Leaving Central Asia but going to the largest “stan” of all

Today I leave Central Asia but I’m headed to the biggest “stan” of all … Hindustan.  Also known as India or Bharat.

As usual for me, when there is an early flight to catch, I didn’t sleep well.  Alarm was set for 0430 with a 0500 taxi.  At the airport, I got my boarding pass printed at the kiosk; I wasn’t sure how the mobile one would go down (even though it is supposedly acceptable) as all the different checks are stamped on the boarding pass.

Once airside, I met an American, Tom who was working for an aid agency Open Society and had some interesting conversations about the region and his work.  His particular role involves giving scholarships to people in these countries in the areas of social science so that they can do good for their own people in the future.

Moving downstairs to the congested bus gate, Gate 1, I asked the staff if they needed to check my Indian visa.  That’s because having not been to a counter for manual check-in, no one had actually checked if I had a visa for India or was eligible for a Visa-on-Arrival.  The lady was puzzled as to what visa I was thinking of, thinking of my Kazakh visa.  She just said, I was OK.  Perhaps they don’t fly to many destinations that require strict checks or she works airside and has never done these checks on TIMATIC (the system involved).

The A321 for Delhi was nicely fitted out with blue lights (can also change colour as in the 757).  The Business Class was a shorthaul version and Economy only had drop-down screens and no wifi entertainment.

We left on time, skirting the Himalayas as we flew to Delhi.  It was very cloudy looking out but for a few moments I did see some mountains quite close below us when we were at cruising altitude.  With the sun shining towards me from the east, it didn’t help with taking any photos, so there are none to share here.

For a 3h daylight flight, I was really surprised to receive an amenity kit with socks, moisturiser, toothbrush, earplugs and a blow-up neck pillow.  Sadly, when the meal trolley got to me, they had run out of what seemed to be chicken briyani.  I was left with an Indian vegetarian breakfast or an omelette.  I opted for the former.  Just before landing, everyone was given a small bottle of water.  Extremely thoughtful especially for arrival into India.

We landed in Delhi some 25 mins early and faced a long walk to immigration.  I joined the Foreign Passport queue briefly before noticing the “E-visa” sign further along.  Lucky I checked and moved to the correct queue as some people had stayed in the Foreign queue for 45 minutes before being turned away.  To make it worse, each type of queue had three sub-queues and it was hard to decide which would be the fastest moving one.

It was a 1 hour wait till I got to the counter.  I had seen some people spend about 10 minutes having their fingerprints taken on the NEC scanners.  Having been doing some handwashing of clothing, I had noticed that my phone fingerprint reader hadn’t been as effectively lately.  While I had some problems, I managed to get mine all scanned within a few attempts.
Customs was pretty quick with their x-ray and I was landside pretty soon after.  First and foremost was a visit to the ATM.  There appeared to be only one around. There was a charge of INR200 (USD3) which was the cost of a meal.

I made it to the metro adjoining the airport, got myself a metro card and was very lucky to hop on a departing train to the city around 1200, two hours after touchdown.  The ride took about 25 minutes.

At Delhi metro station, I came out into the chaos of India.  Even though my hotel was in Paharganj, an area familiar to me, I had never come by metro.  I asked around and was pointed in different directions.  I followed my instinct (based on previous research) an confirmed it with some cops before crossing the multiple railway tracks via overhead bridge (requiring security scanning).

The Raj Mahal Inn was off Pahar Ganj’s Main Bazaar down an alley which led to another alley parallel to Main Bazaar.  I got there about 45 minutes after getting on the metro, in a slightly sweaty state.  Even though I had been in India umpteen times, the first few hours can still be an assault to the senses with the crowd, people hounding you, the heat, a dog with diarrhoea.

I rested for 45 minutes before heading out for lunch with Joyce and Viki (Kim’s aunt and her husband).  We were meant to meet at KFC in Connaught Place at 1430.  I gave myself plenty of time for wander and made my way to find KFC around 1410.  Just by chance I bumped into them in the middle of crowded Delhi!  Well, it wasn’t too difficult as she was a redhaired European.

Something was going on and they said it was far busier than normal.  We ended up in Burger King where I had a whopper (chicken of course); it was a large single fillet instead of the two smaller beef patties I’m used to in New Zealand.  Very delicious and I was overdue for some American food after Central Asia.  It was a short catch-up but it was very nice for them to have driven all the way from Gurgoan to see me.

When with Joyce, this young well-spoken man introduced himself.  We chatted and he offered me a cup of Starbuck’s iced coffee.  I noticed he had consumed half of it already.  Strange!  I declined and he said, “You don’t have to drink it.  You only have to take it”.  Even stranger.

I walked back to my room for a rest before having a light dinner on the rooftop of Aman International Hotel, which I had stayed in before.  Pahar Ganj can be thought of as Delhi’s backpacker district. Its charm is in the sights, sounds, smell and chaos.