The Hideout
Trip Start
Nov 01, 2006
1
45
179
Trip End
Oct 31, 2007
New Delhi,
India
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Once we'd got our bags (they arrived in one piece - well two pieces, I suppose), we got a rickshaw to Krishna hotel, as recommended in our Rough Guide. This was of course child's play for us, having already done something very similar two months before. Child's play, that is, in the sense that a child seemed to have hidden the Krishna hotel from view behind the toy chest. In any event, neither our rikshaw wallah nor we - nor the kind staff at the reception of the sumptuous Radisson hotel - could find it. So we let the rikshaw go, shouldered our packs and went door to door until we found another place to rest our heads for the few hours of darkness that we'd have before our early morning flight to Hong Kong. 'North East Guest House' is pretty basic
01 Cows in street, New Delhi
. Contrary to the manager's avowals, our room did not have hot water 24 hours a day. Or even during any part of the day. The manager was a bit weird anyway as he insisted on taking a photo of us for 'security' purposes. He also failed to arrange the wake-up call he himself had suggested we have and then the taxi we asked him to arrange didn't arrive at the appointed time and had to be called again (despite his acting all offended when we'd decided to just check the previous evening that it had been organised - as if we didn't completely trust him to do it).The general lack of hospitality persuaded us to spend the rest of the afternoon elsewhere than in our cold and unwelcoming room. So we trotted back to the Radisson (where we only wished we could afford to stay), picking up some spiced fried potato cakes from a street vendor and then nipping into a dhaba for a last taste of chana puri on the way, to spend a pleasant afternoon drinking tea in the smart cafe there. We returned to the Radisson in the evening to splash out on a drink each in the bar and then dinner in the hotel's 'New York Cafe', where we finally waved a culinary goodbye to the subcontinent by ordering a lovely big hamburger.
By the way, and in case the description of our lodgings above leaves any doubt, India is pretty much the same as we left it. We've added a picture of some cows in the middle of the street to drive the point home. We've had some amazing experiences here though (you can read about them here) and will be (a bit) sorry to leave for wonderful, perfect, clean Hong Kong tomorrow! (T)
