I'm in Delhi now. I arrived on the train yesterday evening from Agra, and found a crappy hotel in the Paharganj area near the New Delhi Train Station. It is a big backpacker ghetto in Paharganj and we spent a good thirty minutes circling around in a cycle rickshaw looking for a hotel that the rickshaw driver said he knew. As it turns out he had no clue and wanted MORE money afterwards because he spend such a long time looking for it. Yeah, right. The hotel (Hotel Shivram International) was a craphole, not at all like the photos on the webpage nor as advertised (all rooms contain the following amenities...etc), so I checked out and checked into the Hotel Silver Shine which is much much nicer. I am getting to completely doubt the recommendations of the old edition of the Lonely Planet (2003 ed.) as the new edition (2005) has changed completely, which is a bit telling about how quickly the tourist business turns over from one management to the next here in India. I suspect once a place gets a good recommendation, the business sells out to the highest paying bid and from there the quality drops completely. The touts here are as aggressive as they were in Indonesia, and unfriendly as in Vietnam. I do miss Nepal.
I am looking for a flight back to Taiwan. My grandfather has passed away, and I will be attending the funeral. I expect to return to India from Taiwan.
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