My Delhi darshan (Delhi sightseeing tour)

Ever since I landed here, two weeks ago, I have always wanted to explore Delhi. I stayed at Delhi long time ago (10 years to be precise) but never visited any place worth mention. Like it happens to all residents who are well aware of the city they stay in but never bother to venture out and explore, I never explored Delhi when I stayed here.

This time, I have decided to make mends to my approach. I decided that I will visit places that are well mentioned and hence made a small resolution to visit few places. At my workplace, I asked a friend who willing agreed to take me around. So we decided that Saturday afternoon will be the right time to start the Delhi Darshan project.

Cometh Saturday afternoon, the Surya Devta (Sun God) didn't seem very happy. The mercury scaled the peak of around 44°C and there was no need for a sauna bath. The sweat bath was equally good on the day. Freshly baked and wet, I boarded the famed New Delhi public transport (a.k.a Bus) and started towards Connaught place where I was supposed to meet my friend. This friend of mine is a proper Delhite unlike me and knew places. So after the travel time of 1 hr and 10 min in the bus and another 20 minutes of paidal (on foot) walk I met this very generous and kind friend of mine. The first place to visit was local bhaiya (vendor) on the street who was selling cool refreshments. First price hike experience and no signs of economic recession. Against the maximum retail price of Rs. 20, the drinks costed us Rs. 25. Why? Because the guy had served us the 'cool' drinks and not 'hot' drinks and the difference was his service charge for the 'cool' drink. Two drinks down, now it was the turn to do some shopping.

Shopping in Delhi is altogether a unique experience (and so is in India). The 'High Streets' are frequented by both, the road side vendor who have small shops selling from ladies fashion garments to ultra modern fashion jewellery on one hand to Bose, Armani and Gucci brand shops on the other. All co-exists peacefully and do a brisque business. No one complains and the life goes on.

After the small shopping spree, which was interspersed by a short visit to an ATM, a visit to a book store, we decided to cool down a bit at a Chinese restaurant - 'Tao'. The restaurant reminded me of Mung Mee at Lancaster where the Thai food is delicious and this place offered me similar variety. The restaurant was a typical high street restaurant that I could expect in Cannaught Place. The food was enjoyable and palatable. As long as I was inside, I felt really nice but the moment I walked out I felt as if I was thrown in the burning amber.

As I walked out, I decided to explore the famous footpath market alongside Janpath (an area made famous because it hosts the address of one of the most powerful ladies in the world - Sonia Gandhi). The market typically hosts clothing and fashion accessories shops and since my friend is a shopaholic, I also went along and guess what, I pampered myself with handsome sunglasses - brand Armani (ofcourse the fake ones). That's the fun part of shopping in India. You get whatever you want at the price you are willing to pay.

Our next destination was Dilli Hat (a open air market mainly for handicraft items from all around the country, a cultural melting pot). It was one of those places about which I had heard a lot but never chanced to visit it. This time I didn't wanted to miss the opportunity so boarded the first train err.. the Delhi Metro and began a nice ride. The Delhi Metro is a marvel. The trains are wide, seating comfortable, platforms clean, security all around. To get into the station the security is like airport security with armed guards wielding body scanners and there is also a baggage scanner. Believe me, I was impressed. One of the best things is there is no paper ticket. Once I buy a journey, I am given a plastic token that is valid for the journey and the machine recognises the token and allows me to board the train and even takes it back when the journey is over and I walk out of the station. Good 'green' thinking.

Once at Dilli Hat, I enjoyed the food options. Felt that the prices were a bit on the higher side but I didn't mind. It was authentic and tasty.

When I started back home, again the irony of India struck me on the face. Metro, the engineering marvel, on one side, and crowded, overbearing buses and pathetic state of public transport system on the other. India is indeed a developing country but for all its faults it is an amazing place, place that I love.

Why should you NOT fly AirFrance

A lot of people have asked about my travel experience when I went home recently. I have been telling them sometimes in detail and sometime in brief that the total time spent travelling both ways was close to 5 days. 

5 days, Yes. That humungous amount of time that I literally spent on my travel was courtsey AirFrance. It is the time in which I could have gone around the world twice on a non-stop flight. Let me tell you what happened.

I was scheduled to fly from Manchester to Paris and Paris to Delhi and back via same route. Internally within India, I had to take an early morning train from Delhi to Bhopal and back. My flight from Manchester was on 16th of December early morning at 6.40 am. I had been to London and so came back early morning to Manchester. I stood in the first queue at 4.30 am and boarded the flight at 6 am. I was seated comfortably and since I was really tired because of the long night, I was soon sleeping after drinking a glass of water.

Half an hour past departure time, I woke up and realised that the flight was still in Manchester. Upon asking, the reason was, the fog at Paris airport delayed our departure. Reason accepted and I forced myself to sleep again. 45 min. later, I woke up again and this time realised the under the floor, in the belly of the aircraft, a massive movement was taking place. I asked again and I was explained that a passenger had checked in with her luggage, but later checked out while the airline did not knew which was her baggage so they were looking for her baggage. As soon as her baggage was sorted out, we will fly. This was the first time I started getting worried about my connecting flight from Paris to Delhi, which was at 10.25 am local time.

I wanted to clarify if my connecting flight would still be available and I was explained that while I may miss my direct flight from Paris, some arrangement would be met at Paris airport and I will have to wait until we reach Paris. Flight from Manchester took off around 9.30 am and we reached Paris at 11 am local time.

My flight to Delhi had left.

Almost co-passengers had missed their connections and then we stood in the customer service queue. It was 11 am and I got to the counter at 2 pm. It was an excruciating wait of nearly 3 hours in the queue without food and water. In the flight no breakfast was served and at the airport the treatment was "We are doing you a favor, dare you not question us". When my turn came up, I was exhausted and the darn lady at the counter said she could offer me a connection from London on AirIndia flight to Delhi. The flight was at 9.30 pm London time. To drop me to London, my flight was at 7 pm from Paris. She gave me a "Drinks + Sandwich" coupon and said 'BYE'.

I was pissed off. Treating me like a shit is no way to get away. Since I did not wanted to waste other passenger's time who were wearing out like me, I wanted to meet the manager separately. I got to meet him after an hour who, realizing what he was getting into, gave me nothing but a meals coupon. 

After coming down on the terminal, I had my lunch and found a chair to sleep. I woke up again at the departure gate for the flight to London to realise that the same flight was delayed by more than 1.45 hrs. There was no way I could reach London to catch the AirIndia flight. 

I went back to customer service.

The customer service guys had no idea how to help. Their supervisor couldn't even try to help apart from saying that I will have to spent the night at Airport since I did not have the visa to enter city and there is no possibility flying out that night via any connections. Still, I asked her to try to arrange something and later she took my passport, cleared us out of terminal and asked us to wait. Three hours after waiting in the no-man's land in the airport, I asked if my visa/passport has arrived. It had and I was moved into a sub-standard hotel at around 11.30 pm. There was no food or water and I slept hungry.

Next day I came to airport and asked the airline representative about the compensation and he asked me to contact customer service at Delhi who would be able to help. I belived him and boarded the flight.

I fly into Delhi and the airline guys gave me a sales office number to help me with my complaint. My entire reservations of previous day had gone awry and I had to re-reserve my ticket to Bhopal. Call to sales office gave me an email address of customer service in India. I emailed them and their response was

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Dear Mr Bhargava,

We acknowledge with thanks receipt of email dated 23rd December 2008, regarding your scheduled travel AF1469/ AF148/ 16th December 2008 Manchester/ Paris/ Delhi. At the outset, we offer our sincere apologies for any inconvenience that may have been caused.

May we kindly advise you that as you are currently residing in UK, your email has been forwarded to our office at the following address, for their necessary action:

Air France - Europe
Customer Care Center
TSA 13002
60035 Beauvais Cedex
France

Best regards,

Ashwani KUMAR
Customer Relations Supervisor

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So far, I have not heard back from them.

On my way back on 2nd Jan, the flight developed a technical snag and the oxygen pressure in the cabin was not enough to fly high altitude. This required re-routing as the aircraft could not fly over Afganistan. While they waited for a new route and the delay was over 2.5 hr. Instead of flying at 1.20 am, the flight took off at 4 am. 

My connecting flight from Paris to Manchester was at 7.40 am, Paris time and like last time, I missed that too. I had a confirmed train ticket to Lancaster at 11 am, local time. I missed that too. When I reached Paris, the guys gave me a new ticket and I reached Lancaster 8 hrs late in the evening.

My story ends here but I have vowed that unless there is a very compelling reason to fly AirFrance, I am never going to fly with them. I am going to wait for them to respond back to my complaint else I will lodge my complain under EU laws to European Transport Commission and hope that atleast they will redress my complaint.

Their rude customer service behaviour, non-responsiveness to customer issues was agonizing enough. I was not flying free and I understand issues like this do happen but other airlines are more responsive and try to make the experience better and not worse.

If you read this and decide to fly AirFrance, please think again.