India Day 0: London - Hong Kong - Perth - Singapore - New Delhi (OJG)
Well, we are back with a new adventure, this time in India! Our flight to India was a bit of a crazy one as some of you already know. In short, we flew to India via Australia. On the plus side, this allowed us to drop off our UK bags and pick up our India ones. On the negative side, it meant that we would have 4 separate flights and be in the air for 30 hours over a 3 day period.
As luck would have it, we got pretty lucky on our first flight from London to Hong Kong. Due to overbooking, and some sweet talking by Emelie, we got upgraded to Traveller Plus, and boy did we appreciate it. In Hong Kong we had a 5 hour wait until the next flight, so we decided to make the most of it and go visit the city. The cavernous new airport has a direct train which takes 23 minutes to the center. Unfortunately it was night time, so we weren't able to do any tours, instead we wondered around the streets and the many walkways that lie above them.
For those of you that have not been, Hong Kong is a strange city, it is home to many of the world's tallest skyscrapers, and yet at their base lie a multitude of narrow streets and alleyways where people in stalls try and sell various goods to the hustle and bustle of moving people around them. This included hot food, clothing, watches, phones, and most notably, an awful lot of official rubber stamps! Above these narrow streets are more neon signs than you can shake a fluorescent tube at. If I had to give an example of what the whole atmosphere was like, there is one that fits the bill perfectly. The street scenes from Blade Runner. Almost an exact match. Well, bar the zeppelins with huge video screens on the side, but I am sure that is just a matter of time!
10 hours later we arrived in Perth. Immigration and Customs in Perth was as usual a pain. It did not help that half of our flight had non English speaking Chinese, and that the immigration desks were under staffed. Customs were just as bad, as more or less every single case got either x-rayed or searched. After an hour, we got through to find Sam, Emelie's sister, waiting for us with a big happy smile. A very nice welcome back home.
We spent the next 32 hours unpacking cases, opening storage boxes, paying bills, getting insurance, re-packing cases, and then returning to the airport for our next flight to Singapore. For the 2nd leg of journey, from Singapore to New Delhi, we flew Jet Air which I could not recommend highly enough. The plane was not exactly new, but the service was impeccable, and the meal amazingly tasty. We even got a Galaxy ice cream for desert!
When we arrived in New Delhi, it was 2 in the morning and pretty hot. Immigration took all of 5 minutes. Unlike Australia with it's 6 officers and complex computer system, India just throws 18 officers with biros at the problem, and they were very fast indeed. The same cannot be said for the baggage pickup, which for us took at least 45 minutes. This was particularly irritating as bags were trickling through, just at a very slow rate. One can only wonder as to the reasons why.
Once we had our bags we went through where John was waiting for us. For those of you who do not know, John has been coming to India at least once a year for the past 20 years, has been involved in numerous charity projects in India, and has taken it upon himself to be our guide for our whole journey here (he'll learn!). He is also my godfather and a close friend.
The drive from the airport to the Hotel Relax was fairly uneventful, as the streets were by and large quiet. Of note however was the large number of open road blocks all manned by at least 1 policeman, the several near misses with over vehicles and people, and finally the drivers complete disregard for red lights and traffic signs. Welcome to India!
As luck would have it, we got pretty lucky on our first flight from London to Hong Kong. Due to overbooking, and some sweet talking by Emelie, we got upgraded to Traveller Plus, and boy did we appreciate it. In Hong Kong we had a 5 hour wait until the next flight, so we decided to make the most of it and go visit the city. The cavernous new airport has a direct train which takes 23 minutes to the center. Unfortunately it was night time, so we weren't able to do any tours, instead we wondered around the streets and the many walkways that lie above them.
For those of you that have not been, Hong Kong is a strange city, it is home to many of the world's tallest skyscrapers, and yet at their base lie a multitude of narrow streets and alleyways where people in stalls try and sell various goods to the hustle and bustle of moving people around them. This included hot food, clothing, watches, phones, and most notably, an awful lot of official rubber stamps! Above these narrow streets are more neon signs than you can shake a fluorescent tube at. If I had to give an example of what the whole atmosphere was like, there is one that fits the bill perfectly. The street scenes from Blade Runner. Almost an exact match. Well, bar the zeppelins with huge video screens on the side, but I am sure that is just a matter of time!10 hours later we arrived in Perth. Immigration and Customs in Perth was as usual a pain. It did not help that half of our flight had non English speaking Chinese, and that the immigration desks were under staffed. Customs were just as bad, as more or less every single case got either x-rayed or searched. After an hour, we got through to find Sam, Emelie's sister, waiting for us with a big happy smile. A very nice welcome back home.
We spent the next 32 hours unpacking cases, opening storage boxes, paying bills, getting insurance, re-packing cases, and then returning to the airport for our next flight to Singapore. For the 2nd leg of journey, from Singapore to New Delhi, we flew Jet Air which I could not recommend highly enough. The plane was not exactly new, but the service was impeccable, and the meal amazingly tasty. We even got a Galaxy ice cream for desert!When we arrived in New Delhi, it was 2 in the morning and pretty hot. Immigration took all of 5 minutes. Unlike Australia with it's 6 officers and complex computer system, India just throws 18 officers with biros at the problem, and they were very fast indeed. The same cannot be said for the baggage pickup, which for us took at least 45 minutes. This was particularly irritating as bags were trickling through, just at a very slow rate. One can only wonder as to the reasons why.
Once we had our bags we went through where John was waiting for us. For those of you who do not know, John has been coming to India at least once a year for the past 20 years, has been involved in numerous charity projects in India, and has taken it upon himself to be our guide for our whole journey here (he'll learn!). He is also my godfather and a close friend.
The drive from the airport to the Hotel Relax was fairly uneventful, as the streets were by and large quiet. Of note however was the large number of open road blocks all manned by at least 1 policeman, the several near misses with over vehicles and people, and finally the drivers complete disregard for red lights and traffic signs. Welcome to India!
2 comments:
Sounds so exciting! Keep safe - the aussie drivers just drive into the traffic lights and knock them over ... that saves the problem of those pesky red lights!
Sounds like you're having an adventure already! Enjoy India and keep safe. Looking forward to the blog, love Karen
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