Wednesday, 11 February 2009
Feeling a bit better we got in a taxi for the 10km ride to Ajmer. The ride wasn’t far and was certainly slower than the bus. Ajmer has a large lake and many pretty temples, worth a look if you have time.
We got to the station and had a short wait for our train. We boarded our carriage and there were people in our seats who moved. In the meantime Kathy absolutely freaked out as it is a compartment with bench seats and beds above. She was expecting a luxurious 2 bedded compartment to ourselves. I feel terrible she hates India and everything about it so much but I can’t afford the Palace on Wheels and the Oberoi each night, but in hindsight she should of done that and I should have caught up with her during the day. I thought the carriage was clean and we had clean pillows and sheets. It was definately much better than the 2AC from Kolkatta to Delhi which had a small cockroach problem. I slept in my bunk for a bit of the 8 hour journey to Delhi.
We arrived at Delhi near Karol Bagh and got a tuk tuk to our hotel (Hotel Unistar). This hotel in no way resembles the brochure we saw in Agra and the look on Kathy’s face was priceless, I think she thinks she is in hell. On the plus side, the bathroom was clean and it is really only for 1 full night. We had booked a twin room, but had to wait for the hotel boy to separate the bed and re-make them and get the requisite tip.
As we were still feeling very ordinary we got soup and rice for dinner. The place next door does an absolute roaring trade constantly turning people over with both take-away and sit-down meals. The soup was delicious and we ate watching tv in bed.
Another downside of the hotel is that it is constantly noisy, however I slept well until the racket got too unbearable in the morning.