Tour Report VII (Arrival at Delhi)

Upon the arrival at Delhi Railway Station it was confusion galore. We had called Panicker’s Travels, our tour operator, from the train. Now we got down at the station and had no idea what to do next. Paru’s uncle had come there too. After a few frantic calls the travels guy told us to come to the entrance of the station. This platform was the 12th one and we had to walk to the 1st. Pretty easy, when considering the luggage we were carrying and extremely easy when we take into account of the girls baggages too. The boys took whatever luggage as possible and started towards the entrance. The girl’s followed with the rest of the stuff. It would have been easier if the railways had kept a taxi service in the platform. Believe me it is that distant!
So, torn and wearied us, dumped our bags at the entrance. What greeted us was not a pretty sight. The humanity here seemed to come from the lower echelons and there were quite a few suspicious characters. The roads seemed to be waterlogged and the heat was unbearable. The man from Panicker’s had come. A tamilian, settled in Delhi. He was to be our guide. We were not impressed by the bus. Really bad when we consider the buses of the past tour. We hoped it would be a pick up and nothing more. But our inner fear proved to be right. Our accommodation was arranged in Hotel Durbar, the bus started to there. We, the guys, took of our shirts as the heat was escalating, and Paru’s uncle had told the weather was pleasant! En route we saw many sites of Delhi like the Big Hanuman statue, the Delhi Metro Rail (pity we couldn’t get into one) etc. The bus stopped in a pretty ugly place. We were alarmed, where was Durbar? The kili of the bus told us it was in Karol Bagh and as it is a market place we had to walk there. Not much distance though. We got the bags down and I confess I was the one that put Rakeshettan’s bag into mud. Only Thampi new it and he kept his word of not telling anybody( I think so!) We got to the hotel in no time and we proceeded to our rooms, to get ready for a one wild night!