Delhi, for the second go around

As you might (or might not) remember I had gone to visit a close friend in Delhi in the first full week of january. During that time, the fog was terribly heavy, and the temperatures were (dare I say it) cold. Of course, I should qualify coldness again as in the lower and mid 50's (Fahrenheit).

This time, my friend assured me "it is now springtime in New Delhi." I had a hard time believing this. It was already in the 90s (30s C) when my sister left. But surely enough, the temperatures in Delhi were upper 70s and lower 80s. It was really nearly perfect weather. Of course, as an american I still think of those temperatures as more indicative of early summer, rather than springtime, but that in no way stopped my enjoyment of it.

So I went back to some places again, and saw some new things.

This time, with a visitor from the states with me, my friend's father had booked for us a few nights in the guest house of the Indian Oil Company. I have to say, if you get the chance to stay in a guest house, GO FOR IT.

I should certainly qualify what I mean by guesthouse. Apparently in India, this can mean many different things. The first of which (most common) is a shitty hotel. Those, you may want to avoid UNLESS you're a cheap bastard and really are just interested in saving money, but not comfort. The second, as far as I can tell means a house attached to an ashram or a spiritual center. I have no idea about these. Some of them have early curfews (9:30 PM) and disallow alcohol, sex, drugs, sharing of rooms by opposite sex couples, etc. Basically all the fun stuff. Although, there are others which I'm told are nice, I can neither confirm nor deny these allegations.
The third type of guest house is the one we stayed in. It is the private property of a corporation or governmental institution which reserves rooms generally for important people, eg governmental ministers, politicians, foreign dignitaries, etc. Luckily for me, my Indian friend is the son of one such person, and so he was able to book a few nights for us. Pretty alright I have to say. TV, fridge, nice big shower. They disallowed smoking inside, but otherwise not so bad. We certainly had alcohol. Ms. Appeltans was courteous enough to bring with her 3 bottles of outstanding beer (by the way, thanks to Axiomatic All Stars brewing of the Mole Stout!) and a bottle of duty free single malt scotch. If only good beer were available for purchase in India, I'd be a much happier man. As it stands, I enjoyed three bottles of beer more than any man should enjoy any bottles of beer.

So we left after 4 nights, to a rousing bill of 2 dinners (made in house) and 4 breakfasts, 4 nights sleeping, for Rs 394. That's right, I didn't miss a decimal place. Just a shade under $9... Again, if you're coming to India (which I generally recommend AGAINST) try to stay at a corporate guest house!