Hi Delhi! Bye Delhi!

I decided to leave my new sandals behind. For starters I don't even like sandals. I knew I wouldn't wear them back in Vancouver and I wouldn't need them in the cool North of India either. Besides, I got them wet at the Beach yesterday and so now they were SANDals indeed. - I grabbed my luggage and went to check out.

40 Rupees for half an hour of internet was too much, but I paid it anyway (at first I had even assumed the access to the one crappy computer in the corner was a courtesy of the hotel). I told the clerk I would like to talk to the manager, just to kindly tell her my opinion, but apparently that wouldn't be possible. - She was just in the room next door! I guess the clerk didn't want to be the bearer of bad news and gave me an email address instead.

Again I got a good window seat. This time it was crucial, flying basically all over India, South to North, and in the middle of the day! The only catch was that the guy in front of me snored like an ogre. - Approaching Delhi the view of the landscape beneath turned into an impenetrable gray towards the horizon. The guy next to me explained that wasn't smog, just fog, and that there would be a lot less pollution nowadays...

Well, the air was fresh, but by fresh I mean cool. Leaving tropical Kerala for this kind of climate almost gave me a feeling my vacation was already finished.

On the way to baggage check I started talking to a pretty Indian girl, and to my surprise I didn't get attacked by the mob, whiplashed and salted. She was a model and suggested I could go shopping in Delhi. But I had other plans: As soon as I had grabbed my bag I got myself a prepaid taxi to the New Delhi train station. In order to get a train out of Delhi I was advised to make a reservation in advance. However, as I had found out a couple of days before, that was only possible in person. So the question was now: Would there still be tickets? And if so, would I have enough time to get them?

The time frame of around 3 hours seemed rather generous, but first I had to find out that the calm and relaxed ticket office for foreigners - in a different part of the train station - would only issue tickets up to four hours in advance. Leaving me with the choice of one of the chaotic queues for long distance trains in the regular ticket hall: People in front were splashed up against the teller window, as if that would help getting their tickets faster. But then the knot unraveled and things started moving. - Eventually I could snatch my ticket to Jaipur for the 20:00 train, and used some of the remaining time for getting back to the oasis for foreigners and buying the other two tickets I would need for the rest of my journey.

I tried to convey a focused attitude moving through the crowded train station, but still people would still ask me where I'm going and what I wanted. I had been warned there were lots of scams and barked at them, feeling sorry afterwards... Maybe they really just wanted to help?

A bit to my surprise there were no shops to distract the armies of waiting people on the platforms, and the "refreshment room" was basically empty, too! - The waiters there were happy to have a customer, but the food was lousy. - When I got back some 45 minutes early I found the train already waiting, located my coach and got comfortable in one of the ruby benches of the my 1st class compartment. Everything was quite old but well maintained. - Soon an older Indian gentleman, Vijay, joined me and we chatted a bit, discovering that we stayed at the same hotel in Jaipur! And he had already a pickup organized, so that worked for me sweet.

There was dinner service on the train, I didn't really count on that! Afterwards I soon fell deeply asleep under shades and headphones, just to wake up at the precise arrival time of the train, 12:40. The train was 10 minutes late, so that was good timing.

I had picked a rather exclusive hotel, there was a lawn in front and a pool in the back, painted stucco and small pictures of traditional artwork on the walls of my room. Crisp sheets. Good night!