Perth to Delhi

Still not quite sure how this page is going to work. Being a little embarrassed about the whole thing, I think at this stage, whilst I'll try to keep it interesting and use it mainly for posting photos - I'll also use it as a place to put down some trip notes for future reference.

First thing, the internet check in thing is pretty cool if you need to meet someone part of the way along the journey. LM, a friend from Perth who is also doing the course was visiting family in Singapore and we wanted to arrange to sit near each other on the Singapore=Delhi leg. So, log into the net, select your seat and email your travel companion to let them know what to choose. Of course, it didn't work out perfectly, but we were a few seats away from each other - so not too bad.

OK, after my previous visit to Changi Airport left me somewhat underwhelmed after all the testimony I have heard about how great it is, I had a better explore this time. Free internet, not bad. But the rest of the 'glamour shopping experience' didn't really grab me. Sat around near the orchid garden and chatted to a great English family of Greek extraction. One of the lads was an Arsenal fan - but otherwise they were great. Also met a nice Indian guy who was studying agribusiness near Brisbane. He'd been working down in Griffith, so had just driven the 1300km to Brisbane, jumped on the midnight horror to Singapore and had a 11 hour stop over at Changi. But he was still smiling.

Another who was smiling after a long journey was a lama from the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism: Lama Tsewang Sedar Rinpoche. He had been to the USA to teach for three months and was returning to Bhutan. Lama Tsewang had been flying San Francisco-Hong Kong-Singapore-Delhi and then had a 15 hour stopover until he was due to fly to Kathmandu. Instead, we arranged for him to come with us to Majnukatila (the Tibetan Settlement in Delhi) and stay over in a guesthouse. Negotiated passport control, after explaining to a few officials that a Bhutanese citizen doesn't need a visa and then went through customs. They didn't even look at our slips but made Lama Tsewang scan his bags and threatened to charge him duty on a pile of things that had been offered by his students for his monastery in Bhutan. Slight discrimination there, although the fact that Lama Tsewang was packing 70kg of check in luggage and 30kg of hand luggage probably didn't help him. :o)

The taxi was quite a sight, as was our mountain of luggage that we dragged into Majnukatila and piled on the street whilst the search for a guesthouse began. LM went looking for some "recommended" places, but it soon became clear that the place was packed and that, at 10pm at night, we were in the "beggars can't be choosers" category. I found a room at Sera Jey Guesthouse whilst minding the bags, but LM came back empty handed. It was either my 'magic touch' or the fact that I was standing about 3 metres from their door! It looked like there were no other rooms available, but a Lama without a room in Majnukatila soon attracted help from two very kind Tibetan girls who scoured around and found another at the Yak Guesthouse. The benefits of being a "Lama" hey? The rooms we got weren't their best, but at 250Rs (a little over $8) per twin room - there are no great regrets.