Friday 4th June
[We went by train from Amritsar to Delhi – diary has more or less conked out by this stage, but it was a pretty awful journey, the loos indescribable and put me off Indian trains for life]
We arrived in Delhi just after 4 am and had no difficulty in settling into Vivek hotel, very shabby, but the water did work in the morning though not in the afternoon.
In the morning we sounded out Syrian Arab Airlines after a much-needed breakfast.
[We had decided to cash in our tickets and leave much earlier than planned due to my terrible dysentery – no Kashmir for us, something I always regretted – but this involved an awful lot of negotiating, and more money of course]
It appears we can leave on Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on whether we can get on the SAA or have to go British Airways, PanAm or something. We couldn’t find the student travel place and wandered around Connaught Circus in some state of despair – really very hot and sweaty.
We rested in our room under our fan but we sweated all the same. A venture out for a drink and a potter at 3 pm proved equally hot and exhausting. It really is a squalid filthy place, and terribly smelly. Haven’t seen all these dreadful sites [the slums I assume though I don’t think they would have been any worse than we’d seen on our travels] yet though they must exist somewhere.
It became so hot we passed such a sleepless night getting up to put wet shirts on etc that we decided to move to a posh hotel, the Alka. In fact we went there after delicious pilau, out at the United Coffee House, to find it was Rs.110, so we tried to find the Natraj, reported to be much cheaper. We had to walk a long way down badly-lit streets of eating houses, furniture shops before we got there to find it was full and then it took us ages to get a tonga back.
Saturday 5th June
The night had been so unbearable that we decided to try and leave Delhi at once and also move hotels – I had been suspicious of the management of the Vivek – and rightly so because when J went up to collect our luggage we found my bed on fire – he put it out but one of the attendants rushed in, grabbed the sheet, took it downstairs and a very nasty scene ensued – the guy insisted we had done it (though of course we hadn’t – thought it must’ve been an electrical shock/spark) and threatened to tear our baggage to bits unless we pay Rs.25 which we did, wishing to avoid a nasty scene and went off to the Alka double quick.
Although the Syrian Arab place said they could do it and for a Lufthansa flight the next morning, we ended up by spending nearly all day in the office trying to make them get on. At last at 5:15 our tickets arrived, and we went off to do last-minute shopping – we had had no time before as we had been expecting our tickets to turn up at any moment.
Supper at the United and as we had lots of spare money we gorged ourselves – mulligatawny soup, Tandoori chicken (J had mixed grill) and ice cream, cold coffee – all very good. Afterwards back to the hotel for lovely showers and rest but there was a power cut for half an hour also in which the air-conditioning went off!
Taxi to the airport – plane 3 1/2 hours late – very tedious after so much waiting, but at last we left in a DC 10 straight for Frankfurt and then home!
And three years later I graduated in Social Anthropology! This trip was life-changing…
With Fi, still one of my closest friends, and my Mum on graduation day
Vicky's Big Adventure 