Incredible India

Just back from the red eye flight (over-nighter) from India and struggling to stay awake, but I am insipred by Mr Sanguine's Photo Blog so I will do a quick post of some photos from my trip (all courtesy of my Nokia 6680). :)

The picture above is actually a poster in the New Delhi airport that I took while waiting for my flight back to Singapore, but it pretty much sums up India so I thought I will start with that.

Now in proper chronological order...

This is what greeted me when I got off the plane in Delhi - as you can see, I wasn't kidding about the boom in visitors to Delhi in my last post.

After eons in the immigration queues and then the infamous Delhi traffic I arrived at my hotel (Taj Mahal) close to midnight local time - pass 2am Singapore time. It ain't much I know (especially considering that the company is paying USD$300 a night for it), but it sure was welcome relief after the tiring trip. Again, the contrast between the rich and the poor is pretty startling - the hotel is quaint and very well maintaned. Service is superb (bordering on intrusive), with a buttler call button in every room that works 24X7! Went to the gym while I was there and it was the 1st time ever in my life that someone comes up and offers me water and a COLD towel at the treadmill! Personally I prefer modern hotels that are a bit more impersonal (yes, I am an introvert)...

Every morning, I wake up, draw the blinds, and see this - another smoggy day in New Delhi! Now you know why I choose to run indoors on the treadmill when I travel. :)

Reason #236 to get a camera phone - you can snap pictures in a taxi discretely without looking like a tourist and attracting touts. :)

Here are some more random shots from my daily 1 hour commute to the office in heavy traffic...

A typical Indian signboard, also managed to catch a cyclist - there are MANY on the dusty roads. Check out the dirt road just beside the "highway" we are on - this is Delhi for you, dusty when dry and muddy when wet.

Driving in India consists of tearing madly into gaps in the traffic and cars bumping off each other to jostle for space on the badly mantained roads. Which probably explains the general state of the cars here... Notice how the driving mirrors are all bent back - no one uses them here and anything extended outside the car will probably get knocked off in a few minutes anyway!

You won't find a gasoline tanker like this outside India - what gorgeous hand painted graphics! What you see in the background is the commonfolk queuing at a bus-stop.

One last picture, this is a building near our office, and I like this picture as it again plays up the contrast between the gleaming new office building and the sqalid surroundings around it.


That's India for ya! A land of contrasts, colour, smells (not all pleasant) and DUST (or sloshy mud in rainy season).