Delhi Hotel

We spent a great deal of time researching hotels in Delhi.  There are so many to choose from and they range in price from $5 to $500 a night.  Based on our price range and location needs we settled on the Velvet Apple.  Trip Advisor had good ratings for it, albeit there were only 10, but the pictures online appeared to be nice, although I read that sometimes the pictures posted on hotel websites are often phony.

I did not know until after the fact that in India you are supposed to haggle over even the cost of a hotel room. Booking via their website did not work, so we tried to Skype them, but the language barrier was too difficult so we finally had to email them.  It took a few days for them to reply and, again, communication was difficult, even via email.  We were sketched out on faxing them our credit card number, but friends assured us this was the way it's done and it is safe.  So we crossed our fingers and hoped for the best. 

We were pleasantly surprised.  The room was very nice, clean and spacious.  And it had a western toilet. 

While our hotel building looked very nice from the outside (and so it was inside as well), the buildings surrounding it were less than stellar.  But we quickly discovered that this is the case in Delhi.  We'd see a very nice two story home with a gated entrance and security guard, and right next to it is a dilapidated single story home that is literally in pieces with frayed tarps for a roof.

The view from the front of our hotel.  I didn't think of taking photos of the buildings on either side of it.

At least the street is swept clean manually every day....