Today we head off from lovely Udaipur back to New Delhi to meet up with my brother Bob Smith, his son (my nephew) Andrew and Andrew's betrothed and lovely friend Isa.
After eating breakfast, packing up and checking out of the hotel, Baba drives us to the Udaipur airport for our flight back to New Delhi. We have discussed how much to tip him for his six days of driving us. His story of how little he is paid by the company pulls us in two directions - should we be more generous because it sounds like he is getting what we would consider practically nothing for his efforts, or should we measure our tip in terms of a percentage of his monthly salary instead of in terms of a typical U.S. tip? In the end, we give him the equivalent of about three weeks of salary, and he seems pleased - though I imagine he would smile no matter what we gave him. He is a very nice fellow. Farewell to Udaipur, our delightful room 209, and the pleasant company of "Baba" Singh.
The flight to New Delhi is delayed by about an hour, but we eventually depart without incident. (I did check my boarding pass, and attached little tickets to Lindy's purse and my packback.)
We arrive in New Delhi about 5:00 pm and are driven into town to stay at the Jay Pee Siddharth hotel with Bob, Andrew and Isa. We share a dinner together to relate our various stories. Bob tells us about forgetting to pack his daily baby aspirin but using his iPhone to walk to a local pharmacy. The cost for his meds is about 8 cents and he doesn't have the change. The pharmacist tells him to "pay it when he drops by again." Of course, that is not likely to happen by chance before they both have been through several more incarnations, so Bob makes a point of getting change at the hotel and returning to the pharmacy to settle his debt.
We speak a little of plans for tomorrow - tours are to be provided, but Lindy and I plan to relax at the hotel for the first half of the day while the rest of them see sights that are "old hat" for us. But I get ahead of myself - time enough for that in tomorrow's post. Suffice it to say, it is good to see familiar faces.
After eating breakfast, packing up and checking out of the hotel, Baba drives us to the Udaipur airport for our flight back to New Delhi. We have discussed how much to tip him for his six days of driving us. His story of how little he is paid by the company pulls us in two directions - should we be more generous because it sounds like he is getting what we would consider practically nothing for his efforts, or should we measure our tip in terms of a percentage of his monthly salary instead of in terms of a typical U.S. tip? In the end, we give him the equivalent of about three weeks of salary, and he seems pleased - though I imagine he would smile no matter what we gave him. He is a very nice fellow. Farewell to Udaipur, our delightful room 209, and the pleasant company of "Baba" Singh.The flight to New Delhi is delayed by about an hour, but we eventually depart without incident. (I did check my boarding pass, and attached little tickets to Lindy's purse and my packback.)
We arrive in New Delhi about 5:00 pm and are driven into town to stay at the Jay Pee Siddharth hotel with Bob, Andrew and Isa. We share a dinner together to relate our various stories. Bob tells us about forgetting to pack his daily baby aspirin but using his iPhone to walk to a local pharmacy. The cost for his meds is about 8 cents and he doesn't have the change. The pharmacist tells him to "pay it when he drops by again." Of course, that is not likely to happen by chance before they both have been through several more incarnations, so Bob makes a point of getting change at the hotel and returning to the pharmacy to settle his debt.
We speak a little of plans for tomorrow - tours are to be provided, but Lindy and I plan to relax at the hotel for the first half of the day while the rest of them see sights that are "old hat" for us. But I get ahead of myself - time enough for that in tomorrow's post. Suffice it to say, it is good to see familiar faces.
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