Yes we know there will have been thousands of blogs, e-mails and in the old days postcards using this title and to be honest we anticipate many more smelly places in India!
Our flight to Delhi was pretty entertaining, at least 80% of the passengers were Indian men who appeared to have been on boys only holidays to Thailand! There seemed to be little regard for the rules that most of us obey, (sit in the seat number assigned, sit down when the seat belt sign is on etc.) in fact the wheels had barely hit the runway and many where up out of their seats and opening the overhead lockers. The cabin crew were fraught to say the least! Mind you we should just be grateful none were up the front in the hot seat, the Delhi papers have been reporting on the many pilots and flight engineers who have been found to be flying in India with fake credentials recently!
But as we are learning here there are some situations where rules and bureaucracy are king (like the Customs and Excise import procedure) and some where rules are made to be broken (like when driving!)
We chose a hotel out of the city and close to the airport as we anticipated the customs clearance procedure was going to be lengthy and arduous. Call us pessimists but there is much information posted on the net from those who have gone before us. We were keen to try to do the clearance ourselves (why not, we had all the correct paperwork?) and therefore save the cost of engaging an import agent.
So, Monday morning we did as we had been advised and rang the airline at 10am to check if the bike was available for us to clear, only trouble was it would seem everyone with freight to collect was ringing at this time and we did not get through until 11.30am. So with half the day already gone we headed to the airport to go through the process now familiar to us (this is our 4th air shipment) of going to the airline to collect the release copy of the airway bill and pay airport charges. Then after a kilometre trudge down the road in temperatures in excess of 35 C we arrived hot and sweaty at the inner sanctum that is Customs and Excise.
No surprise, we left that day without the bike! Everyone was very nice, we were given many cups of chai, but this is a process that cannot be rushed (for there is much paper shuffling, stamping and most importantly cost calculating to do), and one more thing, the next day was a public holiday so we shouldn’t come back until the day after that! We can hear those of you that have been to India chuckling in the distance, there cannot be another country in the world with as many public holidays as India.
We used the next day to tour some of Delhi’s sights……………………
Qutb Minar
73m high tower and mosque complex completed in the 14th century.
Bahai Lotus Temple
Delhi’s version of Sydney Opera House? It was so hot and there were so many people we couldn’t face queuing to go in. Bahai is quite a new religion (a couple of hundred years old) and the aim is to ‘unify humanity’, hmmm nice idea but a bit too idealistic and non specific for a couple of cynics like us. They are building big fancy temples around the world though so the cash is obviously rolling in. I did pick up a leaflet to read which got me a very funny look from John.
Humayun’s Tomb
A mid 16th century Mogul tomb, supposedly one of the earliest examples of the design that was to be refined and become the final design for the big TM.
Day 3 in Delhi and we are back at Customs, we had been told not to arrive until 11 am but by 11.30am we were still the only people in the office and a bit worried we had misunderstood and it was another public holiday!
Shortly afterwards the Customs Officers started to arrive and we were given more chai and told to wait, then we had lunch and waited some more! Anyway, at about 3.00 pm we were given authorisation to get the bike from the import warehouse, unpack it and bring it to Customs for inspection.
The crate being moved outside, note the worrying hole on the lower right hand side. It looked like it was forklift damage but luckily the bike hadn’t been touched.
Unpacking the bike in a car park, temperature well into the 30’s, no shade but……
plenty of willing helpers!
Then back to Customs for some final Carnet stamping (more stamps than any other import) and we were on our way by about 4.30pm
Filling up has become a spectator sport!
With the bike safely locked away at our hotel we stayed in Delhi for a couple more days sightseeing.
Turns out it was another holiday/festival and while walking to the Jama Masjid (India’s largest Mosque) we walked into some celebrations. We have no idea what is was about, the music was so ear-bleedingly loud we couldn’t speak to anyone!
Lal Qila, The Red Fort. The name is a perfect description! This was our first experience of being asked by Indians to pose for a photo with them, some want to chat as well which is nice but for others its just a case of a quick photo and they are off! It felt quite strange but after a few days we were quite used to it.
We did visit other places in Delhi as well and enjoyed the city but wimped out and travelled from place to place by air-conditioned taxi. It’s quite a big city and the heat and humidity were draining.
One thing that made us smile was to find out that much of New Delhi was designed by the British architect Edwin Lutyens and built towards the end of the British Raj period. A couple of years ago we went to view a house that was built by Lutyens and considered making an offer to buy it, although it was only small it‘s history meant it was by no means a small price. If we had gone ahead we would most definitely be at home now shackled to a pretty big mortgage and travelling like this would just be a dream, we both agreed we made the right decision!
After Delhi our plan was just to head west and north and visit the regions of Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. However, we did take a quick detour south to Agra to mingle with a few thousand others on a blisteringly hot day at the Taj Mahal.
It is an awe inspiring building but Agra is pretty filthy, overwhelming and crawling with touts so although sunrise or sunset pictures would have been great we were happy to get in and out in one day.
John (feeling a bit poorly that day) at Akbar’s Mausoleum another “one to see” in Agra.
