I never sleep well the night before a flight. I woke up at a ridiculous 3am. I had the flight to catch from Canberra to Sydney at 6:00am, and then from Syd 11am to Singapore.
Everything went smoothly with my packing. I had slowly built up my packing and not left it to the last minute. But I did make a huge mistake...I left my good pain killers and Ciprofloxacin on my kitchen counter! I was anticipating to suffer a few cases of Delhi belly. I will justvhave to buy some Cipro in India. Cipro never goes to waste.
Singapore 7:40pm flight to Delhi reaching at midnight.
The highlight for the day was the transit stopover at Singapore's Changi Airport. After visiting so many airports, nothing comes close to Changi Airport in terms of beautiful, inviting and comfortable design. Many airport literally "hate" their travellers. Many airports you just want to leave the place as soon as you arrive.
Some travel days are very easy, whereas others can be hell. This transit was more towards the hell side of things.
The flight from SYD-SIN resulted with me seated next to an unsettled toddler. Lucky I was at a bulkhed with more leg room and was on the aisle.
The next leg from SIN-DEL there was an incessant crying baby (the screaming kind). Constant. I will give the Indian parents credit for doing some magic to substantially muffle the baby sound to such an extent that you could just hear it with ear plugs installed. I do not know what they did but it worked.
When I landed at DEL, immigration was easy enough, if you get onto the correct line. I should have gone into the eVisa line instead of the Foreign Passport line. Naturally I met both criteria. At the Immigration counter they directed me to the correct line (wasted 15mins). Lucky the baggage had not arrived at the carousel, so no net time lost.
Now, at midnight, the airport was rather quiet. It was off to buy an eSIM before you leave the airport. This activity took longer than it needed to at the only telecoms store at international arrivas (Airtel). Only one main person (the bloke) knew what to do. The young lady kept asking silly questions and referring to the bloke. I should simply have the bloke do it all. Once you are armed with connection you can lrave the airport. Airtel only sells the 1.5GB/day plan here. I wanted a 3GB/day option but it is not available. Will just have to top up with extras.
The only negative experience for the transit trip is the obligatory scam experience. This experience occurred outside of DEL airport. The Pre-Paid Taxi Service Delhi Police, the one to be safe, wanted to charge me INR800 for the trip to Karol Barg, after the dodgy taxi tauter said somethingto him. This should only have cost around INR460.
I booked on Uber for INR460 but the dodgy Uber driver did not show up. They effectively waited for me to cancel after 30mins of accepting. They went for a higher fee after accepting my ride. I ended up paying Uber Premium as nobody afterwards would pick up. Uber is pretty scammish in India.
As we drove towards the hotel it is evident that the population is very bad. A thick smoke that looks like fog hangs around the entire city. There is a slight/tinge smell of smoke. The streets were very quiet.
When I checked-in into the Jeniffer Inn, the attendant was surprised at the booking rate. I showed him the agreed booking.com rate that was secured 5mths earlier. It was cheap because it was booked early. He had to accept the price as we had also communicated regarding my atrival time (at 2am). I was tired and keen to rest.
The room was what I expected. Nothing fancy and just clean enough.
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