Our adventure into the city

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Yesterday after having curried potatoes wrapped in some kind of pancake thingy, which was quite good after we got used to that flavour for breakfast, we headed off into the center of new delhi and old delhi. We caught a University taxi which was great because it had aircon and the driver picked us up a few hours later from where he dropped us off.

We got dropped off in the middle of the tourist district and started getting harrassed as soon as we stepped out of the car. We stick out like a sore thumb and get stared at constantly. People were even taking photos of us! It doesn't bother me now, but at first it was a bit unnerving. We went to a tourist office, which was a big deal in itself as people try and send you too different one's claiming they are govt offices and if you end up there they receive a commission from your booking. The standard line is 'I am not trying to sell you anything, I am a student trying to improve my english'. I lost count as to how many times we heard that yesterday. The office we ended up at, we think, turned out to be ok. It belongs to all of the correct govt agencies that it should do, according to our lonely planet guide. We booked a trip to the Taj Mahal for thursday, with a private car and driver, with aircon. It's interesting and different the things you need to specifiy when booking. We got the trip in writing, in terms of what it includes, and have kept the receipt in case anything doesn't go according to plan.

After organising the plan we took an autorickshaw across to old delhi. This in itself was interesting as we had to bargain with the driver on price. These vehicles are crazy...but great fun! So we had another indian traffic adventure which involved us being within ten centremeters from the big bus next to us and a concrete wall on the other side. A bit disconcerting when the bus seems to want our lane, but our driver won't give it to him. Instead it seems that the thing to do is sit on the horn and not move 😊.

We went to the red fort in old delhi which was amazing. It's a huge fort that runs for kilometers. I've put up some photos of it on the blog. The architecture was amazing.

The humidity here is amazing. I have never ever ever ever experienced anything like it. We just constantly sweat and there is nothing you can do about it. In australia we get embarrassed if sweat stain can be seen on our shirts. Over here it is strange if you see someone without them. Richie and I drunk litres of water yesterday and just sweated it out.

Last night was the first event of the conference with a welcome dinner and cocktails at the institute directors home. It seems that it will be a relatvely small conference, but everyone is extremely friendly and open, so hopefully should make some good research contacts and links. I am the only female attending the conference from what I can make out, which is interesting. Again, it was about 8pm and sweat was just running down everyone. They brought some electric fans out into the garden which helped a little.

We also had a language misunderstanding with our host of the building we are staying in. The power here comes on and off all the time. Sometime everything starts up again on its own accord, other times not. It went off just before breakfast yesterday and we asked when it would be back on. He said 9.30 the next morning. We were a bit concerned, cause there goes the aircon. After our adventure in the city we were so hot and exhausted we thought we would check again. This time he obviously interpreted what we said as something different (the correct version) and went to the mains board and hit a few switches. On came the aircon! Now we know where the mains are we've got it sorted!

Conference officially starts today, with guest speakers and registration, and I present on Wednesday.

Going out to face to the humidity...

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Comments

[Cheryl Abberton]

Keep the photos and travel log coming T - I am so envious