What's the Difference?

“Then with the night-time temperature still well above 30C (86F) the power went out. I lay for hours soaked in sweat trying, and failing, to get back to sleep and wishing I was back in Beijing where the lights never go out.”

I came across this article in the “From Our Own Correspondent” section of BBC News. The writer lives in Beijing, but had to make a 4-day trip to Delhi, India. He can’t help but notice the major differences between the two countries. What he experiences over his short stay is so typical of anyone arriving during the summer/monsoon months: nothing seems to work, people are everywhere, and it’s boiling hot at night. I remember feeling the exact same way.

His description of the departure is perfect:

“I looked at my plane ticket. Departure time 0315. Surely that could not be right. I called the front desk. "That's correct sir," he said, "the airport is too small so many flights from Delhi leave in the middle of the night."

He was not joking.

Despite the hour [the airport] was teeming with people. The queues snaked around the airport and back to where they had started. "Is it always like this?" I asked a man in the queue ahead of me.

"Pretty much," he sighed.”

I remember reading a little while ago that airlines suggest showing up to the Delhi airport four and half hours before your flight. Follow that advice, should you ever find yourself leaving Delhi.