And Our Driver Said You Need A Good Horn, Good Brakes & Good Luck to Drive In India

[RB]

Re: And Our Driver Said You Need A Good Horn, Good Brakes & Good Luck to Drive In Ind

21[SUP]st[/SUP] Nov 2013 DEL-SIN SQ401 J 777-200 14D & 14F
A 5.30am wakeup, 6.15am pickup from the hotel and by 7.10am we are in the Silverkris lounge. New Delhi is now a very modern airport & the drop off point sees Indian traffic at its most orderly. We had checked in online but still needed to drop bags etc. No waiting, served straight away at separate business counter & issued with boarding passes that suffice for entry to the lounge-no separate invite.
There are separate Immigration & security lines for business & 1[SUP]st[/SUP] & at this hour there are few people at the airport. One cabin bag is put back through at security after we were told to remove the camera & all associated power cords. There are modern brand name shops, Duty Free and food outlets-our driver had been told it was now the best airport in the Asia-Pacific region!
The Silver Kris lounge is on Level 3 via a lift. There was 1 other person there when we arrived & the attendance topped out at about 12 while we were there. We were each give a 40 min voucher for the wi-fi (could also use the voucher on the 2 provided computers). Hot food included Indian options, baked beans & scrambled eggs. There was toast, corn flakes, fruit & yoghurt also available. There was JW black & canned Kingfisher if required. The coffee machine made good cappuccinos. The Ashes test was on live & I saw Warner’s 1[SUP]st[/SUP] innings dismissal. There were good clean toilets but no sign of showers. I believe the lounge runs on restricted hrs that vary with the travel seasons. Our flight was called in the lounge & the lift ride down & a short walk saw us there in less than 5 minutes. Priority boarding was well executed & there were 2 distinct channels for walking down to the plane. Onboard Delhi customs were blamed for the lack of alcohol in the pre-departure drinks. Crew were a delight-very polite, greeted us by name at all times yet worked in a relaxed, friendly manner. There were a few Xmas decorations adorning the walls of the cabin. Push back was 2 min late but there was an apology! Some congestion then delayed takeoff. We enjoyed the SQ satays then a long break before other food. There was a prawn entrée & a choice of a chicken dish or Indian lamb-both great. We enjoyed a Silver Kris Sling, Heidsieck bubbles, Tiger beer & Highland Park 12yr single malt. The seatbelt sign was on for a while. The angled seats were pretty comfortable & the entertainment system worked well. Approx 15 passengers in J & most of the window seat flyers enjoyed an empty set beside them. I was a little intrigued by the title of a book being read by a fellow passenger-How Not to Make Money. Also a bit topical given the news this week, a couple of staff walked through the plane with a spray.


The SQ Delhi lounge
Silver Kris slings
Reading material of fellow passenger
View of the J seats-good for day flight & snoozing
Satay

 

[RB]

Re: And Our Driver Said You Need A Good Horn, Good Brakes & Good Luck to Drive In Ind

More shots DEL-SIN
Prawn entree
Chicken main
The Indian style main
Mrs RB weakened & had the sweets

 

[RB]

Re: And Our Driver Said You Need A Good Horn, Good Brakes & Good Luck to Drive In Ind

We had approx 3 hrs in Singapore & headed straight up to the SilverKris lounge. A big lounge that coped well with the numbers that varied throughout. No wait for a shower-very good with good toiletries & towels. We had booked the cook for our 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] leg (turned out to be a mistake) so we didn’t eat a lot but the twice cooked pork was superb. Plenty of drink options available- just had to pour myself a Tiger beer!


SIN-SYD SQ221 J A380-800 21A & 22A
Easy walk to the gate, priority boarding well handled-separate line on left. Last minute check being conducted for lquids/booze not bought at Changi. Loading was fairly quick but the upstairs J on the 380 is big in numbers & the crew seemed to really struggle to cope. Despite seat maps of the day before showing quite a few empty seats, reality was there were none. It was haphazard service at best-not sure if they were short on numbers but they were very rushed throughout & never seemed to be able to relocate me when delivering ordered drinks etc. It was almost 3hrs from takeoff to receiving the pre-ordered lobster-nice but this meant very restricted sleep time available. Large cabin numbers also mean an early start to breakfast. Breakfast itself was a very rushed affair & we touched down early in Syd.

Ended up making up my own bed-192cm means the across the seat flat bed is not the most comfortable J seat I have used.
Bit slow to disembark but then we had a golden run through Duty Free, SmartGate at immigration, bags were already on the carousel & then we were guided through to line 8 at customs-this led us straight out with no check.

Bit More of Report to come

Always something to see in Changi
Entree
The long awaited lobster
Not my favourite seat layout but plenty of storage spots

 

[RB]

Re: And Our Driver Said You Need A Good Horn, Good Brakes & Good Luck to Drive In Ind

SYD-PQQ VA1189
We were on VA 1189 SYD-PQQ from T2. We stayed at Caringbah the previous night & despite being close to the airport there was apparently much less rain than around the airport. There were certainly more cars than normal trying to get around T2 & T3 around 11am. At Virgin checkin there were crowds with heaps going on schoolies. We only needed bag drop but it was a long line & eventually we were called to lines 1 & 2 that were catering only to closing flights. Our flight was late to start loading, then we were told there were 2 no shows so their luggage was offloaded & then after sitting onboard with no updates we were told the airport had been closed due to storms. The seat belt sign stayed on all flight. Generally this was a non-eventful flight.
After getting home & watching news reports re delays the previous nights & people being reallocated to fly on the Sat I now believe we were lucky to get home only 75 minutes or so late.

SUMMARY
As noted at the beginning of the report, this was our 2nd trip to India. I realise India is not everyones cup of tea but we are certainly entertaining the thought of seeing other parts of this diverse country.
India has certainly changed since we were there in 2007. Many Indian travellers are getting about in new Mazda & Hyundai cars. There has been progress in road construction but there are so many spots where work is incomplete & there is no benefit being gained from the completed work-eg isolated flyovers. You really take a long time to get anywhere but there is never a dull moment & at the end of the day you feel as if you have done all the driving
Yes we are biased against bus trips, and certainly in India I would be recommending the idea of hiring a car & a driver. This enabled us to set our own itinerary, our own pace, our own dining preferences, photo spots etc. We also thought we had more contact with the Indian people this way. The cost in Aust $$$ is very reasonable. Our driver was a fantastic driver, guide, teacher, adviser & carer & we never felt in any danger. Magan speaks very good English, his email replies are prompt,he is very experienced & very reliable & honest. I am happy to supply his details by PM if anyone is interested
The many Indian tourists that we encountered on our trip were extremely polite & friendly. Obviously there remains a huge gap between the poor & the rest of India-in our short time there, there seemed to be a lot of acceptance between the classes. Indian media certainly provides the opportunity for everyone to speak their mind.
Food-we encountered no health problems, the safe handling of food seems to have received a lot of attention & we really enjoyed the variety of dishes available-Indian, Asian, Pizza, Western. We certainly saw why the Punjab region has the name of the Bread Basket to a Nation.
Our short journey (approx 2,500km) supplied us with plenty of variety-farming, industrial, IT, tourism etc & from farming flats to Himalayan hill stations
For the level of the hotel we stayed at, we were very comfortable-you could certainly pay more or less. The beds varied from hard to soft (same as most spots in the world) & all were a good size (nothing smaller than a queen). Leaking taps & showers and loose light fittings & power points seem to be a common encounter.
Hope you have enjoyed reading the report, it was good to go back over the trip whilst putting it together

I wonder where he & India will be in 15yrs time
At the Wagah border ceremony
More of Wagah ceremony
Roadside diner meal from outside Chandigarh
You never get much space to yourself in India!