Trip to India - day 3

Woke up early again to catch my early train to Jaipur. Was initially worried that my driver wouldn't turn up. In fact, the hotel management advised me to walk to the Eastern gate checkpoint and catch an auto-rickshaw there as they didn't believe he would turn up as well.

Nevertheless, I thought I would wait and see and if he failed to turn up, then I would walk to the checkpoint.

At 5.15am, he turned up. Yay! Was very glad he did. It was a quick short ride, about 2km to the train station. As he did not mention a price, I gave him Rs100, which I thought was a reasonable amount. During the daytime, the same trip would have only cost Rs50 and one is expected to pay 25% extra for out-of-hours (11pm-5am). And this was actually in-hours now.

And guess what? He complained it was too little. I asked him how much he wanted, and this time he said, another Rs100. What a total rip-off. Rs200 for a short 2km ride. I could have refused to pay him or give him less but it was in the early hours of the morning, with me, alone with my bags in a desolated train station. I decided it was smarter to pay him off.

At the same time, I stupidly blame myself for not agreeing on a price at the start. I have no one to blame but myself. Boy, was I pissed at myself.

The train was scheduled to depart at 6.15am and I was informed that it was delayed by an hour. Oh well, that's not too bad, I guess. Delays are to be expected. However, as time passed, we received information that the train was delayed again and again and again. It was miserable waiting at the train station, where there were no proper seats, no decent food facility and definitely no functional toilet facility. At this point, I really hated travelling alone.

Agra Fort Railway Station in the early hours of the morning

The train arrived 4 hours later, which I was very thankful for. This time, I was not seated in First Class as it didn't have any. I was seated in a Sleeper coach, where there are 3 levels of bunk-bed type seats. At this point, I was extremely miserable on the train. I was hungry but was afraid to buy food from the children who walked by selling sandwiches, thirsty as I did not want to drink water for fear of having to use the toilet and also there would be no one to watch my bags if I did, so so tired and sleep-deprived. Furthermore, there are no announcements on the train, so was also afraid of missing my stop. I tried to take short naps every now and then which was made difficult by a toddler speaking non-stop. At the end, I succumbed to buying a hot egg sandwhich for Rs10.

The journey took 5 hours and by the time I arrive in Jaipur, it was 4pm in the afternoon. A whole day of sight-seeing wasted due to the train delay. I stayed at the Hotel Pearl Palace which was pretty decent with an awesome restaurant on the rooftop. And best of all, it had free internet connection.

As it was late, I decided to rest and relax for the rest of the evening.

Trip to India - Day 2

Woke up really early to catch the early morning Shatabdi Express train from New Delhi to Agra. The hotel was kind enough to sent one of their employees to walk me to the train station as despite the hotel being only 100m away, one had to walk through an extremely dirty and busy street to get there. The employee walked me to the right platform and waited there until my train arrived. I had initially asked him to leave as I waited at the platform but he refused and said he would wait until the train arrived. I then tipped him generously for his kind efforts (or maybe that was why he was waiting?)

The train ride was quick, only 2 1/4 hours and the service was reasonable. Well, I did book first class Executive seats.

As usual, at the train station, I was constantly hassled by auto-rickshaw drivers. It can be quite intimidating, especially for a single woman travelling alone. I randomly picked a driver who did not look too dodgy and we agreed on a price (Rs60). On the way to the hotel, Hotel Sheela, which was located very conveniently near the east gate of the Taj Mahal, the driver tried to convince me to book a full day tour with him. He showed me two small notebooks which was full of reviews and comments from previous tourists, praising him in all languages (Japanese, French, German) of his good service. I was hesitant at first but then I thought, well, it would be much easier than constantly searching for an auto-rickshaw to bring me from one location to the next. So, we agreed on a price (Rs350).

The first stop was Mahtab Bagh, a park situated on the sandy bank of Yamuna River, just opposite the Taj Mahal. The main reason for visiting the park was because it was the ideal spot for taking picturesque view of the Taj Mahal.

A smog-polluted picture of the Taj Mahal from the park

Next stop was Itmad-ud-Daullah's tomb, which is fondly known as Baby Taj.

Mausoleum of Itmad-Ud-Daulah

The third stop was Agra Fort, a UNESCO world heritage site. Apparently, it is the most important fort in India where the great Mughals had lived and governed the country from here. It was often visited by foreign ambassadors and travellers during its time.

The Bengali Mahal

Inside the Musamman Burj, where Shah Jahan spent the last 7 years of his life under house arrest by his son

Diwan-i-Am (Hall of Public Audience)

After that, it was time for lunch where the driver took me to a so-called clean restaurant, which belonged to his cousin! As expected, all the customers in the restaurant were foreigners. =P

Later, the driver took me to a few emporiums (shawls, pashmina, marble etc) in the hope that I would purchase something and that he would get a commission. The prices they charged were really exorbitant, even for UK standards. These people would persuade you to buy, buy and buy and if you refuse, they would reduce the price accordingly up to the point that they asked, how much you want to pay for it. I blanketly refused to give a price as I really did not know what would be a suitable price and secondly, I didn't really want any of the things there.

I did succumb to purchasing 2 cushion covers (Rs100 each) and a lovely cream-coloured pashmina/wool shawl (Rs800). I think I overpaid for the shawl.

Finally, it was the main attraction itself. The Taj Mahal.

The Taj Mahal

The entrance fee was rather steep (Rs750) for foreigners and only Rs100 for Indian nationals. For the steep price, we were given a bottle of packaged drinking water and a pair of shoe covers. The Indian nationals didn't get anything.

As one approaches the Taj Mahal, we had to remove our shoes, but since we were given shoe covers, we didn't need to. The Indian nationals all had to remove their shoes and walk barefoot across the cold marble floor. I wouldn't have minded it that much but I would be really annoyed if someone ran off with my shoes. Maybe that's why they offer foreigners the luxury of shoe covers? Or is it just a scam to charge the steep entrance fee? Anyway, it was raining lightly when I was there and the floor was filthy with dirt and mud, making me glad of my precious shoe covers.

The Taj Mahal was indeed magnificent. There were beautiful marble carvings all along the walls on the outside of the building. On the inside, there were fake marble tombs of the Emperor Shah Jahan and his 3rd wife, Mumtaz, with the real ones underneath. It was difficult to see much inside as it was very dark, with very limited natural sunlight.

The marble carvings on the wall

I was tempted to hang around the area to take a picture of the Taj Mahal during sunset but I was extremely exhausted by then. There was an option to return later that night as during the night of full moon and 2 days prior and after that, the Taj Mahal is open for night-viewing. And the next night was a full moon.

As tempted as I was, I was too tired to wait around until sunset, which was another 1 1/2 hours to go. And I did not want to pay the entrance fee again for the night-viewing. You had to leave the area at sunset and pay again to enter. And I had to catch an early morning train again to Jaipur at 6am the next day. Thus, I went back to my hotel and slept.

My driver for the day offered to take me from my hotel to the train station the next day. We arranged a pick-up for 5.30am. As my hotel is located in the so-called Taj Trapezium Zone, which is supposedly a 100% pollution-free area, the entry of vehicles were prohibited from the checkpoints to safeguard the beauty of the Taj Mahal. The distance from the Eastern entrance checkpoint was about 500m to my hotel. I did not fancy walking alone at 5.15am across the 500m and asked the driver to walk to my hotel to pick me up, which he willingly agreed.

I asked how much he was charging for the trip, and I *stupidly* and *naively* believed him when he said, "Pay me whatever you like."

Trip to India - Day 1

Left for New Delhi, India yesterday to attend a conference on palliative care, where I had submitted an abstract of my audit project and it was selected for an oral presentation.

The flight to India via British Airways was okay. It was a full flight, made worse by screaming babies everywhere. What irritated me the most was the in-flight food. Instead of offering a choice of meals for dinner, I was given an Indian vegetarian dish, which consisted of rice and kidney beans. The meal tasted so bad that the world's best passenger complaint letter came to mind. I asked the air stewardess if there were any other options, and she basically said this is our Indian sector flight thus this is the food offered. I was not pleased and was glad that I had eaten a full meal prior to the flight.

I landed at Indira Gandhi International Airport at 5am. After passing immigration, I went to the Foreign Currency counter to exchange Indian Rupees. Apparently, it is not possible to change Indian Rupees outside of India. The customers ahead of me were exchanging huge sums of money that they were given huge stacks of Indian Rupees. When it was my turn, I only exchanged 50 pounds worth of Indian Rupees (Rs 3500) and was told-off for asking for a receipt with the reason being that I had only exchanged such a small sum of money. Hmmph!

Then, I took a pre-paid taxi to Ginger Hotel, which was located next to the New Delhi Railway Station. I purposely chose this hotel as my train to Agra was leaving at 6.15am the next morning and I wanted to avoid the hassle of finding a taxi in the early hours of the morning.

I arrived at the hotel around 7-ish am. The traffic in New Delhi was amazingly chaotic and honestly, terrifying. I wasn't allowed to check-in until 12pm, unless I was willing to pay 50% extra for my room for early check-in. I decided to wait out in the 24-hour hotel restaurant instead to have my breakfast.

The long 5 hour wait in the restaurant was physically-challenging due to sleep debt. I sat in one corner of the restaurant, had my breakfast, and tried to take short naps, while trying to pass the time. Things got a bit more interesting when a team of people came to shoot a video commercial of the restaurant. And I was in the video commercial! They went around asking people what they thought of the restaurant and came to ask me as well. I just gave a generic answer of good good, clean environment, reasonable ambience. The usual...

Finally, I got my room at 11am and went to sleep. I am getting old. Previously, I would have set out to explore Delhi, sleep debt or not. But now, my sleep took priority. Slept for about 3 hours and then went out to visit Connaught Place. The area is instantly recognizable on any map of Delhi, as it has a big circle in the middle with radial roads spreading out in all directions, like spokes on a wheel. It was modeled after the Royal Crescent in Bath, England.

It was basically a shopping and tourist attraction. Walked around, had my dinner, then came back to my hotel to rest and sleep for my early morning journey the next day.

Roses galore

Came across The Real Flower Company, and was amazed by how pretty the roses are. Maybe it's because, according to their website, each stem is individually selected, cut, prepared and tied by the people who grew them, thus ensuring the highest quality at every stage, from planting through to the beautifully finished bunches.

I am never a big fan of spending huge amounts of money on flowers, especially since in previous experience of flowers that I had received, the roses were not very good quality. In a dozen roses, one or two would be half-wilting and almost half would never bloom, and they fade away after 3 days. Thus, I found it a waste of money to buy flowers.

However, I must admit, these gorgeous bouquets of flowers on their website look absolutely divine, and will definitely melt any girl's (including mine) heart.

My address will be provided on request.

Mistake

It snowed again as I was coming home after my night shift at work. Usually, I would cherish the thought of being able to play in the snow. But it's horribly cold, and wet everywhere and I am tired and annoyed at myself.

I made a mistake at work today.

It wasn't a fatal mistake, thankfully, but it had the potential to become one if the mistake was left to continue and wasn't noted in the morning hand-over. More importantly, it was a mistake that I should not have made. I should have known better as it was a situation that I had came across many times in the past, and made the right decision. So, why didn't I do the same this time?

The only excuse I could come up with was that I was distracted. I can't say what I was distracted by in such public domains as it would involve making accusatory comments on another health care professional. Nevertheless, I should have known better and not have let the distraction affect my decision-making skills.

I went back to the hospital later in the evening to check on the patient's status. Fortunately, there was no lasting-damage due to my error.

The only lasting damage is most likely on the consultant's perception of my capability. All it takes is one error to undo everything else.

The big freeze

Views from my bedroom window

I woke up this morning to a winter wonderland. And it's still snowing...

Apparently, this is our worst snow seen for 18 years, causing schools to be closed across England, public transport to be withdrawn and the advice to only make essential journeys.

The prediction is more heavy snow later this afternoon, accompanied by strong winds in blizzard condition. I will be at work then. I, unfortunately, cycle to work, thus can't use the excuse of no public transport to arrive at work (unlike the people in London who have a day off as the trains and underground tube are not working).

Better enjoy the snow while I can....

Day out in London

Went down to London yesterday to meet an ex-university friend. We were originally planning to eat at Rasa Sayang restaurant in Chinatown but the streets in Chinatown were close as they were busy preparing the decorations for the official CNY celebration on Sunday. Thus, we moved location to Malaysia Kopitiam instead.

Through her, I found out that 2 of my ex-university friends, working in investment banking, have been made redundant and they were offered 6 months pay. Pretty generous, I must say, with the current economic crisis.

Then, met up with friends for dinner and an opera. We went to Asia de Cuba, a small restaurant at the St Martin's Lane Hotel, to try out their Bento Boxes. They were having their 10th year anniversary, thus offering their Bento Box meal for only 10 quid. Well, only one box was 10 quid. The others were priced higher.

20 pounds Bento Box - seared spiced tuna with avocado and wasabi, tempura shrimp with chilli mayonnaise, asia de cuba salad (curly endive, chayote, hearts of palm, banana, cashews, roquette, adicchio, sesame orange dressing) and shanghai noodles

10 pounds Bento Box - grilled salmon with wasabi sour cream, beef dumplings with plum sauce, thai salad (avocado, shredded coconut, orange segments and asian greens with hot and sour dressing) and havanna noodles

25 pounds Bento Box - tamarind chicken, asian pesto prawns, honey-run glazed roast of pork with sauteed shanghai bok choy, fried plantains and enoki mushrooms and coconut rice

The ambience was nice, but the food was definitely over-priced. I didn't particularly enjoyed it as it was too salty for my liking.

After the dinner, we proceeded next door to the English National Opera, at the London Coliseum, to watch the Magic Flute.

It was a nice opera, and the first opera that I have been that was sung in English, which surprised me at the start. I am used to watching the subtitles as previous operas have all been sung in Italian or German, but I didn't need to in this one.

And then, it was a rush to catch the train back as I had to work the next day. Sigh....