Friday 15th October

The first day of no Commonwealth Games, what was I to do? Oh yes .. check out of this crappy hotel!! I was so glad to be gone, as I'd spent two (hot showered depleted) weeks feeling like the staff were vindictive, with remote controls 'suddely disappearing' and air conditioning and TV 'not working' after I'd complain about something or refuse a tour offer.


I had booked into the Park Hotel, in Connaught Place, for the night, and was keen to arrive early in the hope I could check in and make the most of their facilities. I took a tuk-tuk to the hotel (although, I asked him to stop just out the front - I didn't want to turn up at a 5 star hotel in a tuk-tuk!), checking whilst my bags were x-rayed and then sent up to my room. You may have heard there was a major terrorist warning out for the past few days against the Games' venues and a few hotels that were housing Games' officials - I assume this was one of the targets, and security remained tight.

The thing with staying in a nice hotel is tipping. I hate the concept of tipping - especially enforced tipping, like in the US. It generally makes me refuse to use the services of the hotel, just to avoid the awkward tipping situation (how much? and how?) I did tip the 'bellman' who brought up my bags - he hovered just enough to make it clear that that was what he was after - but didn't at any other time during my stay.

The hotel room was amazing - extremely funky, just like me! :-) The bed was sooo luxurious that I wanted to buy the pillows and doona - a far cry from the bed at Hotel Emperor Palms, which you would have broken your tail bone on if you fell onto it. The TV had over 100 channels - still several dedicated to the Commonwealth Games, although talk had now turned about getting to the root of the corruption that had plagued it - and the bathroom amenities included dental and shaving kits, and even a miscellaneous pack with things like safety pins and paper clips!

I had arranged to meet Mark (from the netball) after 2pm, and I decided to spend the few hours before then shopping, and took a taxi down to the DLF malls in the south of Delhi. It's strange in Delhi - malls don't stand by themselves like in Australia; but rather, they are clustered together. Here, there were 3 malls - DLF Emporium, with high end stores like Louis Vuitton and Channel; and DLFs Ambience and (??), which were your normal 'Pacific Fair' or 'Chadstone' like malls. I spent my time in the Ambience Mall, purchasing a wool dress and studded black belt - a few things for my Canada wardrobe. (I've decided I'm going to take every opportunity from now on to look for clothes to Canada - buying a wardrobe in the three days before I start work is just not feasible!)

Back at the hotel, I had an hour watching TV before Mark arrived. He first needed to exchange money, and I noticed there was a bank beside us. The bank was nothing like Australia. First, there were a few guys sitting on chairs in a lobby, behind a sign saying 'Reception'. They referred us to 'International Banking' on the third floor, so up we trundled in the lift. Walking down a corridor, we entered the 'International Banking' room, which consisted of a heap of desks, just like a normal office. Um, where we in the right place?

A man looked up and pointed us in the direction of one of the desks. We walked over, and the man sitting at the desk confirmed we were in the right place, and he could exchange the money for us (on production of Mark's passport). 'Changing Australian dollars?', the bank official enquired, on seeing Mark's passport. Mark said no, he was exchanging US dollars, as he'd previously been in Nepal. "Aah, too bad, the Australian dollar actually had a better exchange rate than the US dollar - 41.5 compared to 41.3". Wow - I hadn't realised the exchange rate had risen so much!


Money exchanged, we crossed the road to Janpath Market, where I had briefly visited last week and Denise and John had visited on Tuesday. It was probably the best market in Delhi (which was saying something) - first, a street lined with clothing stalls; and then a street of proper shops, with pashmimas, silks and souvenirs. The market was buzzing with tourists, mostly officials/players from the Games who were taking advantage of their first day off in Delhi to pick-up presents for friends and family back home. And that's exactly what Mark did.

I didn't need to buy anything, but had a blast walking through the streets with Mark as he looked at different items. He managed to score a few (non authentic) Comm Games t-shirts (selling at $4 now, as opposed to the $6 I'd had to pay), as well as some bangles and coasters. Everyone was in a jovial mood - I ran into a few Kiwis and told them I wasn't speaking to them because of the netball result - turned out they'd been at the match, and we had a good chat about the game. On several occasions I was asked for assistance in picking jewellery for daughters or partners 'back home' (the more sparkle, the better, is my rule).

We had an awesome time bartering at a stall full of table runners and bedspreads. Mark had decided he wanted a table runner for his dining table, and set out to find the perfect one. First off, he went through the 100 odd to pick those in a similar colour scheme to his brown dining table. Down to about 20, he went through it a second time, removing those that were too glitzy or ugly. A third pass then narrowed it down to two, and he asked for my opinion. "The one on the left", I replied. "Good," he replied, "that's the one I'm buying, I just wanted to make sure you agreed!" Our tastes were very similar, as we discovered during the afternoon. Whilst he was doing that, I also purchased a table runner - bartering my way from 1700 rupee to 400!! Score!!!

We grabbed a drink at a nearby coffee store before farewelling each other at the metro stop. It was sad - although I'd only known these people for a few days, they had all become good friends, of whom I would probably never see again. But we had shared a great experience and exchanged e-mail addresses, so who knows .. maybe the World Cup in Singapore next year?


I returned to the hotel and hit up the gym. My goodness, you have no idea how much I miss working out. Running is impossible in Asia due to the heat, non-existent footpaths and crowds, so I haven't run since I left Australia. I miss the feeling of thrashing myself and being physically exhautsed, so I made sure I went hard at the gym. (A very good gym - all of the cardio machines even had TVs!)

I had intended to order room service but couldn't be bothered playing the tipping game, so I headed out to a nearby Indian restaurant for idli, dosai, and uddarparm ('like Indian pizza', the waiter told me - turned out to be a potato pancake). I ordered it to take away, and chomped away whilst watching a How I Met Your Mother marathon before slipping between the divine sheets for an immaculate sleep ...