Now having gone through all the motions I just let it sit for weeks and weeks until…
Last week I got to thinking maybe it might be a smart to start looking for and booking a bed for my Delhi arrival. So armed with pre-prepared lists from Lonely Planet, Rough Guide and the Wikitravel site I surfed all day and all evening to check out the usual suspects and a few not widely mentioned. Just as I was about to end up going with one of Paharganj regulars my eye caught a listing in the wiki for a place called The Smyle Inn, being a sucker for a pun I keyed Smyle Inn into 'DuckDuckGo' (google is now my last search resort) and the website that greeted my eyes was not only stood out head and shoulders above everything else I had looked at but the message it conveyed told my gut instinct that was where to lay my head.
I immediately made a reservation through the site and got a speedy confirmation. Contrary to my usual demeanure I responded to the confirmation thanking the guest house for their quick reply and complimented them on the quality of their website and how I may also be looking to avail myself of their Rail Ticketing service.
Next morning as if by confirmation that we are often best going with what our gut tells us, I had a reply from Harish, one of the partner owners of the Smyle Inn explaining that the site was designed and built by his student nephew. And as for trains he suggested that I should in the first instance learn how to fish with Clear Trip. "Oh the irony" I thought to myself. Here I was trying to be a lazy bugger and it just came back and bit me on the bum. Thanks to Harish I rolled my sleeves up, plunged in and got to know the ins and out of finding the trains I might want. As I write this I still haven't made a booking because the IRCTC will only allow for booking to made 60 days in advance. But in 3 or 4 days I'll be able to report back on how smoothly the booking process worked. I expect it to be relatively simple.
Thank you Harish. I'm now more than ever certain that I made the best accomodation choice.
Also on the trip agenda this past month has been getting my shots and setting up a ICICI Bank Rupee travel card. If only they had been as easy to deal with as Clear Trip and IRCTC…but that's another tale for another post.
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