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India: go ahead!!!

12 May 2010 • Travel time: with 01 January 2010 on 17 January 2010
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India: Go Forward!

“... “The eighth year” was difficult for many, and, probably, it is not worth dwelling on this in detail ... ”, I wrote exactly a year ago, telling the reader about my Argentine adventures. I was wrong! - I can admit now - the "ninth" in matters of complexity and non-triviality broke all records. At least in my life. Ask me a year ago, for example, about my main job. I would answer without hesitation: "Yes - I'm tired, yes - it's boring, yes - it's hopeless, yes -)))". In place of the "smilie" any reader can substitute his "favorite" epithet, characterizing the most colorful of his current work. Undoubtedly, the question arises: “If everything is so “satisfactory”, why are you, my friend, sitting with your “fifth sense” in an easy chair? ". I use the word "satisfactory" in view of the fact that it can be many times worse!


And the most interesting thing is that my wise unconscious calmly and logically answered this burning question: “Well, there it is - there is a crisis and all that, unemployment is growing, enterprises are going bankrupt, etc. ». Indeed, it turned out to be a good excuse for "self-change. " Yes, not onanism, but "self-change. " The fact is that many years ago, in my young student years, I somehow promised myself that I would work in those places where there are development prospects, regardless of the amount of bonuses and profits paid to me (I am writing these words, and I am amazed at how deeply Anglo-American terms in the national interpretation have entered the Russian language). And also - I will always look for something new and interesting if I get bored. Boredom came to me two years ago. And I kept sitting, and "stupidly" looking for another excuse for a mixture of my own laziness with the fear of finding something new.

And the most insidious thing is that I knew perfectly well that I was rushing to a dead end like the “Last Express of Europe” before the First World War.

Readers who nevertheless looked at the page in the hope of looking for useful information about India, I strongly recommend skipping a couple of paragraphs down. Those to whom my philosophical thoughts are by no means disgusting - go ahead, go for it!  In the summer, when I, as the head of the management of the structure entrusted to me, brought it to profitability, I unexpectedly received news from my boss, who, with particular cynicism in his eyes, told me that he was selling all assets in exchange for a “sweet” place in the state structure. Let's skip the details of how he planned to get this place, probably, this has long been not a secret - everything is bought in Russia, the only question is the price. At the same time, the business was sold not as a whole, but in parts. “So expensive! ", I heard in response.

At some point, I realized that eight years of faithful and devoted service to my “general” were practically in vain - he “leaked” the entire team without a twinge of conscience and a drop of regret for the vague prospect of working somewhere “at the top”.


At first, I somehow reacted violently to everything that was happening. And then I decided that everything that is not done is really for the best. At least my "inner self" has stopped nagging me about "sitting out" time. I even thought about looking for a new project in my life, but I realized that if I run away, along the way, taking “compensation” with me, everyone will be fired within a month. And this is at least a hundred people, many have families, children, elderly parents, loans, mortgages, and even foreign currency. In general, a complete set of social burdens that can lead to disasters for entire families. And from the "perpetual motion machine" (that's what my colleagues called me) of our company, I turned into a "perpetual brake" of the same structure.

And he did everything for a simple goal - it was necessary to give colleagues the opportunity to find a decent job. The most interesting thing is that the process fascinated me - from June 2009 to the present, the structure has not yet been disbanded. True, the last staff quit just two days ago, including me. And what you can really be proud of is the absence of the social catastrophes described above - everyone found a more or less worthy and suitable job.

So, in the process of "braking" I somehow thought about the New Year's vacation. For a long time I chose the country, worked out the route. And then somehow casually spoke with friends about India, remembered an Indian restaurant in Paris, the cuisine of which did not allow our party to die of hunger, and decided to go to India. True, this time with a slight amendment - I want to celebrate the New Year at home, with my family, and then fly away.

There was a point in this - my mother was seriously ill in the past year, but, fortunately, she recovered, my beloved spaniel Jessica Bekonovna was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer ...The list of negative moments in my life can be continued, but ...In general, I understood in body and soul that I celebrate the New Year at home, period.

Working through the route of the trip, I started with a simple one: I looked for tour operators in India in Yandex and called all of them. I roughly understood the price level: five-star hotels + the chosen route + tickets will cost about 150 thousand rubles per person. Expensive, especially for a crisis. Therefore, I went the old and proven way - I bought tickets and booked hotels on my own. I started traditionally with Aeroflot - I bought tickets for January 1 to Delhi with a return on the 17th. Then, through the Aeroflot website known to the reader, he booked hotels.


By the way, in November I mastered the alternative Aeroflot booking system - sometimes the prices are lower there, though not this time. I booked hotels - in Delhi - Hyatt, in Goa - Leela Kempinski, in Mumbai - Taj President. Also bought insurance, you never know what. The question arose about domestic flights, however, having “googled” this question, I went to the websites and booking systems of local airlines, where I bought the missing tickets. The most interesting thing is the price - it turned out to be quite "budgetary" per person - 90 thousand (40 - tickets, 50 - hotels). It is easy to calculate how much Russian travel agencies wind up for themselves.

I will tell you more about local airlines. He managed to fly on Kingfisher Airlines, Jet Airlines, and her daughter, Jet Light. It is interesting that the flight Moscow-Delhi-Moscow cost 22 thousand, 13 thousand - Delhi - Goa (serviced by Kingfisher), and only 5 thousand - the route Goa-Mumbai-Delhi.

Jet Airlines - the second largest Indian airline and the first private Indian airline is considered a discounter, so if you book early, you can fly around all of India for minimal money. The only negative is its base airport Mumbai, i. e. , the bulk of flights connect at its airport, which is not always convenient for travelers from Delhi. That is why I bought a ticket on the Kingfisher to fly from Delhi to Goa without a transfer in Mumbai. I note that there are only three flights per day on this route, two of them are operated by Kingfisher Airlines.

Having booked the trip, I was already plunged into the "showdown" at work again. And then I found out on the net that traveling to Agra (Taj Mahal) and Jaipur is very tiring, and it would be nice to get a Russian-speaking guide.

From myself I will say that the journey is normal in a good car, and without a Russian-speaking guide you can do without difficulty, but I didn’t know about that then.


After reading reviews about tour operators, I settled on Indigo Tour. And I chose it exclusively by the "poke" method. I decided to issue a visa through them and pay for a tour to Agra and back. The office, located near the Begovaya metro station, seemed gloomy to me. At the entrance, the chief accountant sat behind a screen and actively accepted cash without breaking the check. Behind it, at the window, the director's desk was separated by a partition - his name is Sergey, a gray-haired middle-aged uncle who combined the functions of director and owner of this simple business. We didn't get along right away - he started grumbling at me when I was talking on the phone. In return, he was sent by me without a twinge of conscience, for which he was very offended.

In another room, three managers sat at their desks—two girls in their twenties with a Siberian accent in their voices. In the far corner sat a middle-aged plump lady - Elena, who arranged the tours. She offered me a sightseeing tour of the city + a trip to Agra in a private car with a Russian-speaking guide (2 days) for only 11 thousand per person. Particularly pleased with the word "everything. " I paid, believing that I could not cope without a guide. True, later he regretted that he did not go on his own and greatly overpaid. But more on that below.

Elena issued vouchers, accepted money without a check, citing the lack of a cash register, gave me a receipt, and a week later - passports with a visa and vouchers for excursions and a hotel in Agra. In general, on this preparation for the trip was completed.

I spent New Year's Eve at home with people close to me. A week before, on December 25-26, I was on a business trip to Ivanovo.

And there he had dinner in one of the city cafes. I was sincerely pleased with the inscription on the plates that adorned the table candlesticks - “Dear Friends! On December 31, the cafe … is closed because we are celebrating the New Year at home. This is a family holiday, celebrate it with friends and relatives in an atmosphere of home warmth and comfort. And we will be glad to see you on January 1 from 18.00. Sincerely, your administration. After reading this, I realized that I made the right choice, flying away on vacation after the new year.

And already on the 1st, I was in my right mind and drunken memory at Sheremetyevo-2. I note that on this day the only traffic jam in Moscow was in the area of ​ ​ ​ ​ this particular airport - many "thieves" with flashing lights on the roof and the numbers "EKX" or "AMR" blocked the entrances to the airport, waiting for their bosses, who either flew away or flew in . By the way, the airport administration has been struggling with this problem for a long time, but so far, apparently, without success.


The airport was crowded, but all flights departed on schedule. At check-in, I saw a picture familiar to Sheremetyevo-2 and Aeroflot's international flights - there are only 2-3 check-in desks for a large aircraft with a capacity of 200-300 passengers. Naturally, January 1st was no exception for this kind and certainly convenient (in quotation marks) tradition for the passenger - the flight to Delhi was serviced by 3 counters, and one was strictly for business class. Queues in the economy class stood out right up to the pre-flight zone, and it took 5-8 minutes to serve 1-3 passengers. Quickly realizing this, I stood in line of 2 people at the business class counter, which was served by an Aeroflot employee named Elena. While she was discussing a couple of "business class" in the "economy" zone, there was a scandal where a certain group of people, exhausted by the expectation, rose to a conflict with representatives of the airline.

One of the indignant people dropped the phrase, they say, let's go besiege the business class counter, and a minute later a crowd of 30 people was buzzing behind me. Seeing this, the already irritated girl Elena tried to arrange a “debriefing” and somehow streamline the queue. The initiative is punishable - she was kicked out for nothing, after which she flatly refused to serve economy class passengers at her counter. And the first, as you remember, was me.

“Herd mentality, ” I said as I walked up to the counter. "What? Lena asked in surprise. “The herd feeling, ” I repeated, “in our country, the people have a very well developed one feeling - herd feeling. Probably the Soviet past is telling! ". She smiled and asked: “Are you from the housekeeper? ". Having received an affirmative answer, she somehow reluctantly took the tickets, asking me to disperse the crowd at least near the counter.

I coped with the task - in a minute the space was free from outsiders, and the people slowly began to line up in an orderly queue. The girl gave me a sheet of paper and asked me to write the name of the hotel and its address where we would stay. She explained that the queues for check-in are due to the fact that the Indian government requires the transfer of data on residence in their territory for each passenger. Therefore, during registration, these data are entered into the system and transferred to the Indian police. Having received my boarding passes, I thanked Elena and went to immigration control.

There was a queue here too, I noticed annoyed. Attention immediately fell on the booth with the inscription "For Diplomats", where there was no queue. Having turned on the “mug with a brick”, I went exactly there.

Another nice girl in uniform looked at me inquiringly, silently took the passport, scanned it, put a mark on leaving the country and gave it back. Our entire party went like this.


Further - even more fun. Personal inspection. And also the queue. Despite the presence of modern scanners, the employees of the passenger screening service demanded to take off their shoes (for example, in Domodedovo, where the same scanners are installed, this has not been required for a long time). All this took place in a very small room, where it was difficult to stand, not to mention comfortable. “Mug with a brick” - I thought, and climbed somewhere at the beginning of the queue, after which the inspection quickly passed. He drew attention to a woman with a broken leg on crutches, who clearly found it difficult to move around. I am silent about the lack of wheelchairs in the waiting area, but although baggage carts could be provided, especially since hand luggage on long-haul flights is not always light.

So, in a boorish form, the police officers and the inspection service demanded to put the crutches on the tape, and the woman to “jump” (this is a quote !!! ) through the scanner. A scandal arose, and they nevertheless allowed her to carry the crutches, but please tell me, is it really impossible to treat people more humanely and provide the minimum conditions for a comfortable trip? By the way, I sent this question with a description of the situation to the director of the Sheremetyevo airport and the general director of Aeroflot. Both received a letter, but the answer is still being delayed ...

Fortunately, it was calm in the duty free zone. We bought two bottles of champagne and calmly began to wait. We did not wait long - after 20 minutes they announced the landing. The flight Moscow - Delhi is served by a Boeing-767, where I am sitting in a chair. I will not hide it, a friend of the airline “broke through” good seats.

Takeoff, climb and other flight procedures went smoothly.

During the six-hour flight, however, fed only once. And I also noted that pillows were removed from the economy class of Aeroflot. What for? ? ? Economy of the national air carrier? ? ? This is ridiculous, if not absurd.

During the flight, I slept well, and even read a guide to India. It was in those minutes that I began to understand that a guide can be easily found on the spot for "five kopecks. "

Forty minutes before landing, the commander got in touch and told about the weather: "Plus twelve, fog. " Then everything looked as usual - descending, feathering, landing gear, etc. It is interesting that in the window I saw only the base of the wing and the light from under the turbine, and everything was in a heavy haze. On the monitor, the altitude was constantly falling, and the flight speed "hung" at around 270 km / h. I got nervous when I saw a height of 200 meters - I did not notice the ground below us. One hundred and fifty - one hundred, eighty ...We were descending, and blindly!


; A moment later, the plane lifted its nose and touched the surface, and then began to slow down in reverse. Only then did I see the pale lights of the runway below us. Everything was in fog, the passengers could not see the wingtip. We sat down at a visibility of 50-70 meters at night. The highest class for the crew. In those moments, I did not regret that I was flying with the “national air carrier”. Interestingly, many did not notice how difficult the weather conditions were during landing.

For fifteen minutes we taxied around the airport. Visibility was almost zero, the plane was moving slowly, and the commander could hardly see the borders of the runway. It is very foggy in Delhi from December to February, and there were cases when the fog did not dissipate for days. Undoubtedly, this greatly complicated the life of the Indira Gandhi airport and motorists. But then we did not yet know how badly the fog would ruin our company's vacation.

As we stopped, a telescopic ladder emerged from the mist.

Passengers walked towards the exit. At the migration control, there was a queue only for foreign citizens, but it cannot be compared with the “Sheremetyevo traffic jam”. We again distinguished ourselves with originality and approached the counter "for Indian citizens". The uncle at the counter took the passport, noted the migration card and stamped the arrival. I strongly recommend to change 200 dollars for expenses. Several banks operate in the baggage claim area. The exchange rate is the same for everyone, so check the size of the commission, it ranges from 5 to 11%. By the way, it’s worth exchanging money immediately after migration control, because after receiving the luggage, 150 of our compatriots went in an organized manner to exchange their assets for the local currency, naturally creating a queue in this zone as well. In general, it is better to exchange money in India in the "exchangers" at the "hucksters" - there the exchange rate is higher and there is no commission.

Even if the exchange rate is equal to the bank one, you will still pay a commission to the latter. Any taxi driver knows a good exchange office in the area, and the taxi fare is very low. And do not change money in hotels - the exchange rate is 5% lower than the official one, and the commission reaches 20% in some hotels.


Having received our luggage, we went to the waiting room, where a crowd of people waiting with signs were looking for their arriving passengers. One of them was waiting for us - a young man in a white shirt was actively shaking a piece of paper with our names on his head. He handed us a welcome wreath of orange flowers, and after 5 minutes we were on the street and waiting for our car. The fog, by the way, only intensified. After the arrival of our flight, the airport was closed for takeoff and landing due to fog.

In Delhi, I chose the Hyatt Hotel, with a double room rate of $120.

It was located on the "Ring Road" - the only ring highway in Delhi - a simple analogue of the Moscow "third ring". The road from the airport in conditions of poor visibility took us 30 minutes. Driving in India is left-handed and chaotic - it reminded me of my early years in Sri Lanka, where they drive even worse and there is no respect for the roads at all. In India, everything is the same - if they honk, it means “don’t interfere - I’m on my way”, if they blink their headlights, then also - “I’m on my way”  At the same time, outside of car traffic, people are extremely respectful of each other. Paradox, right?

While we were driving, the boy called someone, and then handed the phone to me. It was our future guide - Vikas. He warned that he would pick us up at 8 am, while the "Indigo Tour" was announced, and it was written in the voucher that the start time of the tour was 11 am. Long arguing with the guide on the phone, we agreed on the mark at 9 am.

The dispute was objective - at the time of checking into the hotel, my watch showed 3 nights of local time, you know, after New Year's Eve and a long flight, I wanted to sleep.


At the entrance to the hotel there is security with machine guns, at the entrance there are scanners, they inspect all incoming people with a check of personal belongings. This happened after the terrorist attacks in Mumbai two years ago. The hotel is beautiful, expensive decoration, polite staff. There were problems at registration - computers constantly failed, electricity was cut off. In India, especially at night, electricity is often cut off, so good rooms are equipped with flashlights. There are two restaurants on the territory of the hotel - the main one (where they have breakfast and dinner) with European and Indian cuisines, and an additional one, where only Indian dishes are prepared by prior order. Breakfast at the first restaurant costs $20, buffet dinner without drinks costs $35.

As an experienced tourist, I strongly recommend taking an extended version of the first-aid kit with you - include iodine, a bandage, cotton wool, a disinfectant, antibiotics, anabolics, gastrointestinal tract remedies, mosquito repellent, antiviral and anti-cold drugs, the male part gathered at "feats" - of course condoms. Local drugs are bad and hard to get because most pharmacies are open from 8(9) to 17(19).

One day we had a buffet dinner at the Hayata restaurant. Of the variety of dishes, tourists were attracted by king prawns. Attracted not in vain - the smell of their staleness carried far through the hall. Noticing this, I reported the incident to the administrator and kindly offered to sniff the shrimp. He refused, called the chef, and after a quick conversation with him in the local language, put the whole dish in the back room.

It's a shame for something else - for such incidents in hotels of this level, we were supposed to have at least a free dinner, but here, in Delhi, the gentlemen did not even apologize. And in vain, I have already sent a comment to the management company of this hotel chain in the United States.

The business center in the hotel is good - however, I regularly used only the Internet. Interestingly, in the daytime, when a boy worked in the business center, they regularly charged me 200 rubles for the Internet (I immediately convert the prices into units familiar to the reader), and in the evening, when the girl took over, the service became free.

Probably worth talking about the features of our trip to Delhi. The unkind morning of the second of January woke us up at 8 am. I was the only one who decided to go to breakfast - my appetite was brutal. As it turned out, breakfast at the hotel is not included in the room rate. At the same time, 90% of hotels in India work this way; when booking at a low rate, breakfast is not included.


By the way, the guy is only 24 years old and he has not graduated from the university yet. The guide immediately clarified whether we took the necessary things, because at the end of the sightseeing tour of the city, we will immediately go to Agra. Taking things, a sweater and a warm jacket, we went to the city. The weather did not please - the cold is not so bad, but the fog that did not dissipate during the night could disrupt plans for sightseeing. We hardly took pictures, and in the background of the photos there is only a white haze. Saved my professional Canon, which my friends gave me for my last birthday. And by lunchtime, the fog still lost ground, and I brought the emotions captured on the camera from a trip to Delhi.

The guide turned out to be no. He said practically nothing, was silent, knew nothing about the history and culture of India, cut down on the sightseeing program, and all the time was eager to leave early for Agra.

Of the 10 sights declared by the Indigo Tour, we hardly saw 5-6. At the same time, when I raised a scandal, Vikas said that if we continue our trip around Delhi, then we will not go to Agra, because it will get dark, and he does not like to travel when it is dark. At the same time, the driver silently turned the steering wheel and did not ask unnecessary questions, and in a private conversation with me, he even stated that he didn’t care what time to leave, as long as we, as tourists, were comfortable. But the guide showed us his institute 4 times and told us about the hard life of an Indian student 10 times. He told how he became a guide - he has been collecting models of Soviet military aircraft since childhood - and one day, when Vikas was unemployed, his father said - learn Russian and go work as a guide, at least they pay something there. And he learned it and went to work. At the time of our arrival, his experience was about 8 months.

Now about what to see in Delhi.


Start at the President's Palace, Parliament House, follow the state road to India Gate. Be sure to see Qutab Minar - the ruins of old Delhi, the temple of all religions in the form of a Lotus flower - very much reminded me of the Sydney Theater. "Human's Tomb" - a huge Jewish temple, the largest in India, visit the railway museum, which is closed on Mondays. The travel guide is a very useful companion when traveling through India. I bought myself a thick booklet from National Geographic, written by an English author, though not always successfully translated into Russian, but nonetheless useful from cover to cover. In general, the best way to travel around the city is to take a taxi. Upon returning to Delhi from Agra, we did just that - we paid 400 rubles for a day of driving on the meter (the calculation is as follows: traffic per kilometer is 4 rubles + an hour of waiting costs 25 rubles).

Here's what Moscow officials need to pay attention to - in our country, only oligarchs can afford to ride a taxi for 650-1100 rubles per hour all day. Brad, in a word!

And we return to our "review" for 11 thousand rubles per person. After showing 2 temples and canceling lunch, Vikas went with us to Agra. We covered a section of 200 km in 4 hours - the roads in India are good, but the traffic is chaotic, everyone drives slowly. Despite this, in 16 days we did not see a single accident. Vikas distinguished himself here too - he drank 4 cans of beer, he fell asleep, prudently putting his feet on the front panel. Especially pleased with the smell of "freshness" (again, in quotation marks), which miraculously came to us from his limbs.

Indigo Tour booked the Clarks-Shiraz Hotel for us, a four-star hotel neatly located in the heart of Agra between its two main attractions, the Taj Mahal and the Red Fort.

The hotel is poor, but the rooms have everything you need - up to tea, coffee and cookies. Pleased with compliments - fruits and large bottles of water. After registering and seeing off Vikas with a glance, I decided to check the degree of appetite development at Indigo Tour and find out the cost of the room. To be honest, I was not surprised - it cost 2200 rubles per day for two. I think even a first-grader understands who earned what and how much…

And we spent the evening modestly in a restaurant on the top floor overlooking the Red Fort and the Taj Mahal. True, we did not see them. Fog, dammit. As the locals say, in good weather the view is gorgeous.

The third day of the new year also greeted us with fog. After breakfast for 8 dollars, we checked out of the hotel and together with Vikas and the driver went to see the Red Fort. I note that breakfast at the hotel is tolerable, in terms of level it is comparable to breakfast in Hyatt Delhi, but at a price 2 times lower.


Red Fort is a fortress made of red stone, for which it got its name. There is exactly the same in Delhi, so if you have watched one, it does not make sense to watch another. For about an hour we examined its decorations and tried to attract the attention of the monkeys living there. The guide was silent all the time and only rarely talked about Red Fort. But as soon as it came to souvenirs, he, with the zeal of an athlete at the finish line, tried to take us to some supposedly exclusive souvenir shop. Having understood the plan, we stepped aside and I explained to him in good slow Russian: “Vikas, you will roll back on our purchases, give me all the money you earn, and you will also find out what a strong Soviet fist is! ". He just laughed, obviously not understanding that I was not joking. And I really wasn’t joking ...But more on that below ...

We arrived at the Taj Mahal around noon. At this time, a large number of tourists accumulated there.

The algorithm of work is as follows - you buy a ticket, get on the bus and drive 2 km to the gate, go through a personal inspection and you are inside. Back in Red Fort, Vikas tried to get 300 rupees from us - allegedly a "bribe" to local guides so that they let him through. Then I doubted his words, but gave the money. In the Taj Mahal, our friend again decided to ask for 300 rupees. This alerted me - he seemed too rogue to me at that moment. I went to the cashier, to clarify what, on ...figs, for such kickbacks. At the box office, they just shrugged and said that you buy tickets and go through, you don’t need to pay extra on your hands. Realizing the point, I again called Vikas aside and demanded my money. This petty crook fought back for a long time, refused to return 300 rupees from the Red Fort, but we went to the Taj Mahal without additional payments - supposedly, he agreed "for us" to go without money.

During a personal search, I noticed that food, water, eyebrow tweezers, nail scissors and other small things necessary for the trip were being confiscated from the bags. Having turned on the already known to the reader “face with a brick”, I did not stand in line - but went through the corridor for the staff, having previously shown my “travel pass” to the guards. Still, a certificate is a great thing! How many times it helped me out on trips, just remember Cuba or China. If you do not work in our valiant "organs" - it does not matter, an ordinary "studak" combined with personal ingenuity and charm will pass for a certificate. The main thing is that there should be a photo, a cool seal, and the inscriptions should be in Russian. "Rashshan policy, " I said, poking my university ID at the security guard. They looked at me, then at the “ksiva”, looked at each other, and let me go ahead. The bag, of course, was checked, but nothing was seized from the myriad food items in my backpack.


We didn’t buy anything in one souvenir shop - we were frankly embarrassed by the price of wonderful tea weighing one hundred grams at a price of 250 rubles (for the reader I quote the equivalent of the price again in understandable units), as well as the “outfit” of a local resident (trousers + shirt) “only” (the seller told me this word in distinct Russian) for 2500 rubles (I’ll get ahead of myself, I’ll say that in Mumbai we bought something similar “only” for 300 rubles). Sensing a catch, I quickly turned my carriage to the exit, and we went to the VIP store - souvenirs made from local stone. As expected, in the classic version of tourist shoes, first you are shown the hard “work” of local “workers”. We were shown three men who, with unprecedented zeal on their faces, carve and paint a tabletop out of stone. Then - as it should be - we were taken to the gallery of the store, where all this "good" is sold.

They all offered seagulls, and a certain gift that was waiting for me at the exit, persuaded me to look at the workshop again. I was unshakable - I stood like a "tail" next to them. Vikas showed remarkable ingenuity for himself and decided to go to the toilet, and the seller kindly agreed to accompany him (probably, in 50 trips here he never learned the way, or maybe ...there is something more). I propose to close the topic with “big” (please put the emphasis yourself). So, I decided to break their idyll and went third. And he carefully watched so that they did not go together in the same booth. They really didn’t risk it - there was a big question on their faces, the essence of which was how to get rid of me. Having done all the necessary things, Vikas left the booth, where I and the seller were waiting for him.

For a moment it seemed to me that he already had the money ...But ...after a moment of reflection, I realized that these two “chronicles” clearly did not pull on world champions in ingenuity ...So, at the exit, they let me go ahead. In the doorway, I lower my head down and turn around sharply ...And what do you think ...I caught them at the moment of carefully transferring something small from the seller to Vikas, and the latter prudently hid the bundle in the back pocket of his trousers. “Aha!! ! ! - I thought! Pushing the salesman away with my right hand, I ran up to Vikas demanding to show me the contents of his pocket. He feigned fear and refused. Pressing his throat with my right hand and pinning him against the wall with my own body, with my left hand I easily pulled this bundle from his pocket. No, it was not the seller's phone number neatly written on a piece of paper, it was a 500 rupees piece of paper that the seller wrapped in some kind of piece of paper. “If I see it again, I’ll knock out all my teeth!

- I said in a rage, and put the money in my pocket. "This have not happened before! ! ! ”- clearly brewing on the lips of the seller. "Let's go ... " - I poked Vikas and we both went home. On the way we stopped at a restaurant for lunch. Interestingly, when we retired to the toilet, our "wonderful" guide opened the main pocket of my backpack. When I caught him, he claimed he was just zipping up an open pocket. It’s a pity that I didn’t wait another half a minute, there would be a real reason to really leave him without teeth (in life I’m a peaceful person, I don’t understand what came over me then; ).


The way back was no different from the road to Agra - Vikas drank beer and slept, occasionally waving three-day fresh socks over the instrument panel, we also dozed off. There was a huge traffic jam at the entrance to Delhi - the entire route was dug up by the foundations of the future Delhi metro. It's interesting how it is all over the city.

The city with a population of 10 million has a very weak metro network, and its construction has been actively started only in the last few years. In traffic jams, seeing how cars “crawl” from everywhere, I suddenly realized that this is exactly what our “gays” lack - here fines can be issued to anyone, not to mention the calculation “on the spot”. As I found out later, there is simply no analogue of the Soviet traffic police in India, the police only perform the functions of traffic controllers, and they do it far from being excellent. It's a pity - a good feeder for a country with a billion people is really empty. I’m even thinking of writing an information letter to the Indian Ministry of Transport and Communications about this issue… But for now I’m just thinking…

After 5 hours from the moment we left the restaurant, we were at the hotel. I was glad - that day was not easy.

Vikas only dryly said goodbye and faded away, and I gave honestly earned 500 rupees as a tip to the driver, who conscientiously performed his duties during the tour. I was disappointed with the guide, because with many of his colleagues from other countries I maintain not just human, but friendly relations, and then I send many tourists to trusted people. This time it did not work out - the man was "rotten". Upon arrival in Moscow, of course, I “dashed off” a letter to Indigo Tour, where I briefly outlined “the features of national tourist deception ... ”. Elena swore to me that she would send everything to India, their partner Sita Travels (www. sita. in) and sort everything out in detail. She made it,

Translated automatically from Russian. View original
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