I was planning to go to the Philippines on vacation and would join the tour at the 2nd stop Noida (near Delhi) on the 19th February, however when Murali said we would have a trip to the Taj Mahal on that day I changed my mind and flew into Delhi a day early.
In the Philippines I was reminded of my hatred of bad traffic and the journey to the airport for the return leg to Singapore had been a nightmare, but that is a relative term, once I experienced Delhi traffic it paled into insignificance! But lets go back a bit, I have family in Singapore so was using this as my base, I flew from there to my holiday and then spent just long enough there to swap my luggage and head off for the 5 hour flight to Delhi. Murali gave us great instructions, about what taxi company to use, how much to expect to pay and what the journey time would be, I felt quite relaxed. You may laugh but it you have ever read the travel warnings provided by corporate travel agents you would never travel anywhere and I am a nervous traveller on the road at anytime. (And a even worse driver, ask Cary Millsap).
I collected my luggage and went to find the appointed
taxi company, and told them where I wanted to go, at this point a man appeared
who said come with me, I looked at the taxi co-ordinator man and he nodded his
head in agreement, so I let him take my suitcase and followed him at break neck
speed through a series of underpasses towards long term parking. then his
mobile phone rang, he answered it, let go off my suitcase and ran up a ramp. I
tried to follow but he said stay there, I will be back. I guessed it was to do
with getting a better signal, so just waited........and waited then after 15
minutes, I walked back to the taxi stand, and very assertively (which may be
the tone for the tour), I pointed out that I was using their company because I
was told they could be trusted, and their man had abandoned me in the middle of
Delhi Airport! At this point the guy says, he was not their man and that he had
called out my name to stop me going but I had ignored him. again, assertively i
pointed out he did not know my name and I suggested we stopped the charade and
start again.
Having got into an official taxi with a driver in
uniform, a meter turned on and what appeared to be a receipt printer machine
with a lit light, I settled down for what I knew to be a 2 hour drive. Murali
warned me the first 90 minutes would be bumper to bumper, and in my naivety I
thought that meant rush hour type traffic. It is amazing how the mind
suppresses images of motorcycles, oxen, taxis , cars and lorries synonymous
with Indian folklore, and you will laugh when I say it came as a surprise to
find anything I had heard was simply the tip of the iceberg. 90 minutes later,
90 minutes I will never get back and probably took 90 days off my life
expectancy; we cleared the Delhi traffic and I relaxed for the last and
furthest part of the journey on a relatively empty highway.
One thing I did like about the traffic was Delhi number plates start DL and I quite liked this one which I would have taken as a personalised plate for myself (not that I would ever drive here).
Murali who knows
what a nervous passenger I am (he was on the Columbian Boat trip), had said not to
worry about speed the car's computer would tell the driver to slow down. I
forgot to mention the computer, when I got in the car, it asked me to fasten my
seat belt, but the driver simply told me there weren't any! So why was I
surprised he then ignored it when it told him to slow down.........every
time, every time. I was sick of her voice by the time we stopped at a gas
station, she should learn to be more assertive. The gas station was also
unnerving as I was told I had to get out of the car whilst they filled up with
LPG, I wasn't too sure this wasn't another scam but it turned out to be true.
What I did forget to mention was the first time he stopped, in Delhi traffic
and simply took his jumper off. I was very nervous then as I had had
experiences with taxi drivers abandoning me in Beijing!
Eventually we arrived at the hotel, in one piece a had a
great nights sleep.
At breakfast the next day I met Hans Forbarch
who I have done several tours with and he told me about his taxi experience.
Apparently the same happened to him but he got into a taxi with the 'wrong man'
and ended up paying almost double. So mine was not a one off and I guess the
taxi co-ordinator was on some sort of a commission back hander. Seems I had a
lucky escape.
Hans, Murali and I were to be joined by Tim Hall and Raj Mattamal,
who had done the first leg of the tour, but you can read about their unbelievable taxi journey in Tim's blog; Tim needed sleep so badly he skipped the trip.
No comments:
Post a Comment