‘Fasten your seat pelt…ready for landing’. That was the only thing I remembered of the last two hours of our flight to Delhi. The arrival was quite different as in Doha in the respect of the environment of the Airports. We did not get an extra bus as business passengers nor did we get a heartly welcome to India (I didn’t expect that as amndatory at all but it’s just what I noticed). The equipment of transportation was rather shabby and when the driver tried to shift gears the motor roared and only at a second try the bus gained speed and bucked off.
Another thing I noticed was that the arrival hall for the immigrants to India was so low that you could almost touch the ceiling. A big crowed was waiting in front of the desks for passport control but the officials didn’t speed up but checked every document very carefully. This must have been the consequences to the last terror attacks in Mumbai that the inspections had been enforced. It was also the reason why we changed the schedule of our journey. The hotel we were supposed to stay in Mumbai, the Taj Mahal, had been the target of the criminal offense. We wouldn’t have felt comfortable to stay in such an environment and so we decided to spend our last days in Chennay.
Finally it was our turn to be checked and to present our red passport with the white cross. This must have influenced the official because he did not have any questions nor did he inspect our visas with accurate care.
It was about five o’clock in the morning when we left the airport after having met our travel agent. Our baggage was well stowed in a white TATA Landcruiser but our driver despite of the cold and tight foggy weather so you could hardly see your hand in front of your eyes squeezed his car into the heavy traffic sometimes only half a meter close to the huge truck in front and numerous small yellow and green painted motor Rickshas on the left and right side. Tutut, tutut - all over and our driver responded by pushing his horn. Should we fear of our lives or was it just the beginning of getting used to another interpretation of traffic rules. We fiered that he would be our driver for the next days during our journey through Rajasthan.
Our travel agent helped us during the check-in procedure at the Hyatt hotel and because Uta insisted to get a room not only in four hours but immediately we had to pay an extra fee of eight thousand Rupies, approximately 180 CHF (1 CHF = 43.5Rupie). As it turned out later she was absolutely right in doing so.
