India, round 2, day 1

The day began in Nepal and it began well over an extra black cup of filtered coffee, some fried eggs and an extra large chocolate croissant. The coffee was strong enough to blur my vision when it was abruptly pried away from my computer screen. The croissant was big enough to last for a couple of hours. I got caught up with my online affairs, went back to my hotel, packed my bags and started walking to the airport because of the strike that was supposedly going to bring Kathmandu to a relative standstill. 

I got a mere 100 meters and was asked where I was headed. Ten minutes later I was sharing a taxi, a very cheap one considering the circumstances, through some back streets and arrived at the airport ahead of schedule. People seemed extraordinarily friendly, the potholes seemed less deep, birds were chirping and angels were singing. The line at check-in was long, but I didn't mind. Eventually I got to the ‘departure lounge’ where I consumed some more chocolate and waited an extra couple hours due to a plane delay. Again, somehow it didn't bother me.

The flight was pretty painless aside from a wee headache and excessive yawning presumably due to the earlier caffeine intake. Upon arriving in Delhi, I noticed this was not the India I had previously experienced. I could sleep on the floor of this airport it seemed that immaculate. Immigration officials were friendly, baggage arrived in a timely fashion, the bathroom was spotless and I was through customs rather effortlessly. Everyone spoke English and was helpful. Was it really this easy?

I went to the local equivalent of 7/11 and pondered the various items for sale. So much more diversity than the shops in Nepal and the prices were even more reasonable. I bought a Snickers and another bar of chocolate as it was a new dark variety – one that I rationalized I might not see again. I went outside to pillar 18 where my bus was waiting and it departed shortly thereafter. It was 43°C and the heat felt good. The bus was modern, comfortable and the fans were sufficient to keep me from not sweating.

Delhi is enormous! We traveled for over an hour through the city, presumably New Delhi as everything looked quite modern and I could not help myself from repeatedly muttering Wow again and again. I could not stop comparing between Kolkata and Varanasi and the difference was like night and day. I need to take a city tour before I head back to Thailand. Eventually we arrived at the ISBT bus station where I was so kindly told to exit and almost immediately found a guy to assist me in buying a ticket on a tourist bus, thank you very much, on the next departing night bus to Amritsar.

He walked me to the ticket booth, assisted in the purchase, showed me where to go prior to departure and accompanied me to the food court, where I just polished off bowls of the best local food I’ve consumed in weeks and it wasn’t even that good. Now I’m stuffed and can only hope this bus has a toilet otherwise everyone will be better off with the windows down. And I sit ‘meditating’ in the corner of this small food stall, fans on high overhead listening to Tibetan Incantations, some delightfully peaceful music.

After consuming my meal, an Indian kid came in as if to clear the table. Finished I said. He hesitated and I repeated and eventually he took the stainless steel platters away. He came back and held up the empty Frooti bottle and I motioned like I was throwing it away. So he copied me and threw the bottle onto the otherwise clean floor. Then he held up the wad of stickers I had taken off my backpack and had intended to throw away. I made the same motion and he threw them on the floor as well. I didn't mean to do that.

Two more hours til departure. And then nine hours on the bus. I know nothing about Amritsar other than it’s in Punjab and home to the Golden Temple. I heard that was nice. So I’ll go there and go from there.  That’s enough for me. Excited and happy to be in a new place. If the rest of India is like this, I might just have to change the generalizations I’ve formulated for the whole of India based on just a few places. I’m prone to be overly judgemental, but I’m quite happy when they prove to be erroneous. Here’s hoping that is the case.

.......update............

I found out I was charged double for my bus ticket and the ‘tourist’ bus was an enormous dilapidated around 75 person capacity bus that was needless to say noisy, provided little comfort and didn't enable me to catch many zzz's. I was a wee bit annoyed for the duration. I could go on and on, but suffice it to say, I think my old feelings are coming back, sigh.