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I am writing to you after having survived F1 in a tiny tinny can hurtling at supersonic speeds to one of the great wonders of the world, and at some point I thought I might be really buried there too. My survival is a testament my Lord’s protection and also in no small part due to the incredible driving skills of the man in the photo, plus a healthy dose of luck too I reckon… here is my story: Oh my! Oh dear! These are amongst the milder expressions going through my mind as I watch the driver weave through Delhi traffic, and come within a hair’s breath of the adjacent cars…. I after about one hour on the road, I have finished my prayers, decided that I should trust God and close my eyes to sleep, not just because I’m resigned to my fate, but I was genuinely tired after flying the red eye from SIN to Del and also immediately jumping into a hired car bound for the Taj Mahal. So about half a year back, I got an invitation to received an award in New Delhi and I was vacillating between flying in the very same morning and out the same night, but I figured a, my body couldn’t take the stress, and b, I might as well take a look at the famed Taj in Agra. I did some homework and discovered that you could take a car or bus and be there within four hours, or in my car, about three in my supersonic Suzuki Swift, and be back the very same evening. The other push factor was one of my colleagues was from Delhi and he could arrange the car, and another colleague was also keen so I had a travel buddy for this endeavour. However the flights were quite costly, and I wasn’t so keen to try Air India, but I found a flight combination that suited me, and one more person attending the same meeting offered to share his room with me, so I wasn’t too much out of pocket. So it was all set then! The aim was to get there as early as possible because it get to about 39 degrees in summer and it’s truly blazing. My plane lands at 6 plus in the morning and I figured I can get to the Taj before noon, and be under shelter before then. However, there are a few things you have to know about India…. firstly timing is elastic… which means when you get told 8am for example, it can be plus minus two hours, as I’ll discover later at the official dinner the following day. It’s 8.30am when I get picked up and in all likelihood I’ll face the brunt of the noon sun there, and my decision not to bring my sunglasses and hat is going to be a bad one that the sun will keep reminding throughout my trip. Second, the head shaking can express a multitude of replies. Ranging from yes to no to maybe or I don’t care, it may take a pHD to decipher that and I had to rely on my less than perfect google translate that my colleague and I were using to attempt with our Hindi only driver. However he did understand ’toilet’ because when I tapped him on the shoulder once, and said it, he almost immediately tore across five lane on the highway and came to a halt at the side of the road, leaving us in sheer terror, before he pointed backwards and said ’toilet’ then after a few seconds to gather our wits about us, we turned around and saw a rather well maintained public toilet situation a few metres behind the car. It was clean, with no smells and even soap, in the middle of nowhere on the highway. Remarkable I felt, considering that the public toilets in China were, shall we say ‘exotic’ to say the least… Now we did feel we should try our best to get there quickly so in all honesty, part of the F1 experience was our own fault.. I believe we did tell him to speed up so we could avoid the crowds and he did understand that part, yes I am confident of that. So despite only having a naturally aspirated 1.4l engine and a five speed gearbox, Delhi’s Senna did his best to propel us forward to our destination with the most haste and he demonstrated alacrity as he weaved through traffic firstly with great aplomb driving through non existent gaps in traffic with the smallest of margins. But this is Indian traffic for you and I must say, I have experienced it in Bangladesh and the old Beijing before. It’s synchrony of organised chaos, with traffic lines only there for show, and a scant regard for lane markers, plus a healthy use of the car horn liberally to let adjacent drivers be aware. Mind you isn’t horns used in fury, they are just employed to keep everyone aware of your presence and intentions, and somehow you can weave your way through traffic unscathed despite seemingly no space in between to do so. Once we reach the highway, the cacophony inside the car leads me to believe that we are truly going airborne, as we attempt take off as we approach expressway speeds. Once again the stipulated 90 kmh is only for reference as he adeptly coaxes the maximum out of the engine and take us up to sonic boom speeds. No matter how much fear you get, the fatigue of trying to fit a tall person into economy class sets in and the lack of sleep allows me to be lulled into some kind of slumber and each time I awake, he has shaved off another 50km towards Agra, where the Taj is. It’s 185km on the highway, which he gets to after fighting in Delhi traffic for about 40 minutes. A little background to the Taj

ouch i wonder if the valet driver have a fake degree and a fake driving licence

http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC11...rney-experience S'pore 18th in that journey experience Survey shows nearly 8 in 10 public transport commuters dissatisfied by Neo Chai Chin 04:46 AM May 16, 2011 SINGAPORE - When it comes to getting around the island, Singaporeans apparently have a worse journey experience than do commuters in New Delhi or Kuala Lumpur. The Republic ranked 18th in a survey of 23 cities on public and private transport journey experiences. Copenhagen, Seattle and Sydney had the most satisfied commuters, according to the inaugural Journey Experience Index by business research and consulting firm Frost and Sullivan. Singapore scored 54.5 points, below the global benchmark of 61. Those travelling on public transport indicated a higher level of discontent: Out of 740 public transport commuters and 674 private transport commuters polled here, 77.5 per cent and 57 per cent respectively were dissatisfied with their journey experience. A comparative breakdown for the other cities was not immediately available. However, one reason Singapore did not do better in the index could be the relatively high percentage of journeys made on public transport, as cities with higher car usage tended to record greater satisfaction in the overall journey experience, said Mr Vivek Vaidya, Frost's Asia-Pacific vice-president of its automotive and transportation practice. The index gave equal weightage to four areas: Timeliness in reaching one's destination, value-for-money, convenience and overall journey experience. Mr Vaidya said the main frustrations of public transport commuters were overcrowding, switching between different modes of transport as well as getting to and from their homes and train stations. Car owners said their journey times were predictable, but groused about the lack of value-for-money, with charges such as Electronic Road Pricing, he said. Transport analyst Lee Der Horng of the National University of Singapore was surprised that Singapore ranked below cities such as Beijing and Kuala Lumpur. But the findings suggest room for improvement in bus services here, he said. A significant percentage of commuters get to train stations by bus, and "now that we have more MRT lines, transfer between (different) modes becomes more and more common", he said. Train services are relatively predictable, but buses, which are subject to road and traffic conditions, are less so, he said. "So, how to eliminate those uncertainties in bus services - that's what the operators and regulator should pay extra attention to," he said. Frost's findings vary from a customer satisfaction survey commissioned by the Land Transport Authority, the results of which were released earlier this year. Of 3,100 public transport commuters polled last October, 92.2 per cent were satisfied with service, according to the latter. Respondents gave an average service rating of 7.3 out of 10. Commuters were asked to rate satisfaction levels in eight areas including comfort, waiting time and reliability. Associate Professor Lee noted that the two surveys' methodologies were different and should not be compared. In reply to queries, the LTA told MediaCorp it was doing its best to increase transport system capacity and will spend S$60 billion over the next 10 years to expand the rail network. Since last June, when LTA began quarterly reviews to improve heavily utilised bus services, 51 services have been improved through higher frequency and deployment of higher-capacity buses. "The LTA will also continue to build new road infrastructure to cater to travel demands," a spokesperson said.

Seems like them athletes are having a jolly good time with each other... Really bring out the cross cultural spirit... Wonder if our athletes contributed to clogging up their sewage... http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20101007/tts-...at-c1b2fc3.html

hi, anyone can recommend any decent hotels for these 3 places for less than $200 per night budget in Dec? Thanks in advance! in delhi, will need one night near the airport, and one night in town. where is good to stay in town?