India, Day 2 (April 22)
After the departing the plane we make fairly good time through baggage pick-up and customs. As we exit we see our tour group sign. Ah, it is nice to be picked up from the airport.
Usually this is where the adventure begins. The where am I and how exactly do I get to where I need to go...and how can I do this cheaply. But, this time we've gone with a tour group so instead we just wait around. And wait some more.
Apparently we've had a few people cancel, one person is stuck back in the States due to a Visa issue and another had a NYC connection issue so never made it on Air India. That would be a bummer.
From the airport we load everything into a motor coach and head into the city. Not a lot to look at our ride in. Typical near-airport view....dirty, trashy and industrial. When we do arrive we all depart and head into the hotel bar for a de-brief.
The tour is about (20?) people. Mostly older folks in their 50s. There is a set of three younger people, maybe in their late 20s. Majority are couples although there is a mother/daughter duo which I think is a pretty cool. (India with your mom? Awesome!)
1st odd thing --while waiting around at the airport you would think that our guide would engage us. Admittedly, I didn't engage with him, but that's because I thought he was just an airport greeter. When we've traveled with go-today the person at the airport would walk us through our itinerary and drop us off at the hotel but we'd never see them again after that.
You would think since the person in India was with us for the entire week he would have used that wait/downtime at airport to make introductions and start chatting us up --why did we choose India, what do we hope to see, etc. I mean it was fine, and the group naturally started to make introductions and inquiries between each other but our guide definitely had a missed opportunity from the beginning.
2nd odd thing as we sit around at the hotel I expect this is where our onsite materials will be handed out. Nope. He doesn't really provide any information other than...hey, this is the hotel, hope you're comfortable. The start of our tour the next day is also weird...instead of telling us where to meet he asks what time we want to start.
This isn't prefaced with any options or pro/cons...i.e. if we start at 8 AM we'll be able to do X or....we can start at anytime, but leaving at 10 AM will mean less traffic. It's just --"what time do you want to start?"
Since we have no idea what time we need/should start we all stare blankly back at him which I think annoys him. I understand being frustrated when no one answers a question yet...we have no information to go on to even begin to have an answer. I'm confused on why he is even asking. And so begins the week-long mystery: is our guide just clueless or is he is so "whatever" about us that he isn't interested in putting in the effort? I still don't know.
After we pick an arbitrary start-time he's ready to jet but we start asking questions --when is breakfast, is there internet here, what about the pool, do you have any local maps, where is it safe to go, what do you suggest for eating out?
He doesn't really answer any of our questions. It's all vague, "I think...could be...don't know..." The worst was when it came to evening plans. It is approximately 5:30 PM in India. We have been on a plane for 15+ hours. We are ready to go do something.
His suggestion? Oh, you are probably tired. "You should stay in, order french fries from room service."
WHAT? Ugh. I'm pretty sure from that point on I filtered everything he said from a negative point of view. Again, is he being a dick and completely unhelpful or does he really think that Americans just want to laze around and eat fries? I don't get it.
When we all balked --I mean really, who orders room service? --and french fries, c'mon? I love french fries, but perhaps not on day one! (Personally I never order room service --not usually very good and way too expensive. This should be a last resort).
When pressed for more information he couldn't really help us. Oh there's things all around. It really would be better for us to eat at the hotel.
.....better, because it's unsafe outside? Better because you don't feel like dishing out recommendations? What exactly? He said he's been doing this tour for five years so inexperience is not the reason. I'm guessing boredom and burnout is.
I overhear a group saying they are going into the city about 11km away. Sounds OK to me and I ask if we can join them. Unfortunately, I missed the part about where they were going into the city to eat at...the Hard Rock Cafe.
Ugh. I take it back. Apparently, we really do all want to eat french fries. I realize that many people do the HRC circuit when they travel though so I tried not to judge. It did suck to take an expensive taxi ride out (totally suckered by the cost of this from the hotel doorman), on top of an overly expensive dinner that wasn't very good. It was actually in the middle of a mall. Apparently night mall is all the rage in big-city India. Did I mention we're in New Delhi?
A semi-awkward dinner later (nothing like dining with complete strangers), the taste of disappointment still fresh, we head back to the hotel. I unpack and then go to bed.