I will be in India for a week
By Bernie on 16 Feb 2008
Some of my posted articles disappeared a few days ago (you may have noticed a few articles you read earlier in the week are no longer there), but I will be restoring them shortly. My Movable Type blogging platform crashed and some of my posts got corrupted. This also happened just as I was preparing to go to India for a week on business. I am in Chennai at the moment and will be blogging from here over the next few days in between business meetings.
I Arrived this morning in New Delhi at the Indira Gandhi Airport certain parts of which look as shabby as they did back in 1986, but I should add that it looks like they are finally starting to make improvements and will be completely modernized by 2010. One inconvenience is that after disembarking in the international section, you have to take a 15 km ride to the domestic terminal if you need to fly to other cities as I did.
I should mention that if you look like an American and are approached at the airport for a taxi ride to the domestic terminal you will be quoted $24.00 for a ride that costs only $4.00 if you merely prepay at the official taxi counter. If you do not know what things should cost you will be taken for a ride before you take the ride. [NOTE: In my next article I clarified this last statement by mentioning that this is not endemic only to India, obviously this kind of ripoff happens at Kennedy Airport in New York as well.]
So my partner and I finally got on the connecting flight to Chennai (you have to take a bus to the plane) and took the hotel limo to our lodgings. As we passed rundown streets and businesses we began to feel as if we entered another century. But the minute we saw our hotel, Le Royal Meridien, we were relieved to discover it was as modern as anything in the states. I will be posting photos shortly but I have a meeting in the morning and jet lag just hit me (it's 2:53 PM NY time and it's 1:13 AM India time) so I will write something tomorrow.
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