Paharganj and New Delhi
So, yesterday morning I have happily arrived in New Delhi, at 6:10am local time. My train (4005) was late by two hours but I didn’t mind. I picked up my bike from a luggage car and went to Paharganj. It’s amazing though that given all the chaos and masses of humanity in and around train stations in India, they seem to be fairly good at delivering stuff w/o getting lost and damaged. Wow… I walked to a place where I stayed in June, Hotel Star Palace. It is located in Paharganj tourist ‘ghetto’, in a narrow alley off the main street, right next to Star Paradise and Downtown hotels, and a good breakfast place, the Everest Bakery. I first checked Hotel Downtown, as it was heavily recommended by LP’s India guidebook but they coudn’t store my bike and their rooms were extremely ‘tidy’.I already booked a train ticket on the Mangala Express (2618) from Nizamuddin train station to Madgaon, Goa back in Varanasi. Today I went to New Delhi’s International tourist booking offices at the ND’s train station (500 meters from my hotel;) to get a ticket for my return journey. The trains I really wanted to take were all booked out (Mangala and Radhjani) but the fella I was dealing with suggested the Goa Express (2779). The train takes only 1-2 longer than the Mangala Express. I don’t think it matters much when the whole journey is about 33-34 hours long;) I’ll be coming back to Delhi on Dec. 17th with enough days left to get a look at Delhi before flying back home.
Otherwise, I didn’t do any picture-taking or sight-seeing in New Delhi yet. I’m really leaving it for last. Besides, weather has been kind of bland lately. Too hazy, even though that might be great for street photography in Old City narrow streets;)
Talk you in a few days from Goa;)
