Yesterday got up at 4:45 to catch taxi to Delhi's airport (Indira Gandhi International in case you were curious about the name). Taxi turned out to be a mini-van. Driver decided I needed one last reminder of what I don't like about India and asked for a tip. Apparently he wasn't content with 20 rupees, so I just left it on the car seat and bid him good-bye.
Delhi's airport is, to be blunt, a dump. The Economist always whines about how bad India's infrastructure is. During my travels through the country, I thought, "Well for a poor country, it isn't THAT bad. I've seen worse." I also saw numerous highway projects and other infrastructure construction, so at least the Indian gov't is aware it needs to do something. Part of that work is a bit of remodeling of the Intl. terminal at IGI. They should just build a new terminal. It is ugly on the outside and inside.
On the other hand, Jet Airways, the airline I flew to Singapore, is great. I paid about 70 bucks more to use them instead of Air India. Best move I've made on this trip. You have your own little private tv screen that has video and music on demand. It didn't have quite the video selection Singapore Air or some of the big players have, but its video screens were the clearest I've ever seen on a plane. The food was some of the best airline food I've had, and the service was great.
Jet is starting Mumbai-NYC service on August 5th (via Brussels) and is hoping to have a Mumbai-San Francisco (via Shanghai) service sometime next year. That would be pretty sweet. Good luck Jet.
And now I'm in Singapore. I had a pleasant surprise when I got off the tram taking me from Terminal 1 to T2: my former co-worker Wee. She had asked when I was arriving here, but I wasn't sure if she was going to meet me. When I came out into the arrivals hall and didn't see her, I figured she wasn't going to. It just made the post-tram encounter that much more of a surprise.
From there, we went to my hotel, called Sleepy Sam's. I have to say it is one of the more "posh" budget places I've ever stayed. Quite stylish. It is just down a bit from Sultan Mosque, the most famous mosque in Singapore. Highly recommend it if you need a budget place here (25 Singapore Dollars for dorm room). Had a decent shower for the first time in ages. I feel so clean right now.
Today's plan: go to the zoo! shop! eat! yes, the quinessential Singapore experience- well the last two at least.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment