Through Delhi

Leaving Jaipur in the late afternoon got us to Delhi around 1030pm. We had a flight to Kathmandu at 745 the next morning so we had arranged for a hotel very near to the New Delhi train station where we could sleep for a few hours before getting up to take a taxi to the airport, also arranged.
On the map the hotel appeared to be reasonably close by, less than a kilometer, and just down a street that ran straight away from the station. We decided we would walk. Of course coming out of the station there are hundreds of rickshaw and taxi drivers just waiting for customers and about 20 no thank you’s later we were out on the street. We found what appeared to be the correct street, but there are no street signs on many roads in India, so who could tell?
We walked for a couple hundred meters before deciding that it was too dark and the road did not appear like it did on the map, so we must be heading in the wrong direction. We made our way back to the prepaid taxi stand outside of the station to get a good rate. I shouldn’t fail to mention here that in the 30 minutes or so that we were walking around trying to find the correct road we were approached no less than 8 times by rickshaw drivers asking if we needed a ride somewhere, and every time we swapped 5 or 6 guys were standing around us in a matter of minutes, not comforting. A few times we said yes, and showed them on our map where we were going. None of the drivers knew where it was, but assured us they would get us there for 200 rupees. No thank you.
So we got back to the prepaid taxi stand where drivers were grouped like flies on …something flies really like. Even as we stood in line drivers would be asking us where we were going and quoting a price (still no one could tell us they knew the hotel, but that didn’t stop them). Since it was dark and there was only one street lamp near the taxi stand we would move a few feet away from the drivers surrounding us so that we could see our map. This would work for a minute until all the drivers re-swarmed asking for the 10th time where we were going. It was awful. Finally we got to the front of the line and got a prepaid taxi, 86 rupees thank you, and headed off to our hotel. Apparently it was on the opposite side of the station and if we had exited from the other side we may have walked to our hotel.
When we were dropped off by our driver he just made some faint motions and that was it, our hotel was not actually in sight, but we knew it was close from the map we had. We did find the hotel, but I must point out that the map was not correct (Rough Guide). The Kuldeep Guest house was not where it was supposed to be and there were a few roads which were missing too. So we arrived at the Kuldeep Guest House, now around 1130. We are immediately escorted next door to another hotel; I don’t remember the name, because Kuldeep was apparently full. This is a scam people pull and the second time we had encountered it in Delhi of the 2 nights we had spent in Delhi. It makes me wonder if anyone actually ever sleeps in the hotel they book or if there is a massive shuffle each night. You pay for one hotel; they put you up in the cheaper one next door, but charge you for the full price and keep another full priced room available at their hotel. However, it was 1130 and we were in a very dark neighborhood so the idea of searching for a new place was out. After seeing our room we agreed to spend the night there and started filling out forms. Meanwhile a girl was pounding on her room door and screaming for her roommate to open it. Apparently they had a 430am flight and her roommate had passed out with the door locked and was not responding. By the time we got back up to our own room she was still at it and it was after 12. We had about 5 hours to sleep, but I was really wary of the place we were in and vowed to stay awake. It just seemed shady.

5 hours later I awoke well rested, so much for staying awake, and headed to the front lobby where we met a man who was taking us to our airport taxi. We followed him out into the street and he approached a car where a man was sleeping, then he tapped on the glass and woke him. We threw our bags in the back, I waited for Aya to get in and kept an eye on our bags, and then the guy who brought us there asked for a tip. Aya laughed and said, “You didn’t do anything”. I said no and got in. I wonder if people actually tip him for walking 20ft.
We had a fairly quick ride to the airport, it was 530am, and the driver let us off with no fuss and didn’t ask for a tip, though he might have deserved it for getting up at 530 to drive us. There were only two times on the whole trip when we tipped someone, more on that later. So we arrived at around 6am and entered the airport. The Delhi airport is actually kind of nice, besides the smog you can see in the terminal building. There are plenty of restaurants and shops, free internet, reclined chairs to sleep in, and there is even a service located in the departure gates where you can rent a cube for 7 dollars an hour or less depending on the time of day. These cubes have a single bed, TV, table, a refrigerator and were extremely clean. I thought it might come in handy on the way out of Delhi next time, but that did not turn out to be true. We waited for our flight, which was delayed, then delayed again, finally getting off the ground at 1130.