At 6:15pm 7 December 2003 we took the sleeper train from Udaipur to Delhi. Our
class 2AC rail car was similar to the class 3AC sleeper we took from Delhi to Jaisalmer
except that in the 2AC car the bunks were only two high and there was a lockable door
to shut off our 4-person compartment from the passageway. The fare totaled 1728
rupees (US$38) for the two of us, after the 30% senior discount. Our fellow
passengers in the bay were two officials of the highway department whose English was
very good and with whom we had pleasant talks.
Upon arriving in Delhi the following day (8 December) about 1:00pm we took a taxi to
the Ajanta Hotel, where we had stayed on previous trips. The Ajanta is conveniently
located near the New Delhi Railway Station, has a restaurant, a travel desk, an Internet
café a helpful staff, offers free airport pickups, low-cost transfers from hotel to
airport, and the desk clerks are used to dealing with foreign travelers. The hotel
usually charges us around 700 rupees (US$16) per night. There are plans to upgrade
the hotel, with higher rates.
It was a short night for us as next morning at about 2:15am we had to leave the hotel
for Indira Gandhi International and the flight home. Luckily the flight was only about
one-fourth full so each of us could nap lying across three seats. After changing flights
in Amsterdam we arrived at JFK Airport in New York about twenty hours later at
around 4:00pm local time.