is overused).  When our group arrived at the hotel, we introduced ourselves and ate a quick lunch with them before getting into a taxi and heading to the Nizamuddin train station. 

The shower in the Good Times hotel.  In India, most Indians use buckets in the showers for bathing. 

Once we arrived at the train station, our tour guide suggested that we all order food to take with us on the train because it was a long journey.  So, we went into a restaurant and did our best to order.  It was quite difficult because we couldn't really decipher what anything was.  I think many of our fellow tour members had the same problems that we did in figuring out what things were and how exactly to order.  In the end, as we did in Egypt, we just tried to order something in the hopes we would have enough food we could eat.

The chaotic Hazrat Nizamuddin train station.

Erin tries to decipher what the foods are before she orders at the Indian restaurant.

After everyone had gotten food, we headed toward the train.  As soon as we saw the train, we were both a bit nervous.  We could tell that the train was very old and quite dirty.  We walked all the way to the end of the train where the sleeper cars were and boarded.  We had seats 61 and 62 on the train, which were at the very end of the car near the door.  At this point, and after an overnight bus in England, 5 overnight trains in Europe and one overnight train in Egypt, we felt like we had seen how tough public transportation could get.  India wins the "toughness" battle, hands-down, and we knew we were in the "upper class" cabins besides!

When we boarded there were already a number of people sitting in our section; a woman, a man, a small girl, and an elderly gentleman.  There wasn't really much room for any of our luggage, so we placed it on the top bunk because no one was using the bunk at the moment.  The mother of the little girl spoke some English, so we tried to communicate with her a little bit.  She asked where we were from and where we were going. 

A few minutes later, a number of men from the Indian army (but mostly in civilian clothes) who had been sitting in nearby cars staring shoving their luggage around us and underneath us.  They had huge boxes full of things, easily three or four per-person.  We initally had no idea what they were, but it was interesting to watch them scurry to find places for things. Soon, we were cramped into our seats and the train was leaving the station.  James broke the ice further by offering the little girl (who we found out was 2-years old), a piece of his candy.  The woman and her family then offered us some sweets to try, so we kindly accepted. 

Erin began to get sleepy around 5pm (it was dark, and we had last slept on the plane) and ate her dinner.   James kindly put sheets on the bunks for us and then ate his dinner as well.  We decided to sleep with our luggage in our beds because there wasn't really any room for them anywhere else and that way, we wouldn't have to worry about anyone stealing anything from us.  Because we were going to bed earlier than anyone else in our section, we asked if it would be ok if we used the top bunks (even though they weren't our assigned seats). 

On a side note, the top bunks are usually the least desirable on a train because it is difficult to get up and down, and you cannot store your luggage under your bed.  Usually, once you are up, you are up and can't get down that easily.  In addition to suiting our needs, we also thought this might be more convenient for the family with the small child.  They agreed, and we climbed up into our bunks.  We did our best to pretend things weren't as gross and dirty as they were.  We were very tired, so it helped matters significantly.  Within 15 minutes of lying down, Erin was fast asleep.  James watched a movie on his ipod and eventually fell asleep too and we spent our first night in India not-so-gently rocked to sleep with earplugs in our ears. 

James squished into his top bunk on the train.

Erin in her seat on the train...it would have been a very uncomfortable ride for someone taller.

The beautiful air vent that was right by James's head as he slept.  Looks inviting, doesn't it?