Post Script - Day 1: London --> Delhi

We booked our holiday tours with a great company called Compass Tours (recommended by a friend - thanks Isabelle!), all we had to do was book our flights and they did the rest. They are based in India so we figured that they would be best placed to know where to go and stay, and also that the money we spent would stay in India. I must warn you though that they didn't offer us budget options (Deluxe or Luxury only), however I think we definitely got value for money and brilliant service.

On our arrival in Delhi, we were greeted by the rep and met our driver, who was to be with us for about 9 days. To be honest, I was a bit apprehensive about going back to Delhi, as we had previously visited there as part of our backpacking trip in 1996.

In 1996 we landed at the airport around midnight and booked a hotel from one of the booths in the arrivals hall. We had the most terrifying taxi trip from the airport to the hotel, honestly, we did think that our lives were going to end there and then, and arrived at the place just as the power went out. We were guided to our room up the rickety wooden stairs by candlelight and then proceeded to get no sleep on account of the heat and the noise from the card game down the corridor that went on all night!

The next morning, we decided to get on our way to salvation - my cousins house in Mumbai (Bombay as it was then) - and asked for directions to the train station. Luckily my erstwhile companion, my long-suffering boyfriend who from this moment on shall be known as the 'taller half', was quick witted enough to pick up a hotel card, as we were bundled into a van and drove at breakneck speed through the busy streets of Delhi. After a stop at a street stall to buy some dodgy-looking cigarettes, which they tried to make us smoke, we ended up in a sort of building site. Obviously this was not the train station. We were taken up to a portacabin where a man tried to sell us train tickets and demanded lots of $US for the privilege. By the time we convinced them that we weren't interested and we didn't have any $US we escaped from the portacabin to find that our lift had disappeared ...

Armed with our lonely planet and a small business card in the middle of Delhi we proceeded to walk ... and walk ... and finally found a train track which a few hours later eventually lead us to the train station. Not having been to India before, we didn't realise that buying a ticket is not like it is in the UK, but after queuing for what seemed a lifetime we were lucky enough to get a ticket for a seat on the train that left later that day. Hurrah! We didn't care that we would be doing the approx. 16hr journey sitting on a hard seat in a crowded carriage ... so then we had to find the hotel. Which was a mission in itself.

For anyone who has been to the main train station in Delhi and seen the maze of streets in the surrounding area, finding a tiny building unless you know where you are going is nearly impossible! By this time the heat was about 45 degrees, yes we were in Delhi at the completely wrong time of year, and we were sent from street to street by people who clearly had as much idea where the hotel was as we did. The story ends happily as we finally located the hotel and collected our backpacks and made our way to the station. The train trip is another story I'll leave for another post ...

Where was I? Oh yes, we had arrived in Delhi - this time in the daytime - and I must admit memories from the distant past were haunting me. Well, the driving and power cuts haven't changed, but the Delhi experience was much more pleasant and relaxing. It probably had something to do with the lovely hotel we stayed in - the Taj Palace - and the fact that we had transportation and a guide to show us around! We spent the rest of the day sleeping and eating, and looked forward to our sightseeing tour the next day.