Idiots, Ups And Downs

After having a disturbed nights sleep (sleeping in a double bed again and with the waste water pipe seemingly next to the headboard) we made it to the rooftop for breakfast. Nothing to report really apart from the fact we had to have warm milk on our cereal. Sounds like a small thing but until you try it you will never know how weird it is.

The next thing on our agenda was to speak with the in-house travel agent about booking all our train tickets through India. I had tried, and failed, with doing it online as it is a stupid flippin system that doesn’t work and we didn’t fancy chancing our luck down the presumably packed train station. We knew the rough prices and times of the trains, we just needed the seats. And any commission added on by the fella would probably not amount to much anyway. But as we descended the steps we saw a couple sitting there discussing their trip with the guy behind the desk. No problem, they wouldn’t be long.

They took ages. And when I say “ages” I mean over an hour. Another chap was floating around reception and claiming that he was part of the same group and we could go with him to get things organised as it was just round the corner. Our spidey-senses tingled and we politely refused as we were to be wary of anyone trying to divert us from our intended path for directions, tickets, etc. We ended up waiting for ages and in that time played a game of chess. James won, as I have never really been a great player of the game, give me Sensible Soccer any day.

James plotting his next move

We were also supposed to get a twin room organised to move into as per our booking, but they couldn’t even organise that. The phrase “couldn’t organise a p*ss-up in a brewery” sprang to mind. Finally the travel agent became free and we wondered what could have taken so long. We knew we wouldn’t be too long, it was only 3 train tickets.

We took ages. And when I say “ages” I mean over an hour. And we still didn’t get anything booked. He was an idiot. He kept trying to get us to book a minivan to do most of the journey as he would get a load of commission we assumed. Either that or try and add in extra journeys we didn’t want. Or take phone calls in the middle of dealing with us. Or get everything completely wrong and ask us the details again. Or just ignore our simple request for a ticket from Delhi to Agra. Gah!

In the end we had to run down to the train station to try and book the tickets through the Foreign Tourist office as they would have the ability to book the tickets and actually understand what we were trying to do. When we got down there it felt like Delhi again; the Delhi I had experienced 5 years ago almost to the day. Chaos. People, cars, tuk-tuks, rickshaws everywhere, and an occasional waft of urine (or worse) across the nostrils. The office closed at 2:00pm and it was half 1 by the time we left the idiot travel agent so we were against the clock. The clock won. Us and three other foreign travellers were turned away from the office as there were already too many people inside so we would have to return at 8:00am the next day.

So that left us with an afternoon, and a bit of a bad taste in our mouths, in Delhi. We had just about enough time on our hands to get to the Red Fort before it would close. We made our way there on the subway system, something that I hadn’t used the last tie in Delhi, and arrived at the nearby metro station. Without knowing which way it was we dallied for a while trying to determine which way to go. That was until a rickshaw driver attempted to take us there for only 20 Rupees. I knew it must be close for that price so I casually asked in which direction it was. He pointed and then I waved him away saying we didn’t need his services and then strode in the direction he had shown us. Sure enough there it was.

Red Fort, hooray! 

After paying our foreigner tax we jumped the queue (legitimately) and headed inside. It is so nice to get inside and feel the peace and quiet compared to the madness of the streets of Delhi. We wandered round and saw the sites within, along with hundreds of others that had chosen to visit that day. There were mausoleums and museums inside, but it was getting late and it was close to chucking out time so we made our way back to the hotel via the congested metro again.

Inside the Red Fort, with lots of birds

That night we ordered room service and settled down to watch the Manchester derby. At half time we nipped out to buy a couple of beers but the only place we could find that would sell us anything that wasn’t super-strength lager was a heavy pit of drunks and desperate-to-get-drunks that had a hole in the wall for express service. We managed to wade through the throng and purchase a few cans of Carlsberg, the only thing on offer that wasn’t going to strip our insides. We returned to the room to see a completely unjust victory for the red side of Manchester and some ugly scenes thereafter. As a bonus we flicked over and saw the mighty Liverpool triumph in the next game as we finished off the Carlsberg. Certainly a day of ups and downs!