Tintin: Noting his travels in India and surrounding countries

Hi friends,
Let me tell you thst Hergé has given all the justice to all the countries in the world - in one way or the another Tintin makes it a point to visit many countries like thise in Africa, the Americas, China, Japan, Tibet and India.
Let me remind you that Tintin has visited india. Yes, in Tintin in Tibet!

Tintin and the Captain catch a connecting flight to Patna, en route to Kathmandu from New Delhi Airport itself!
After landing in Delhi airport our Captain asks a steward for the Patna flight.
She tells him to go to another terminal (i.e. head towards Domestic Terminal 1), and tells him the flight is at 1420hrs. She also suggests he visits Delhi in the meantime.
We can see comic-strip versions of Qutub Minar (our captain looks amazed by its appearence) and the Red Fort being visited by Tintin and the Captain!
Thanks Hergé for sending Tintin to India, and of course everybody is invited to India including, "to be precise", the Thom(p)sons, Nestor, Prof. Calculus, Gen. Alcazar and Bianca Castafiore too!

What about Cigars of the Pharaoh, where Tintin ends up in India in the kingdom of Gaipajama?

Not justice to all the countries. Tintin never went to Australia in an actual comic (he was on the way to Sydney in Flight 714, but we never saw him get there...

Now that you have brought up the subject,let me point out some technical flaws with Hergé's version of Tintin and Haddock's trip here...

The first sightseeing place in Delhi which our friends visit is Qutub Minar, which is in south Central Delhi, then they visit the Red Fort, which is in North Eastern Delhi; from where they go to Ghiasuddin Tughlaq's Tomb, which is to the extreme South East of Delhi, after which they seem to have missed out Rajghat, that is again to the North East of Delhi, the latter place very near to the Red Fort.

And Delhi, being a huge City, the distances between the succesive places visited could be anywhere between 15 to 20 kms.

So we see that Hergé has sent our friends on a zigzag course of Delhi all within a space of less than 3 hours. This shows that he'd never visited Delhi (and that's a fact!). He's created a collage of places with pictures from a travel book!

But Tibet is such a nice book otherwise, and since the above does not make an impact on the overall scheme of things, who cares...? ;-)

You're right. The last visit was only made to Tibet. I was so curious to know whether he visited the other South East Asian countries like Burma, Malaysia, Singapore, and Australia.

And "to be precise" Tintin has also visited Indonesia, in Flight 714 on his way to the Astro congress in Sydney.
They were to catch a connecting flight in Djakarta,the capital of Indonesia to Sydney only for their private aircraft to be hijacked to an undisclosed location, maybe around Java!

Long live Tintin! Wishing you happy 75th birthday!

szplug
technical flaws

For those who don't have a Delhi map to hand, here is the best one I could find to try and follow Tintin & Haddock's Delhi visit.

This visit differs slightly in the original version: they don't see Ghiasuddin Tughlaq' Tomb, and miss both the Jama Masjid and the Rajghat...

According to this map's square divisions, could please anyone tell us in what places were the International and the Willingdon airports situated at the time, i.e. in 1960?

Thanks in advance

I must say I've not yet been convinced there is a real technical flaw in that sequence...

could please anyone tell us in what places were the International and the Willingdon airports situated at the time, i.e. in 1960?

Let me tell you that New Delhi has two Airports, on for domestic, and the other for International, flights. However the international hub is known as Indira Gandhi International (abbreviated to IGI) airport.
May be international airport had an old name then?

A little search on Google has revealed that Willingdon Airport changed it's name to Safdarjung Airport.
It's situated very close to the centre of New Delhi, at the co-ordinates 7F on Yamilah's map: you can see the airplane symbol in front of Safdarjung's Tomb (see also the map on this page).
Apparently it isn't used any longer.
Due to it's close proximity to the Prime Minister's residence, not to mention the heightened security - or paranoia, if you prefer - in the wake of 9/11, it was declared "out of bounds" for all aircraft.

Thanks Harrock n roll for your data.

To sum up Tintin & Haddock 3.5 hours' Dehli stay (p.7, frame 1+2), in the original French version:

They arrive at an airport (p.6 last frame), presumably on the site of 'Indira Gandhi International' one (co-ordinates B8 on the Dehli map), start their visit at Qutab Minar (p.7 frame 3) 6 miles south-east (co-ord. E9), then go to the Red Fort (p.7, frame 4) 10 miles north-east (co-ord. G4)...
After that there is no spare time to visit nearby Jama Masjid and Rajghat (p.7, frame 5), so they finally have 25 minutes left (p.7, frame 10) to hurry back by taxi to the ancient Willingdon airport 6 miles south-west (co-ord. F7) to fly to Katmandou via Patna.
As they don't seem to walk or run the first 16 miles, their 22 miles' presumed drive must have left at least a 2 hours' time for our heroes to see Qutab Minar + Red Fort...
Thus - according to the available internal and external data - there seems to be no technical flaw in Dehli...

Moderator Note: You are taking the meaning of "technical flaw" very literally (when it is clearly being used to point out that Hergé was not familiar enough with the locale to see that the tour he has laid out is simply impractical), and then using it to contradict the knowledge of someone who lives there. Please be more receptive to the opinion and knowledge of other members, rather than trying to score points and bend what they say to the narrative that you wish to create.

If they really visit the Ghiasuddin Tughlaq's Tomb, far south-east of Delhi (co-ord. H10)...

I think this might answer your question. Take a look at the building in the background of the 5th frame, page 7, and compare it to this photo of Tughlakabad Fort (as the tomb is also known). Unfortunately, I don't have an English copy of Tibet to see if it's mentioned by name.