Arrival into Delhi

I was delighted to leave the hotel at 9.30 and went to the airport.

I had spent quite some time last night looking at the various airline options for my flight to Delhi and concluded that there is some sort of cartel going on as they were almost all exactly the same price. That is about 5 airlines, flying to Delhi all within a few rupees of each other! Eat your heart out Easyjet!

As a result I had something of an argy bargy with the ticket counter of Indigo Airways when I collected my ticket. They ever so patiently explained to be that they were sorry, but they didnt have a flight at 11.15 to Delhi and even if they did they did not see my name anywhere on their records. No, no you must be mistaken I told them. I booked it last night at 11 o clock. No you didnt not Sir. yes I did...we could have gone on all day.

With only with a modest amount of eye rolling and shaking of my head, I left the counter determined to prove them wrong.

Unfortunately on checking my emails it transpired I had booked with Jet Airways....oops! Silly me

The check in was a bit silly too. They, very efficiently give you a padded and lockable box to put your 25 wallets, 3 computers, 8 pens and stuff in. They then lock it and give you the key on a huge metal fob! And of course that sets the alarm off....ha ha etc, but we soon got over that one and I was aboard our lovely plane to Delhi. My God, was I pleased to get out of Bombay!

Our pilot was a girl...I am still old fashioned enough to be a little surprised and no little pleased when I fly with a girl-pilot, but this one was funny too. She came over the intercom and made an announcement which completely cracked me up.

Ladies and Gents, welcome aboard this flight to....eh....oooooh, let see now....DELHI...that's it!!

Great stuff.

I finally got my iPad working with a new SIM card and found myself a hotel in town for one night. We rocked up there and it was fine. A nice room etc and after much haggling on the price, I was shown to a very nice room indeed.

The evening was spent with my Agent here in Delhi, a couple of employees of his and a huge big wig from Maruti at an excellent restaurant miles from the hotel. Great food which I will get writing about soon and some fairly productive discussions.  Tomorrow or the day after I am hopeful of some exciting news!

Before going out for dinner with Vinod, i took a walk around the immediate area of the hotel. It was the usual rather scruffy street, forcing one to dodge the sleeping dogs, building detritus and general mess that is. or has become, endemic of Indian towns in general, and, as I was to ecome aware, of this area - Karol Barg - in particular.

My first port of call was a dress-maker !  As I was walking down the street looking in the shops, I came across one where a young girls - she cannot have been more than 22 or so - was standing arranging her window. There seemed to be a number of European style dresses on display and so I decided, in the interests of NelBlu to walk in and take a look.

Her Name was Sandhaya Soni and she was a dress designer. She had a huge collection, many of them in the Indian style, but quite a number of a more European design, in bright colours and modern fabrics. The prices of her creations were of course higher than the usual here - a rather fetching ball-gown with Svorovski jewels, was going for about £200 or so. 

Next port of call was an art gallery ! Yes really, I happened to look up and saw 'Art Gallery' on the 2nd floor of a building, and so after much searching for the entrance and stepping over bricks, mud and rotting food, went up to take a look. Very Au jour !

Lots of rather bling paintings, but one or two by an artist called Handamana were very good indeed, though again rather over priced. 

There were also some items of Brass figurines, along the lines of the Kama Sutra, pressed onto glass which were rather good and very original, so I might go back and take another look at those some time too.

Dinner with Vinod and his cronies was a jolly affair with the man from Maruti (shades of the Man from Delmonte!) being a particularly interesting fellow with an abiding love of  Magnetos and vintage Morris Oxfords!

We went to a restaurant which was a long way  away and was apparently quite famous in foodie circles! It was started in 1959 and has been going ever since.

Full of locals, it specialises in Tandoori and so that is what we ordered. Excellent it was too and it came with grilled pieces of a form of cottage cheese and some Dal.