We clambered sleepily into a filthy rickshaw at 7am. We were paranoid about being late for collecting Karly at the airport. We’ve learned that Indian traffic can grind to a halt for hours with absolutely no warning. The traffic turned out to be fine so we arrived at the airport a little over two hours early! Much drinking chai done before she wandered off the plane, two twixs in hand. Clever girl!
Reunited with Karly at New Delhi airport (British chocolate in hand before she's even out of the arrivals hall).
The drive back to the hotel was fairly non eventful. We saw the statue of Ghandi on the salt march which was really impressive and someone half-heartidly tried to sell us some plastic roses but nothing too traumatic for Karly’s first tuk-tuk adventure. We spent a few hours catching up over chocolate in the hotel before heading into the streets. They were as manic as ever so we climbed up to a rooftop cafe to view from a safe distance.
Lyns and I - rather thrilled with our chocolate gifts from home!
We ushered our cousin into our favourite grotty little street cafe for a delicious masala dosa and went to book some train tickets before setting off for the train station. Slight hilarity on route due to a drunken one armed beggar waving his stump aggressively in Lynsey’s face.
After a bit of confusion, and a lot of being stared at in the train station, we finally boarded our train. Our journey was quite a good one although our train was three hours late in arriving in Salwar Madaphur. When the expected arrival time is 4am that makes for a slight inconvenience. Lyns and Karly immediately fell back asleep whilst I befriended some nice Indians who were looking for the same stop. Luckily they kept me entertained and bought me some chai to keep me awake. After every stop they told me “next stop is yours madam, I’m sure”. A dozen stops later they helped us off the train with our ton weight bags.
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About fiona
My name is Fiona and I'm 28 years old. On the 21st October 2009 my sister and I quit our jobs, left our little town in Scotland and set off for an eight month adventure that would take us through India, Nepal, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos. My Family had hoped the trip would rid me of the urge to travel and expected me to settle down on my return. I had other ideas. In my mind the trip had been a great learning experience, a practice run. In February 2012 I’ll be excitedly returning to India where I’ll spend my first month as a solo traveler.
May our paths be destined to cross...
Is it possible to take a leisurely tuk tuk ride in India?
I’ve read various other blogs and they sound like a nightmare!
Great site, thank you for such intersting posts
A leisurely rickshaw ride sounds fairly impossible! I try to think of them as an adventure sport for those on a tight budget!Thanks kindly for commenting. Much appreciated. All the Best