South Asia
Republic of Incredible India, the world's biggest democrazy
New Delhi
Paharganj
Smyle Inn +911123589107 smyleinn@hotmail.com
Clean and modern double room, including wifi and breakfast, for only INR 655.- or US$ 14.55 per night. Very friendly, helpful and professional staff. Our number-one budget place in Paharganj; book directly here (best rates).
Click below for an interactive road map of the Smyle Inn in New Delhi, which we would highly recommend, and for directions:
Relaxing in our friendly and highly recommendable budget guesthouse with its great roof-top terrace, the tried and tested Smyle Inn, catching up on some overdue admin work (travel blog, photos, financials) and preparing our upcoming travels to Southeast Asia:
"There are three trips you take to India: the one you think you’re going to have - that you plan for; the one you actually have; and the one you live through once you go back home...”
Leaving behind Delhi's “...surfeit of muchness, its faecal odours, its hellish noise, its anonymity and its uncaring crowd of the desperate fighting to survive...” (according to Salman Rushdie), taking a pre-paid taxi from Paharganj to Delhi’s modern Indira Gandhi International Airport (booked through our reliable guesthouse for INR 250.- or US$ 5.50 for the uneventful ride: "...tank you for vishiting India, Seirrr!"), flying with the Indian budget carrier Go Air (“Fly Smart”) in a brand-new Airbus A 320-200 from Delhi to Bangalore for INR 4,033.- or US$ 91.- per person, one way and all inclusive, thereafter with Air Asia (“Now Everyone Can Fly”) in a cramped and worn Airbus A 320-200 from Bangalore’s modern and efficient Bengaluru International Airport back to Kuala Lumpur’s functional KLIA-LCCT at Sepang for only INR 3,412.- or US$ 77.- per person, one way and all inclusive, killing time in mid-air with our impressions of India’s current socio-political situation and the fascinating parallels in the day-to-day life between the present-day India, controlled by a Hindi-speaking majority, and the prae-collapse Soviet-Union of the 1980s, controlled by a Russian-speaking majority: (i) women who toil as unskilled manual labourers on primitive building sites, (ii) men who drink themselves into a stupor with cheap booze and try to escape from the hopelessness of their daily grind, (iii) bragging print and broadcast media which tickle unceasingly the political class' vanity, (iv) brutal and unprofessional cops who intimidate and threaten their own people, (v) signs and billboards with silly slogans and hollow phrases everywhere which contradict the visible lack of good manners, such as (a) the aggressive and very inconsiderate traffic behaviour, (b) the omnipresent littering without any sense of guilt, and (c) the disgusting spitting/urinating/defecating in public places, and, after a smooth landing on Malaysian soil, being issued with a 90-day visit pass for a “social visit” to West Malaysia and Sabah on arrival (free of charge, but only after we had passed the Malaysian government’s latest brainchild to keep travellers on a short leash, the compulsory fingerprint scanner); nevertheless selamat pagi, Malaysia.
“Now India is a place beyond all others where one must not take things too seriously - the midday sun always excepted.”
Putting our extensive four-month tour through the subcontinent, from the most southern point at Kanyakumari to the most northern point at Kargil, in a nutshell: One doesn't have to be crazy to stay sane in India; but it helps!
Click below for more blog posts about our trips to Asia's interesting cities
25 Oct - 08 Nov 2012 Hanoi
02 Aug - 11 Aug 2012 Ulaanbaatar
Click below for a summary of this year's travels
2011 Map Konni & Matt
Visit the Konni & Matt Online Albums and order high-res travel photos
Konni & Matt Travel Photos
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| Facing Jammu and Kashmir © Konni & Matt |
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