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Our member RooFlyer recently spent twelve jam-packed days travelling around India and China, sampling a range of airlines and hotels along the way.
The trip wouldn’t have been possible without advice and tips from a wide range of AFF members, on everything from tour guides to securing award seats on Singapore Airlines.
This first post is about the trip almost all being possible because of what I’ve learned through AFF and a number of terrific members who’ve helped me either specifically or in general on the various forums/threads…
The trip got off to an exemplary start, with our member enjoying the entire First class cabin to themselves all the way to Singapore! After one more flight – this time in Singapore Airlines’ prized “Suites” class – the historic sights of Delhi awaited.
With a population of around 25 million, Delhi may seem like a chaotic city. But our member was particularly impressed by the organised chaos of the traffic.
First impressions of Delhi – foggy, chaotic, smoggy, chaotic, crowded, chaotic, historic.
I ate the second night at the hotel restaurant and was fascinated by the scene outside – two main roads of cars, intersecting at nearly right angles, threading across each other, apparently seamlessly, at abt 40-50km/hr! The pics don’t really show what a miracle of close-packed driving excellence it was.
Between visiting the main attractions of Delhi, our member trekked into the old town where local markets could be found…
After the Red Fort we tackled Delhi Old town and its bazaars! Given the choice between rick-shaw and walking, I chose walking – at least then my life would be in my own hands. It was a great experience. Narrow lanes, lots of people, lots of colour and noise… Of course the deeper you got, the more interesting the experience. Fortunately motorbikes gave you some warning that they were coming behind you, via their noise (and constant tooting horns), but the rick-shaws were silent and deadly, especially when there was just enough room for two to pass, but nothing else …. And of course like many similar places round the word the trade of ‘electrician’ seems to be unknown …
From Delhi the trip continued south to Jaipur and Agra, the home of the famous Taj Mahal. But all good things must come to an end. Following the conclusion of an enlightening tour through India’s north, our member travelled to the central Chinese city of Xi’an.
The terracotta warriors are the main attraction in Xi’an, and they didn’t disappoint!
The terracotta ‘Army’ and the mausoleum for Emperor Qin Shi Huang was begun in 246 BC, when the Emperor was 13. So far three pits have been excavated to varying degrees (more are being explored at the moment) and about 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots and 520 horses have been discovered.
Enjoy the full trip report, as RooFlyer takes you on a well-documented Asian adventure HERE.
