India Continues: Clubs, Old Delhi and Palace Hotels
We got back to Delhi and I caught a short nap before dinner and another night out. Rob and I met up with Deep again and we ventured out again to try and catch the weekend Delhi nightlife. The start of the search did not go well. The first two places we went to had “couples only rules”. In fact, I guess this is pretty common. I guess guys outnumber guys in Delhi? We tried another bar (both in hotels, as almost all bars and clubs are) and were given the same “couples only” rule. If you are gay and live in Delhi – you’re screwed. If you’re straight and don’t know any females to help you get into clubs in Delhi – you’re still screwed. Hotel guests are waived from these rules so I tried to talk my way in as a hotel guest. He asked for our room number and we have him “114”. It didn’t get us in. Deep later explained that there are no “114”-type numbers in Delhi. Room number 114 would really be 1114 – first floor, room 114. That information would have helped before we tried to get into the club Deep! We went to a third bar and were again given the “couples only” routine but Deep was able to talk us in. It was actually a great place for the evening. It was essentially a pool bar, with some tables, chairs and couches set up around the pool. It wasn’t too hot out this evening so it was nice to be outside. We had some good conversations and managed to drink our fair share of Long Island Iced Tea pitchers.
After the bar, Rob and I went back to Deeps place for a bit of Xbox360. It was pretty late so we just crashed there for the evening. The next morning we caught a rickshaw back to Josh’s place. Rob (who had yet to see any Delhi sights) and I made plans to head down to Old Delhi for the afternoon – someplace I didn’t really have a chance to experience yet either.
Rob and I took a rickshaw to Connaught Place and caught the Metro from there to Old Delhi. The Delhi Metro was a big surprise. It is the nicest Metro I have ever been in. The stations are large and immaculate. The trains are clean. It’s nicer than London and Washington DC – both quite nice Metros. Then you come out of the Metro into old Delhi and it’s like you hit some ripple in the space-time continuum that sent you into an alternate universe where everything was filthy and falling apart. Then you look back behind you and see the immaculate Metro station is still there and you realize that this is the real thing. Walking around Old Delhi is experiencing the really poor part of the city. It was interesting to walk around for a while – but I don’t really need to go back any time soon.
We took the Metro back to Connaught Place and found a McDonalds (with a bathroom) where Rob was able to take care of his (still present) sickness. Connaught place is rife with shops and stores. There is also an underground market we visited so Rob could buy some souvenirs to bring home with him. I bought a bag since my new collection of suits were not going to fit in the one carry-on bag I brought with me.
After shopping we headed back to Sehgal Bros. to pick up my finished suits, shirts and pick out a few ties to go with them. Then it was back to Josh’s place where a few of us played cards for a few rupees each until early morning. We played with Josh’s cousin who was heading back to Bombay the next day via train. We asked him if it was far and he replied – “no not far, only 17 hours.” 17 hours on a train sounds like a living hell to me, but I guess some Indians are used to it.
On Monday I went back to Connaught Place to blow the last of my Indian rupees since I was leaving early the next morning (at 2am). I bought a pair of cufflinks to go with two of my shirts that I had tailored with a French cuff. I returned to Josh’s place late that afternoon and ended up joining Liz for a drive down to Rajasthan before I left.
They received a night at a palace-turned-hotel just over the Rajasthan border and I tagged along with them to see the place before their driver dropped me off at the airport on the way home. The hotel was the Neemrana Fort-Palace Hotel. You would never know a luxury hotel existed in the area this hotel was situated. To get to it, you had to drive down a crappy dirt road, through a dumpy village, and around some sharp, unmarked turns and up the side of a hill. However, once you finally get to it, the hotel is quite amazing. There are random walkways everywhere throughout the hotel so it’s quite easy to get lost. It’s almost like there are hidden passages to get to different places. Each room has something unique about it – Liz and Josh’s room had a private balcony area over looking the village and countryside. We all had the buffet dinner at the hotel before Tapan (the driver) and I headed back to Delhi. Obviously, despite it’s strange location, this hotel was well known as everyone in the buffet room was American or British.
I made it back to the airport without any problems and left only an hour late from Delhi (I was getting used to the whole ‘in India everything starts late’ thing finally). I was a bit worried because now I only had a 1 hour layover in Moscow, but it turned out to be no problem and I made it back to Sofia without incident. Even my bags made it as well!
