Day 16-18 - Cochin
Yep, it was a good idea to spend few days here to relax a bit and charge our batteries before Bangalore and Delhi. The funninest thing was that you don’t really notice that you arrived at Kochin Fort (touristy part). One or two stories buildings, all hidden in a tropical jungle added kind of a mystical feeling. It is pretty much separated from the daily-life, so less street noise. Our hotel was known to have one of the best spa and Kerala restaurant so we didn’t even hit new part of the city (Eranakoloum). We used those two nights for getting good food, ayurvedic massages and reading half-priced books from a nearby Jew Town.
Now we’re on our (a very crowded one) way to the Cochin airport to catch IndiGO to Bengaluru.
Day 19-20 - Bengaluru/Bangalore
We decided to visit Bengaluru mainly to see our friends but also to witness the most ITized city in this country. From a first minute this was visible – clean airport, American company names all over and some really nice places to hang-out (Mocha Café, Botanic Garden). We spent walking around over half of a day – really nice, worth maybe an additional bar in that Botanic Garden?
This place is also fantastic for the book worms like we are – we visited several book stores offering both new and second-hand prints (will bring some locations later). What is most important – prices of those books are far lower than anywhere else. No, no – not pirated, just “to be sold on Indian subcontinent only”. I ended up (as usual) with 10kgs of additional luggage – thanks Kingfisher for not being too picky about it. Now I have to carry it on the 4th floor.
On the third day we headed to the airport to catch a flight to Delhi. Over half of the flights were massively delayed, surprisingly our one was on time despite foggy weather in DEL. Indira Gandhi International Airport welcomed us with a thick fog (holding pattern for 45mins), with a nice landing view from a front camera:
http://kowalik.smugmug.com/Travel/In...037_ivyNM-A-LB
Seems like this will continue for a few days - will we depart home on time?
Day 21-22 - Old & New Delhi
Oh well, back to the north! Much colder and much worse air to breath. Unfortunately we started seeing again sights like the one from Agra– ultra-poor neighborhoods, massive traffic and few more people trying to get some money from us. Pre-arranged guide and the driver saved lot of troubles. We did a usual sightseeing next morning (little petrified by out hotel’s neighborhood), unfortunately milk-thick-fog made it nearly impossible to see anything in Old Delhi.
Our guide tried his best do describe “what is out there”, but it was India Gate where we started seeing something.
We spent rest of the day on wondering in a shopping mall, eating and preparing for the late flight. Indian News TV kept informing about thousands of stranded passengers, cancelled flights and a general chaos. Indian Government even lowered the minimal visibility thresholds for landings and takeoffs to make things work. So, we drove to the airport 6 hours in advance. “Departures table” was in a pretty serious condition – almost all flights delayed, sometimes by 12h+! But not our OS! Austrian team appeared at checkin 5 hours before the flight (!), gave us vouchers for the “Green Lounge” where we continued to prepare ourselves for the flight
. In the very beginning they were planning to take-off 30 mins before the schedule but a thick fog eventually caused the 2.30hs delay. We didn’t mind – well prepared, sleeping in Exit Row seats, we reached Vienna delayed by 3 hours. Got quickly rebooked OS->LO flight. We’re just descending to Warsaw now, getting SO CLOSE to my corporate PC and Blackberry …
It was a good vacation, wasn’t it?