Both of us woke up about 0830hrs brushed our teeth and bought breakfast. Omelette with toast and Vege cutlets with toast. Tasted good and was enjoying the scenery outside. It will be another 2.5hrs before we will arrive in Delhi.
At the berth we were seating we chatted up with a man from Rajasthan who is a engineer for Ashok Leyland the local automobiles builder company. He is going to Chennai for a meeting at their head office for the buses they had to build for the Commonwealth game in 2010 which New Dehil will be hosting. He told us that Tata motors also another local automobile builder will build 1500 buses first and Ashok will build 1200 buses for the 1st phase as actually they have to build a total of about 15000 buses to cater to the athletes and guests that would be coming to New Delhi.
He told us that his brother went to Singapore just 1 month ago and had a bad experience.. His brother left his passport and bag in the taxi and couldn’t retrieve it even after calling the taxi company. As he had to get on this flight back to Delhi on the same day he didn’t had much time to pursue the matter and was only able to get to the India high commission to have them arranged to let him get on the flight with his copied passport. We were very surprised to know this as it isn’t common in Singapore to be not able to retrieve lost items if it was left on the taxi as we explained to him that it is a very big offence for the taxi driver if he doesn’t return the lost items as he might loose his taxi license. And the guy was saying maybe due to the rush the brother wasn’t able to pursue further and had to come back to India and apply for a new passport again which will not costs much money but will costs a lot of time and going thru so many procedures. This we could understand as we did experience this when we tried to get our Pakistan visa..
He was asking us about our trip and was very excited for us to know where we will be travelling to. We were telling him that we are looking forward to get to Delhi as we wanted to go and have KFC… and to our surprised he told us he had the same feeling just a month back when he was travelling back to his home town in Punjab as most of the people there are vegetarians he couldn’t have any meat for a few days and when he left and went to Jaipur the first thing he did when he arrived was dropped his bag and told his wife he didn’t want to do anything else but go straight to KFC with no delay… After hearing this we all laugh out loud.. Even the locals have the same cravings as us…
Finally the train pulled up at Delhi Old station, we got down bid our farewell to the guy that we didn’t get his name. And waited for Lide and Yili and the platform. While waiting we saw Joanne and was chatting with her on her plans and knew she was going to fly back home tonight and before that will do some sightseeing in Delhi before she leave. Since Joanne and her girlfriend is also going to Paharganj we took the autorickshaw together and went to Ajay guesthouse together.
There wasn’t any rooms available at Ajay as we expected and Yili and Lide didn’t call and book a room the day before. So they brought us to Anoops Guest house just across the road which I think is their affiliation. We asked for the cheapest room available as we will only stay for less than 24hrs and got a room for Rp300 no AC. Yili and Lide kept insisting that we just share the room with them but we didn’t want to disturb so insisted that we take our own rooms instead since is not so expensive. The rooms here was not good at all and the toilets is rusty and dirty. I told Yili and Lide that they have to go to Ajay the next day and before that better to go and make a booking with the reception.
We met again about 1400hrs to bring them to the long awaited KFC lunch!!! Eventhough we weren’t rushing I could feel that everyone just want to get there immediately. We orderd a 8 pc bucket and they also did they same..Wahahahha seems we are really KFC deprived!! I had 3 pcs and Ramli had 5pcs… Was really fulfilling for us!! And Lide and Yili also enjoyed themselves.
After we brought them to Palika Bazaar (the underground shopping bazaar), we followed them as we didn’t want to buy anything. But in the end we were the one buying a Rp2000 Ayat which is made in Kashmir. This piece is so beautiful we had to get it and at first we wanted to arrange to have it freight back to Singapore as we didn’t want to carry it with us and ruin the intricate stitching but after checking the freight which will costs Rp3500 we change our mind as it is more expensive than the costs of the Ayat. Lide said that if we wanted he could arrange to freight it to Singapore for us as he is certain that it will costs very much cheaper. We like this piece so much and was thinking if it isn’t cheaper we will just have to carry it with us. The shop owner Mr Owais Aslam whom is also Muslim was a nice man and told us that he and his wife will be going for the Haj pilgrimage this year and will pray for our safety. We are very touched after hearing this. We exchange contacts, paid for it and left for Paharganj as we were supposed to meet Joanne for dinner at 1730hrs.
But when we got to Ajay the meeting point it was already 1800hrs and she wasn’t there. We went to the café as per normal to check our mails with our laptop while waiting for her. She didn’t turn up and we reckon she should have left for the airport as her flight is 2200hrs that night.
We sat at the café and Yili came after a while asking me to go over to the hotel we were staying at to see Lide as he had checked for us how much it costs to have the Ayat freighted back. She told me we will be very happy to know as it is way way cheaper. I went over and he showed me the calculations on the Chunghwa post website.. For a 500gm parcel it costs about SGD23 only… Phew!! Luckily we didn’t let the shop freight it for us.
After they came over to Ajay to join us for a while.. We chatted while Ramli sorted out his wireless connection on his Iphone. Both of them are very nice people and kept inviting us to Taiwan but I told them we could not be able to eat much if we go there as the food isn’t halal…Yili told us about a beef steamboat place which we had to go … She said that the beef that was serve is very fresh.. And really fresh meaning after the cow is slaughtered the meat will be served within 3 hours to the customers if the time exceeds they will us it to make meatballs or other purposes.. Whoa!! That sounds really fresh and nice.. I told her Im sure we would like it but too bad it isn’t halal.. She was joking that if we are seriously coming let them know and give them ample time so they could be able to go and beg the boss of the shop to arrange the meat to be slaughtered halal for us.. Kekekkeke I told her if we have the chance we will come to Taiwan..
We left Ajay about 0000hrs, got back to the room and got the Ayat and the bag and shoes that I bought in Jaisalmer to pass to Yili to have them help us freight back to Singapore from Taiwan. I pass her the money for the freight but they didn’t want to accept and said that they will need us to get Nikon lens for them so we could deduct the freight from there. We felt really bad but thankful that we met such nice people and was grateful.
We said our goodbyes and bid farewell..
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