Musings of an Idiot

Delhi

We made it. wohoooo..... The journey was uneventful and enjoyable, especially after the stop over in Hong Kong. Our first flight was late in leaving Auckland by 2 hours and that shaved off 2 hours we were supposed to have in Hong Kong but it wasn't a major because the food was lovely and so was the flight. The only movie that I watched on the flight was 'Bad News Bears' -which was cliched in the set structure for sports genre films but was funny nonetheless.

Hong Kong was an experience, which I would love to have extended (which I will get more of when we go back to Auckland via Hong Kong}. Lance and me chucked our bags in the hotel and went exploring the city, even though it was late at night {about 8.30 PM}, even though we were both a tad jet lagged. The city is bustling with life and the smells around the place are enchanting. The city does really love it's bold colours and every advertisements colour patterns scream out so loud. Lance and me had some local delicacies to eat - don't ask what because we don't know either..A few of them were delicious while there were a few which weren't so great.

The public transportation in Hong Kong is simply fantastic. We took a bus from the airport to the hotel which cost us abou NZ$5 and our trip back was about NZ$3. The bus service through out is excellent and so is the MTR - their metro system. Getting up on a Sunday morning, we were lost on how we could explore good portions of the city. We decided to buy a 1 day tourist MTR pass and then basically travelled the whole of Hong Kong in the metro. We only saw portions of the city because we spent most of the time underground. There are a couple of spots which we wanted to visit but couldn't because of the lack of time.

The flight to Delhi in Air India was intersting to say the least. They seriously need to look at upgrading their airlines. The flight was smooth and so have nothing to complain about the minor issues that kept cropping up left, right and centre. My time at the immigration check ins and checkouts were really funny. Each and every immigration official who looked at my passport either had a laugh or raised their eyebrows with a chuckle, on comparing me to my passport photograph. I think I will get my passport updated once I get back to NZ.

The drive from airport to home was really interesting. I was frozen stiff by the way the traffic drives around in Delhi as I had forgotten how the whole thing was. Delhi is a chaotic place to drive but somehow the constant honking and blaring the horns manages to keep people from bumping into each other's vehicles. It was a nerve-wracking experience. The joy of being home and being in the company of mom and dad can not be put into words.

A pleasent surprise was seeing my first royalty cheque from the book I co-translated while in India. And the amount came as a surprise as you never see that kind of money being a first time writer/translator. I got something planned for that amount - afterall I got to keep the promise I had made to myself.

It is now 8.00 in the morning here and the body clocks seem to be back in synch. So now have to plan out the rest of the trip and explore. Photographs will be uploaded at some later point once I manage to find a cybercafe where I can do that stuff (at home it is a dial-up connection, which is slow and laborious).

Till later.
Amit

posted by Amit @ 3:40 PM