Well, I made it back to Bangalore. What a journey!! I have never been so tired. I had a 4 hour layover in Vienna and then got on the flight to Delhi. That flight was almost as long as the Dulles/Vienna leg. I finally got into Delhi at 1230AM and had a 940am flight out of Delhi to Bangalore. I did have a hotel reserved for me at the Intercontinental for the layover. I was a bit worried that the Immigration and Customs and getting my bags would take too long and that I wouldn't really need the Hotel. I did get thru all of that in less than an hour and I headed out of the airport to find a cab.
Now I had read quite a bit about Delhi and getting cabs at the airport. The important thing seems is to get a pre-paid taxi. I did check out the hotel website that listed the cost of a cab from the airport so I knew how much it SHOULD cost. When I got out of the airport a Tout did try to get me to take his taxi for a the bargain price of 2495 rupees (about $50) but since I knew the fare should be 300 rupees I declined his KIND offer and opted for the pre-paid taxi, although he assured me the service wouldn't be as good. I do think he was right there.
So after i paid my fare and found the taxi that takes the pre-paid fares, I got in the taxi and we set out for the hotel. No not really... that would be easy. First the driver had to figure out where i was going. Now I had printed out the hotel address and the directions from the airport from the hotels website in my mistaken effort to be helpful. One thing I am coming to realize is that most Indian taxi drivers are not overly literate. They don't tend to read my carefully printed out directions. After giving the driver the directions he consulted with two other cab drivers and they acheived the Indian taxi driver consensus of where I needed to go. I was not overly emboldened with confidence as we set out for the hotel.
Well actually... we didn't set out for the hotel because the driver apparently had some issue at the taxi stand where they log where I am going. I think he didn't have all his papers on record or something because he spent a good 15 minutes at the taxi stand pulling out papers and talking to the guy at the desk. Finally he came back and we set off for the hotel. Well, no we didn't because then he had to stop at another spot and get out an argue some more with someone else for 15 minutes. Finally though we set out and I really, really knew I was going to be taken for a ride.
Now never having been to Delhi and arriving in the dark with no idea of landmarks, etc, I still had the sinking feeling that I was not going in the right direction. After about 30 minutes we did pull up to a hotel called the Lalit. I was reasonably certain that we were NOT at the Intercontinental so I wouldn't get out of the cab until someone verified where I was. The security guard at the gate assured me that the hotel was the Intercontinental but had changed the name. Thus assured I got out of the cab and went into the lobby.
It's actually a very nice hotel. The lobby was beautiful. The front desk staff very gracious and helpful. I really would have loved to stay there longer but unfortunately it was the wrong hotel. Oh it was AN Intercontinental Hotel... just the WRONG one. At this point it's 2 in the morning and I am at the wrong hotel in Delhi. The hotel could have given me a room but since the company had booked me a room using points at the other Intercontinental they could not transfer my reservation to the new hotel. So here I am at 2 in the morning wondering do I take a cab to the other hotel or just one back to the airport? I really wanted to take a shower (I have been traveling for more than 24hrs straight at this point) so I got a cab to the OTHER Intercontinental hotel.
The staff at the wrong hotel did call ahead and let the right hotel know I was coming so they breezed me thru check in and were quite gracious. It's 230am at this point and I have to leave for the airport at 730am so I know that sleep really is out of the question. I took a nice bath and watched some TV. I found myself nodding off but I was afraid if I fell asleep I would never wake up and would miss my flight.
After a very nice breakfast, I hopped a cab to the airport. I really didn't have any trouble with the airport except for some brief confusion about whether I was traveling on Indian Airlines or Air India (apparently they are the same carrier now but some things say one name and some say another... not confusing at all really... ). The seats were a bit crowded on the flight. My face was about a foot away from the seat in front of me but for a 2 1/2 hour flight they did feed me!! I am not talking a "food for purchase" snack box either (which is all the had on the 4 1/2 hour United flight) but real hot food with real silverware. Although I would have rather had less food and more room. Oh well what are ya gonna do? It's India. Anyway, I have never been so happy to get somewhere as when I arrived at the apartment!!
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