20 days from now, I’ll be headed on my way East. The preparations continue. And the second-guessing has started.
The Wait Listed train was making me nervous with no movement in positions in over 3 weeks, so I’ve made a backup reservation on a different train (this time in 3AC class, as it was only a WL1). I’ll end up cancelling one or the other, probably the WL16 I originally booked, but the cancellations fees are so low, it makes sense to have a backup in case I’m shut out of the first train (the cancellation fee is something like $.20 or thereabouts). I can’t imagine the WL1 not getting to a confirmed status in the 7 or so weeks until I need that specific ticket.
The mosquito netting I mentioned in my last post arrived just fine, seems pretty well made, and it is easy to put up and take down; I’ve done it a couple times and am familiar enough with it that I’ll be able to manage (albeit a bit more slowly) in the dark when the power goes out.
I’ve put in my contact information for a reservation at a place in Delhi, in the backpacker section known as Paharganj. Paharganj has been noted as being “hard on the eyes, ears, and nose,” so it should serve nicely to provide the jumping-in-at-the-deep-end, full-contact immersion experience. The accommodations at “Cottage Yes Please” (my daughter loves the name) look really pretty nice for what I’ve seen as typical for the Paharganj area, and they have Wi-Fi at the hotel. The infrastructure in India is no where near as robust as in the US, so the power goes out and/or the internet goes down quite frequently. Some places the water doesn’t run all the time either (maybe related to water shortage or no power for the pumps). At least having Wi-Fi (when it’s working) will allow me to Skype home and check-in with the fam without having to venture out to an internet café on the first night. I’ll save the venturing for the daylight.
The hotel offers a pick-up service from the airport, but probably more likely, I’ll take a rickshaw. I need to change some money and get an Indian SIM card for my phone before leaving the airport, and who knows how long that might take… Incidentally, a rickshaw is kind of like a small two-wheeled carriage with a pole on either side of the carriage. For the manual rickshaws, the two poles that you sit between connect to the puller-guy like a yoke on an ox. But most rickshaws are no longer manual, the poles having lost their pole-ness and merged into the carriage enclosure itself, and are either welded to a bicycle or a moped. The ones driven by the moped are autorickshaws, and are referred to by the people as simply an “auto.” I wonder how many Americans thought they were getting an actual car when promised an “auto.”
Anyway, as it stands right now, that hotel in Paharganj is the only pre-booked lodging that I’ll make unless the second-guessing really starts gaining momentum. I suppose it’s important to remember that second-guessing is probably inevitable on such a journey, and to just let that part of my brain go about its fear-mongering without getting too worked up about it. As I said, progress marches forward, largely unimpeded. I am still excited.
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