First Moments In DelhiI arrived at Indira Gandhi International Airport this morning at 3 am after two long flights that took a total of 17 hours. The guy who examined my passport and Visa looked at me and asked how often I work out, along with what supplements I take because his son is trying to bulk up. I told him that every once in a while I take whey protein powder but nothing aside from that. After I got my bag at the terminal I was supposed to go to customs to declare that I had brought more than 10,000 INR but customs was closed or busy with other stuff apparently because they just told me to go on through and didn't even take the card I filled out on the plane. I was supposed to meet a representative from Rockland Hospital who would take me to Rockland Hotel or Rockland Inn, but I was unable to find him. Some locals came up and asked me if I was staying at a hotel and if I needed a taxi.
I was a little suspicious, but because some of the roads were closed by Delhi police due to some sort of incident I figured I may as well go with them because I had no luck finding the Rockland representative. The guys wanted 3,000 INR to take me to Rockland Hotel and because I had no other choice at the time I went ahead and paid. One guy left after a short while and the driver continued on to the destination. As I was pulling up the Rockland Hotel address my phone powered down and I couldn’t remember it. The driver ended up taking me to a hotel that he knew of nearby, which coincidentally happened to be Hotel Indira that was mentioned by Rockland Hospital's representative.
I thought I had a break because Indira International Inn is supposed to be a pretty good hotel for a cheap price of about $22 nightly, including breakfast. However, after the guy behind the counter woke up and I registered for a room, the guy told me it would be 11,850 INR for two nights ($200 USD). I told him that that's way higher than what I was told the price is and he told me that at most he could give me a discount price of 10,500 INR aka $178 USD. With no working phone and it being 3:00 am, I thought I had no other choice and paid the fee. I followed another employee to my room on the third floor, which itself looked fine. Including cable TV, a large bed, fridge, bathroom, closet, a high powered air conditioner, and wifi, the room was more than adequate for my taste. I went to bed irritated at how my first moments off the plane started out. At least I was able to watch Stephen Spielberg's "Hook" in English before I fell asleep.
First Morning In DelhiI woke up a little before 8:00 am despite going to bed around 4:00 am. Got changed and went to the hotel lobby where I used the wi-fi to check emails, Facebook, etc. I saw an e-mail from Mr Maini expressing concern because he had a representative waiting for me at the airport and he was unable to find me. I sent him an e-mail explaining the situation of the roadblocks, phone powering down, and being unable to find the guy. Also told him how Indira International Inn charged me $180 USD for two nights. After my e-mail I then asked the guy at the front desk for the location of an ATM machine. I walked outside and saw a black cow chained next to a building, which I took a picture of. I wanted to pet it but a guy was looking at me and I figured it was his cow. Walked a short way to the ATM, noticing the stares from locals, and after withdrawing money from the ATM came back to the hotel and got a reply from Mr Maini, who expressed his apologies for the way the night turned out. He told me that he will try and get me my refund and said to go to the lobby at Rockland Qutab’s reception area where they will also assist me in getting a sim card.
A short while afterward I used III’s taxi service to get to Dr Dhawan’s clinic, which was maybe only 7 to 8 minutes away in traffic. Unfortunately he was not there but the receptionist took down my name and set me up for an 8:00 pm appointment. She told me to arrive at 7:15 because it’s first come first serve and I might not have to wait as long if I arrive earlier than expected. I found out that I couldn’t just go see him at Sir Ganga Ram hospital as he schedules surgeries at the private clinic and only does his consultations there. Spent a long time walking back because I had not yet gone to get a local sim card for my cell that would allow me to call III's taxi service. I thought "what the hell" and decided to walk the opposite way I came from just to get a look of the city. On the streets I was stared at by practically everybody. I noticed that just about everything was in a state of disrepair, and even the cosmetic clinics and dental offices were in buildings that looked run down from the outside, but presumably the insides looked a little better.
I had my hair tied up and was wearing a black t-shirt and black knee-length shorts, which made the summer heat feel even hotter. It really made me appreciate the southern California summers a lot more. It wasn't the first time being exposed to this kind of heat and humidity though, as South Carolina has a very similar climate in the summer. Just as I felt I was going to die of heat stroke, I found a large mall about 4 stories tall. I went inside just to get away from the heat for a little bit and had to go through a security scanner as I walked in. I noticed that many of the office spaces had not been filled with businesses yet but I did see a dominoes and KFC inside. I walked inside a large store in the back that went up three stories and purchased a travel adapter for 505 INR (much cheaper than the 10 Euro it cost at the airport) and three pairs of ankle socks for 297 INR. I gave the guy at the register 500 INR and the funny thing is he gave me 200 INR and three pieces of chocolate candy that the register was filled with as change. He explained to me that they didn’t have small change to make up for the 3 INR that was left so he gave me a piece of candy for each one.
Went back to the first floor into a restaurant that was styled in such a way that was new to me. They had various sweets, desserts, drinks and sandwiches, and you ordered everything you wanted at the front desk so they could give you your receipt that you would show to the employees working the other sections of the restaurant. I didn’t feel like risking dysentery especially after not having found a taxi yet, so I skipped the solid food items and just got an iced tea and a scoop of vanilla ice cream. I’m not sure how they make their ice cream but it tastes different from the kind in the States. It’s hard to describe, I guess it’s more milky if anything, but still good. The iced tea was great. It took them about 5 minutes to make but it had large round ice cubes in it, a fresh squeezed lemon, mint leaves, and a straw with an umbrella top. It was probably the best iced tea I’ve ever had, or maybe it seemed that way because I was dying of thirst.
Once I left the mall I became surrounded by guys who got out of green taxi carts. I told them that I wanted to go to Hotel Indira and gave one of them the address and asked how much. I thought he said 100 INR so I agreed. That's like $1.70 USD. Imagine getting taxi service that cheap in the USA. I was so nervous in the back of the car because Delhi traffic regulations are apparently non-existent. So many times I thought the guy was going to crash into someone or someone was going to crash into him. I made it safely to the front of the hotel and gave the driver the 100 INR and he looked at me disappointed saying “Only 100?”. I responded “That’s the price you told me. How much did you want?” He cked his head once to the right and said “I said 200 please”. I wasn't sure if that's really what he said or if he changed his mind, but he saved me a lot of time looking for a taxi so I gave him the extra 100 INR and went back to my room to bathe, rest, and charge my phone.
The front desk called my room a few minutes later and transferred me to reception at Rockland Hospital Qutab. The receptionist asked if I had received Mr Maini's e-mail and wondered when they could expect my arrival for a consultation. I told her that I'd be there in about 20 minutes and got Indira Hotel's taxi driver named Chacha to drive me. He first took me to a local photographer so I could get more passport photos for my sim card, but the owner of the shop wasn't there and the teen behind the desk was unable to do the photos himself, so I decided to just come back for it later. Chacha proceeded to drive me to Rockland Qutab.
Thoughts On My DayI've had two consultations today and though I felt good about the first one, the second one really made me take a good long look at whether or not I really wanted to do cosmetic lengthening, in addition to how vastly different the online CLL community views lengthening compared to certain orthopedic surgeons. I can also say with certainty now that I will not consult with some of the doctors I planned to consult with after all, due to the results of my second consultation today. Rather than post each consultation one after the other, I've decided to post them all together once after I complete them. I check out at 12 noon tomorrow and will be taking the railway station to Mumbai, where I will also meet with Dr Suhas Shah and Dr Mangal Parihar.
Lastly, I want to point out that the reason for the apparent price inflation at Indira International Inn, according to another at the front desk, is that bookings for a very short period of time are significantly more expensive than bookings for extended stays. If you were to book a room for a few months you could look at a price of around $20 something dollars per day, but not when only staying for a couple nights.
Photos of the Day 
