Above: View in the morning from the hotel in Sharjah.
Flying to Delhi
I woke to an awesome view of Nur Island and Sharjah in the Hotel 72 Waterfront. Awesome isn’t a word I use lightly or frequently, but it truly was!
Around 0800, I took a buffet breakfast with E and Kevin. Being hosted here by E, I offered to pay for breakfast. Except that I wasn’t really hungry and had lounge access and food at the airport only a little later prior to my 1300 flight to Delhi.
E and Kevin left around 0900 for their road trip around the UAE while I Uber-ed to the airport around 1015.
With my boarding pass issued in Erbil yesterday and no luggage to check-in, I went airside quickly at the compact airport. It was surprisingly small despite being a hub for Air Arabia, which is a significant airline. And it didn’t feel like a chaotic zoo.
After an hour at the lounge, topping up my tummy and making a small takeaway snack, I went through security at the gate for my 1300 flight to Delhi. I showed the confirmation of my India visa with “Granted” status but it wasn’t sufficient for them. Instead, they verified it by retrieving the PDF from the official website which was simply my submission (application) which didn’t have the approval status!
Surprisingly for an international flight, airline gate staff told me that bottled water can be carried through security for this flight. And I had emptied my water bottles before passing through security.
Bait-and-switch
We landed early at Delhi at 1725. All passengers were required to show their passports at the aircraft door while stepping onto the airbridge. Nearly all passengers were Indian nationals and the few foreigners I was with weren’t checked at all. I don’t know what they were trying to achieve.
I made a long walk to immigration where I was pleasantly surprised with no queue! Once landside, I found the chaotic Uber pick-up area around 1820 using a step-by-step set of photos within the app.
The area was chaotic as there were many people waiting and also lots of cars. And once the app shows that the driver had arrived, I had to spend a long time looking for the car (matching number plate) in the sea of small white Uber cars.
The driver and I had exchanged messages during the wait and after a while he was able to confirm a pillar number where had finally parked.
After about 20 mins waiting, I was finally on the way to the Ramida Suites Hotel near the airport.
Getting there around 1900 through traffic jam and narrow alleys, I suspected that it might have been a case of Bait-and-Switch due to various inconsistencies:
- The hotel operated by multiple names including White Rose by Ramida Suites, White Rose Hotel, Golden Tower Hotel.
- Its location on Uber and Google Maps was different from that on Booking.com
- If I had been delivered to a wrong hotel, the staff wouldn’t have been able to retrieve my booking on the Booking.com app and show it to me.
- Once I had checked-in, I received an email saying that my reservation had been cancelled. Seemingly, they didn’t want to pay a commission to the booking site or allow me to leave a review.
The booking price had been INR828 (NZD17) but they collected INR1000 (NZD20) claiming taxes which should have been included in the booking. However, I was tired and the price reflected the quality of the room I had received.
It was perfectly adequate for the six hours of sleep I would have till returning to the airport in the morning for an early flight.