Jim & Happy : Namaste from Delhi

Here we are back in Hotel Ajanta.

A familiar place in Delhi we like. Our trip to get here was long but everything went smoothly. There was no hold ups along the way. I calculated we were awake for 30 hours. We arrived at 4pm yesterday afternoon. Took a sleeping tablet last night at 9pm and woke at 10am this morning. Felt a bit groggy at first but spent a few hours after breakfast sitting on the hotel roof soaking up the sun and the never-ending sounds and smells that Delhi offers.

We were keen to visit the market a few streets away to look for a brass hanging bell and incense holder for our front door. I know that sounds strange considering we don’t’ even have a front door but one day we will. We started out on foot and thought we’d take the shortcut to prevent walking past the train station because it is extremely busy with people (and beggars), we couldn't remember our way in the maze of streets so we jumped in a auto rickshaw and caught a bicycle rickshaw back. It is lazy but it is giving someone a job. Found the hangers, haggled as you have to and agreed on a price. I will carry them in my daypack, as we have to watch our weight for our trip home.

It is now 5.30pm and we are sitting on the hotel’s roof café soaking up the last of the afternoon winter sun and starting to flag a bit. Tomorrow morning Saturday we head back to the airport very early. We have to leave the hotel at 3am. My plane leaves for Trivandrum at 6.15am and Jim’s leaves for Srinagar at 10.45am. Jim's flight is only 1.5hour but I have go via Mumbai which is 2 hours wait 45-minutes and then fly another 2 hours to Trivandrum. Then I have an hours drive to the ashram. I can pay for a prepaid taxi or rickshaw before I leave the airport terminal. It makes it easier than feeling bamboozled trying to settle on a fare outside the terminal.

The joint efforts on our blog: me as writer and Jim as photographer/proofreader will probably be on hold for the next month or two. The ashram has ‘limited Internet access’ (quoted from their website), not sure what this means exactly. Could be due to intermittent power cuts, limited Internet package and hundreds of ashram attendees trying to use it at the one time. It is India after all and rural India at that.

I have one day off per week. I think it is Friday so I plan to check my email then. The days agenda at the ashram is long, starting with a 5.20am wake up call and lights out at 10pm with a full day of classes in between and only two meals a day. No time for communicating either by electronic means or mobile phone, the latter have to be handed in at reception on arrival. Some people are saying 'you paid for this by choice'.

Jim will organize a SIM for his mobile on arrival in Gulmarg and he will have normal Internet access at Grand Mumtaz – the hotel we stayed at last season so he will be up and running again in a few days. He will email me his phone number. The ashram has a phone/Internet centre so I can always ring him if Internet access & wifi is unsuccessful.

So until next time - bye for now!

PS. Jim was keen to take photos with his camera instead of his iPhone like previous. Check out Flickr for the latest photos downloaded