20.2.19

We were woken at 6.15am by door slammers. John went back to sleep and missed the 8am earthquake. The hotel swayed for a few seconds, a little scary, but thankfully just a 4.0 magnitude.

It was fabulous to leave Hotel Dollar Inn. We literally have nothing good to say about it.

We decided to get an Ola to the airport and after negotiating rubble, rickshaws, tuk tuks, handcarts, and beggars made our way up Bazar Road to a large hotel as a landmark for the driver.

We gave a young lad that came up to us begging a tshirt John bought and has never worn, he looked it all over critically, obviously not a Primark fan-, he was umming and ahhing, as wanted money, but when I offered to have it back he decided it was ok.

Time now 11am. 50 million tuk tuk drivers asked if we wanted one while we waited.

We waited, and watched the phone screen seeing the ETA go from 9 minutes, to 14, to 8 and back to 14. Rang the driver, he said we would have to meet him at the station. We cancelled him as main reason we didn’t go to the station was the issue of Johns homemade bag strap and getting across the crazy main road.

Tried Uber, same problem, made our way to station via beggars, people trying to sell battery packs for phones and so on. No sign of uber, various phone calls, made our way to where it looked like he was on map, no sign. Gave up.

Starting to rain, grabbed a tuk tuk. Literally stuck in traffic with nothing moving for ages. Time now, 11.45am.

Check in time 12.30pm. ‘How long will it take?’ About an hour.

Anyway, thank goodness we didn’t go by car as the tuk tuk was able to weave in and out of the tiniest gaps and he got us there, somehow, by 12.25pm!

Self check in and bag drop were simple, lovely guy on desk wished me a happy birthday for a couple of weeks time, his is 4 days before mine. I really love Indigo, such a friendly efficient company.

Had KFC burgers for lunch and boarded on time.

Landed in Cochin on time at 5.30pm. 33 degrees and sunny.

Alfa Inn is very near the airport, but they offer a free shuttle and had messaged this morning to tell me to ring when we arrived.

Rang, ‘manager 30 minutes, not here, get taxi, no English’

We negotiated the big main road and were at Alfa 10 minutes later, the young guy got a telling off from manager who had been outside having tea and had said to call him if any tourists ring.

Why is it always us?

I asked if the room is quiet, yes, he promised. I explained about Delhi and he said North Indian people always big problem in hotels.

Our room is massive, huge soft comfy bed, rummicub table and great wifi.

We went out locally to a place called The Food Court. Had an amazing chicken tikka, but John was out of luck, no biriyanis.

My best tip for Delhi….

Stay in New Delhi outside of the crazy Old Delhi bazaar area, just do it as a visit. We fancied being in the midst of it all but had no idea just how mad it would be.

We’ve been so lucky with the weather in Delhi, 20 degrees was perfect for our sightseeing, so glad we were then as rain for next few days.

Had a great few days and so glad we made the trip up there, have seen some incredible sights and some incredibly heartbreaking sights.

Time to sleeeeeeeep 🙂