New Tibetan Colony Delhi

Departed London at 3.30 a.m. on Thursday in order to be in time for a 06.00 a.m. take off for Milan. On arrival at LHR Terminal 2, there was already a long queue for the Al Italia flights. However by 04.30 we were all queued up again, ready to go through security checks - but they don't start until 05.00 a.m. so it was rather tedious. On getting through security, I had to loiter in front of W H Smiths as they weren't ready to sell me a newspaper right away, but I had to have my cross word and Sudoku! We boarded on time but then had one of those silly experiences where the plane for one reason or another sits on the apron, thereby missing its take off slot (which is always an issue at LHR). In the end we were 69 minutes late taking off and therefore arrived Milan (with ravishing views of the Alps as we came in to land) with literally 10 minutes before the Delhi flight was due for take off. From my discussions with other passengers this is pretty well the norm for transit in Milan, and there is no express way through the Milan transit security - so we had to be patient. Luckily an Al Italia official was waiting for three 3 passengers going on to Delhi (most of the UK passengers seemed to be en route for Mumbai and there were very few for Italy itself!) . We three arrived at the plane to find that we constituted a significant percentage of the custom. Apart from the fact that this is about the cheapest economy flight at present, this is also a good route to India if you want space - most direct India-bound flights from the UK are booked to the gills every day of the week. The flight eventually took off at 11.00 instead of 10.00. I had a whole middle row to myself and slept for most of the flight - better than business class.

On arrival in Delhi everything was smooth and Chidi was waiting for me outside, with a pre-booked taxi. We drove off into the heat of the Delhi night to New Tibetan Colony. The driver left us on the road, and we transferred my luggage onto a cycle rickshaw, while Chidi and I walked in through the narrow, characterful alleys of New Tibetan Colony to Wongdhen House a guest house, with modest rooms and views of the river. Incidentally the best room is room 106 with A/C and own bathroom. Here Kate was still up waiting for us, and we had a nice catch up, until about 01.00 a.m. on Friday morning.

Next day, we walked out of the Colony and took a taxi to Humayan's tomb, strolling around the exquisite building for about an hour, and then going on to Impetrial Hotel where we sat in the cool inside courtyard and drank ice cold beers and fresh lime soda before making our way back to Wongdhen House. Wongdhen House is full of Tibetan families and Buddhist monks (probably in transit to Dharamsala) with a reasonable sprinkling of westerners - mostly young of the more serious backpacking variety (i.e. some of them are doing Tibetan studies at college and are on their way to Tibet). It was very pleasant to take a stroll around the Colony, enjoying the atmosphere, the monks doing a bit of catching up and shopping. There are fewer beggars here on the whole than in other parts of Delhi so you can go about your business calmly. You can watch craft workers especially silver smiths working and you can pick up nice things made by Tibetan refugees in India. I purchased some silk purses for about UK 50 pence each.