Saturday, August 7th
Today’s post will be short and sweet as it mainly centers around the transportation from Bangalore to Delhi.
Morning Nothings
As per evidenced by the title of this section, the morning was packed jammed full of the every exciting…nothing. Got to sleep in a little bit, had a delightful breakfast (again with the most exceptional service I have ever encountered), and even got to do a little reading of the newspaper. I tell you what, Indians LOVE their celebrities (both Indian ones and American ones). They have two sections in their newspaper: one solely for celebs, gossip and tabloids and the other for everything else.
Oh yeah, and also this morning, while I was typing on my computer, midword I must’ve hit something and it starting typing in Chinese! No joke, it was converting all the phrases I was typing into Chinese characters. Though Tiffany said it was only spelling out things phonetically and it was really gibberish. Deflated, it soon became a HUGE source of frustration, because I could NOT, for the life of me, figure out how to turn it off. All the usual tricks didn’t work and there was nothing online. Well, that’s what I get for being cheap and still using only the trial versions of Microsoft Office.
Mid afternoon, we all pack up and head out to the airport. Interestingly enough, we were stopped outside the airport by armed men carrying AK-47s inquiring as to who we were and where we were going. Apparently, they were stepping up security to prepare for their Independence Day on the 15th. India has been really weird about where we can take pictures (not even in a McDonald’s!), so I’m assuming taking a picture of the armed forces was a no-no. So unfortunately, this was the best picture I got:
Hey, subtlety is difficult. Especially for us, Americans.
Bangalore’s Airport
So it takes us forever to get to our gate as we were required to show passports and tickets just to enter the domestic terminal. We then went through security where our bags were scanned and everyone was given a wipe down (behind curtains for women) with a metal detecting wand. Interestingly enough the men and women were separated into different lines. There were 8 or so men’s lines. There were 2 for women. C’mon guys, everyone knows that female lines move infinitely slower than male lines. Have you tried to go to the bathroom at halftime in the Dean Dome? If you’re female, most likely all you ever did was try as the lines are like a bajillion miles long.
Okay, tangents aside, it was a long time until I got through security. Scarfing down a quick lunch, we then all board our aircraft heading to Delhi.
Bangalore to Delhi
The flight was really fun as our entire group was sitting together. Needless to say, it was a very noisy flight. And of course, everyone else is pretty much dead silent, sooooo yeah. But I enjoyed the discussions, the story-telling, the food trading when we received our meals (Hey American Airlines! Take note. Our two hour domestic flight got meals. My 4.5 hour flight from LA to Chicago with you didn’t even give me peanuts.).
I also read the entire airplane magazine in which I learned strange and awesome things…that I have since forgotten. Curse you, you school cram-culture! You destroyed my long term memory….
Delhi
We arrive in Delhi early evening. After taxing for a good half hour (Seriously, it was like we were riding a bus with wings), riding another bus for ten minutes or so, and navigating the airport, we finally make it to our new bus for the Delhi portion. We are exhausted at this point and it is hot. Bangalore didn't even compare to the sweaty, fly-infested sauna we walked out into.
The bus ride to our new hotel also took forever. We thought Bangalore’s traffic was bad? Psh, it was nothing compared to Delhi. The flies outside our window were making more progress than we were. The epitome of the situation? The ambulance sitting right next to us in traffic, lights flashing, and moving slower than we were. Cross your fingers that I don’t get run over by a rickshaw here in Delhi, because it might be more efficient and cheaper to let me bleed to death on the road.
Along the way, we saw lots of people parading around, carrying decorated sticks horizontally, banging drums and having a good ole time as they trekked down the road late at night. Apparently there is this major event going on right now, as people are making a 200 mile trek (I thinkkk?) from the Ganges River carrying water on their backs. And the water can never hit the ground either. So it’s kinda like the Olympic Torch type thing. Pretty cool, pretty cool.
The Park Hotel
We arrive at our new hotel, and are immediately greeted with by the hotel staff dotting our foreheads with the red powder and drinks being given to everyone. Hey, I can get used to this kind of service. Explorations revealed another cool pool, some weird IV tube furniture, hanging bead curtains, a rooms with identical head statues. Weirdly enough, the whole hotel looked like a 4 star hotel straight out of the sixties.
The most interesting part about the hotel though, was the fact that there wasn’t a window restriction. I.e. the windows opened as far as you wanted, allowing you to perhaps exit through this window and stand on the ledge outside. Not that I would recommend that anyone do that, because it’s super dangerous and we were pretty high up. You’d have to be pretty stupid to try and do that.
But all in all, we did safely arrive in Delhi. (There was no Interent – hence the immense delay in the postings). Tomorrow, the Taj Mahal! Hooray!!!!