Yes my dears, I have made it to the other side of the world to India!
After an exhausting 36 hour journey from Panama City to New Delhi I met up with my friend Ede who flew in from Germany at the airport. We got a taxi to take us to a hotel we had picked out of the Lonely Planet but half way there the driver explained he couldn't take us there for some strange reasons, and we had to go to the tourist information first. Since there was nothing else we could do we agreed, although it already seemed very strange to us, especially since the "tourist information" was located in some dark alley...
There, they called several hotels for us, which apperently were all booked up because of some festival that was taking place in Delhi for the next week. By this time I was really frustrated and in desperate need of sleep! At that point the guy from the tourist information offered us, that we could spend the night at his appartement and I thankfully accepted. His friends picked us up and took us to his place where we immediately went to sleep. The next morning, we wanted to buy a bus ticket to Dharmsala and the guy from the tourist information (his name shall not be mentioned here, in order not to ruin his buisness, therefore I will refer to him as "J.A." from now on...) offered to call the company for us. They told us, that all buses going north from Delhi were also booked for the next six days! Since we didn't intend to spend the next 6 days in Delhi, J.A. offered us a flight to Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir, including a 7 night stay on a houseboat on Lake Dal. Although we didn't like the idea of "being stuck" in one place for a whole week and hadn't intended on flying at all, we let us be talked into the trip and went to get the money.
Then we had some lunch and explored some of the chaotic old town of the city. At some point we decided to do a little research on bus tickets and hotel rooms ourselves, as the story with the festival seemed stranger every minute we thought about it more... Of course we found out, that there WERE bustickets as well as hotel rooms available! I started to panick, because I had also left my passport, Visa card, etc. at J.A.'s appartement and we took the next Riksha back. There we confronted J.A. with our "new information" and told him, we wanted our money back! A three-hour discussion followed, in which we all admitted, having made some mistakes and finally agreed on the plan, that we should fly to Srinagar, see how we liked it, and that we could get our money back once we returned to Delhi, in case we didn't. After this exhausting dispute, J.A. invited us to go to a bar with him. We had a couple of drinks and a good time and returned to the appartement around two in the morning. I was really tired and ready to go to bed, but that's when J.A. started talking... he confessed everything- that the taxi driver was paid for taking us to his office, that the phonecalls to the hotels had actually been phonecalls to his friends and finally that -of course- there was no festival! We were shocked but glad at the same time, that we had finally been told the truth, and we liked J.A.. So we asked him to come and visit us in Srinagar, where he was from, anyway, and he agreed.
The next day we were on our way to Srinagar.
After an exhausting 36 hour journey from Panama City to New Delhi I met up with my friend Ede who flew in from Germany at the airport. We got a taxi to take us to a hotel we had picked out of the Lonely Planet but half way there the driver explained he couldn't take us there for some strange reasons, and we had to go to the tourist information first. Since there was nothing else we could do we agreed, although it already seemed very strange to us, especially since the "tourist information" was located in some dark alley...
There, they called several hotels for us, which apperently were all booked up because of some festival that was taking place in Delhi for the next week. By this time I was really frustrated and in desperate need of sleep! At that point the guy from the tourist information offered us, that we could spend the night at his appartement and I thankfully accepted. His friends picked us up and took us to his place where we immediately went to sleep. The next morning, we wanted to buy a bus ticket to Dharmsala and the guy from the tourist information (his name shall not be mentioned here, in order not to ruin his buisness, therefore I will refer to him as "J.A." from now on...) offered to call the company for us. They told us, that all buses going north from Delhi were also booked for the next six days! Since we didn't intend to spend the next 6 days in Delhi, J.A. offered us a flight to Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir, including a 7 night stay on a houseboat on Lake Dal. Although we didn't like the idea of "being stuck" in one place for a whole week and hadn't intended on flying at all, we let us be talked into the trip and went to get the money.
Then we had some lunch and explored some of the chaotic old town of the city. At some point we decided to do a little research on bus tickets and hotel rooms ourselves, as the story with the festival seemed stranger every minute we thought about it more... Of course we found out, that there WERE bustickets as well as hotel rooms available! I started to panick, because I had also left my passport, Visa card, etc. at J.A.'s appartement and we took the next Riksha back. There we confronted J.A. with our "new information" and told him, we wanted our money back! A three-hour discussion followed, in which we all admitted, having made some mistakes and finally agreed on the plan, that we should fly to Srinagar, see how we liked it, and that we could get our money back once we returned to Delhi, in case we didn't. After this exhausting dispute, J.A. invited us to go to a bar with him. We had a couple of drinks and a good time and returned to the appartement around two in the morning. I was really tired and ready to go to bed, but that's when J.A. started talking... he confessed everything- that the taxi driver was paid for taking us to his office, that the phonecalls to the hotels had actually been phonecalls to his friends and finally that -of course- there was no festival! We were shocked but glad at the same time, that we had finally been told the truth, and we liked J.A.. So we asked him to come and visit us in Srinagar, where he was from, anyway, and he agreed.
The next day we were on our way to Srinagar.
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