Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Ah, the wonders of international travel
So to answer the first question I’m sure all of you have, yes I’m here in Delhi. I arrived last night, about an hour after two of my colleagues arrived. Sadly, however, my baggage did not. According to American, it was left it Chicago for some unknown reason. My connection was an hour and a half, and the gates were fairly close to each other. So I’m at a loss. Big sister A, could you have a talk with your employer about that? And while we’re at it, could you have a talk with them about various other issues? A) my two colleagues, flying Continental, received complimentary upgrades to Business class. The reason? they were on official government travel. Well, gee, so am I. Did something like that even enter the mind of the agents? Nope. And if you’re wondering, yes, there was plenty of room in first and business. B) The entertainment options were terrible, both movies and video. Two Bollywood movies, two movies on golf tournaments (yes, TWO of them), a random BBC special on some guys trip to Kenya, and a bunch of episodes of some boring sitcom. And the radio options were even worse. C) No more free booze. I know that most airlines have gone this way, but I still want to register a complaint on this one. D) The coffee is terrible. I mean awful. Basically, it’s colored water with no flavor at all. And E) My bag got left in Chicago (and I had an hour and a half layover, so I’m curious to find out what excuse they give me.) (Sorry A, I know that you’re not charge of this stuff. Knowing you, the stuff you are in charge of probably works wonderfully.)
But here were some good things about the flight. A) We flew over Greenland. Amazing scenery and I even got a few pictures out the window. (I’ll post those soon) B) I had ordered a veggie meal, but here’s the great thing about flights to India. Every flight offers two meal options, one veg, one non-veg. That’s the default. And decent food too. The veggie options were always Indian food, and the non-veg were generally western-style meals.
OK, now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, let’s talk about India. Today was a day off/get adjusted day, we had breakfast at the hotel, my two colleagues (H and A) were still jet lagged, so that tried to nap for a few hours. Around 1pm, we took a cab over to the Red Fort and a nearby mosque. The Red Fort was built in 1648 by Shah Jahan, the same guy who built the Taj Mahal, when he was moving his capital from Agra to Delhi. It’s a huge complex with a number of beautiful buildings (built out of red sandstone and white marble, with beautiful inlays and carvings), and definitely worth the $10 we paid to get a guided tour. (Although, I must confess, my political inclinations regularly reared up when thinking about the cost of the palaces, the cost of the solid gold chair the Shah sat on, and the cost of having 300 dancing girls there every night. (Well, I guess the super rich deserve their entertainment, right? <-can you detect some sarcasm here?)
The mosque was also beautiful, with a very neat tall tower you could walk up. It gave a great view of the city, although walking down the very steep, uneven spiral staircase in the dark definitely gave my thighs a work out. Our guide there wasn’t quite as good, and often spoken in completely incomprehensible English. I could pick up every fifth word or so, and could vague piece together what he was saying, but it all very vague.
After the mosque and the Red Fort, it was over the Khan Market one of the smaller markets in the area near the hotel. ATM card is in working order, which is always nice to know. And I picked up one Salwaar Kameez (one type of Indian outfit, different from a sari).
And here are a few general observations. The vast majority of taxis and autorickshaws (think rickshaw, but powered by a motorcycle; they’re called Tuk-tuks in Thailand) run on natural gas. So the pollution really isn’t that bad. (I was quite surprised by this.) However, even though pollution isn’t bad, the driving is terrible (worse than other countries I’ve been to). I would never recommend walking along a street, much less trying to cross it.
Tomorrow we’re off to the WHO office to figure out where we’re actually going to be sent. Based on conversations with E (another colleague who’s been here for about 4 weeks), I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re told to cool our heels in Delhi for a week or so. Welcome to life in developing countries. The pace is far slower and far more relaxed. I definitely wouldn’t mind a few days of exploring Delhi (and picking up a few more Salwaar Kameez’s. They’re wonderfully comfortable.)
But here were some good things about the flight. A) We flew over Greenland. Amazing scenery and I even got a few pictures out the window. (I’ll post those soon) B) I had ordered a veggie meal, but here’s the great thing about flights to India. Every flight offers two meal options, one veg, one non-veg. That’s the default. And decent food too. The veggie options were always Indian food, and the non-veg were generally western-style meals.
OK, now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, let’s talk about India. Today was a day off/get adjusted day, we had breakfast at the hotel, my two colleagues (H and A) were still jet lagged, so that tried to nap for a few hours. Around 1pm, we took a cab over to the Red Fort and a nearby mosque. The Red Fort was built in 1648 by Shah Jahan, the same guy who built the Taj Mahal, when he was moving his capital from Agra to Delhi. It’s a huge complex with a number of beautiful buildings (built out of red sandstone and white marble, with beautiful inlays and carvings), and definitely worth the $10 we paid to get a guided tour. (Although, I must confess, my political inclinations regularly reared up when thinking about the cost of the palaces, the cost of the solid gold chair the Shah sat on, and the cost of having 300 dancing girls there every night. (Well, I guess the super rich deserve their entertainment, right? <-can you detect some sarcasm here?)
The mosque was also beautiful, with a very neat tall tower you could walk up. It gave a great view of the city, although walking down the very steep, uneven spiral staircase in the dark definitely gave my thighs a work out. Our guide there wasn’t quite as good, and often spoken in completely incomprehensible English. I could pick up every fifth word or so, and could vague piece together what he was saying, but it all very vague.
After the mosque and the Red Fort, it was over the Khan Market one of the smaller markets in the area near the hotel. ATM card is in working order, which is always nice to know. And I picked up one Salwaar Kameez (one type of Indian outfit, different from a sari).
And here are a few general observations. The vast majority of taxis and autorickshaws (think rickshaw, but powered by a motorcycle; they’re called Tuk-tuks in Thailand) run on natural gas. So the pollution really isn’t that bad. (I was quite surprised by this.) However, even though pollution isn’t bad, the driving is terrible (worse than other countries I’ve been to). I would never recommend walking along a street, much less trying to cross it.
Tomorrow we’re off to the WHO office to figure out where we’re actually going to be sent. Based on conversations with E (another colleague who’s been here for about 4 weeks), I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re told to cool our heels in Delhi for a week or so. Welcome to life in developing countries. The pace is far slower and far more relaxed. I definitely wouldn’t mind a few days of exploring Delhi (and picking up a few more Salwaar Kameez’s. They’re wonderfully comfortable.)
# posted by Disease Cowgirl @ 9:04 AM 
