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Published: February 6th 2009
Final stop in India - Delhi. Spending the night in sleeper class (as we normally did because it was so cheap!) usually means you have to deal with dodgy windows which never seem to shut properly and that, doubled with the fact we had just undertaken a 20 hour train ride through the desert meant that upon arrival in the capital we were covered head to toe in dust. Ready to face the onslaught of touts and rickshaw drivers we made our way out of the station to find... no one! Not one single taxi driver, rickshaw or anyone really. It appeared that we had arrived in one of the busiest, most congested cities in the world on their National Holiday (coincidently the same day as Australia Day - you can also probably tell I’m a bit behind in my blogging now), hence there appeared to be no one in sight - we still don’t know where everyone was.
So, after roaming the streets for 20 or so minutes we finally found someone who would take us across town to Paraganj, for a very inflated price of course, where we found a hotel and collapsed for the rest of the
day.
Armed with a full night’s sleep we rose to face Delhi. I have to say that I was quite underwhelmed, over our 2 months in India we had heard horror stories of Delhi, with how it was so busy and so hard to cope with even going outside. For me, it just felt like another Indian city. I suppose when I think about it, some places, Chandi Chowk (the main strip in Old Delhi) especially, were a fair bit busier than we had seen before and there was a lot more begging but it just wasn’t as intense as I had expected it to be. Maybe this was because I had expected so much, or maybe it was because after being in India for a long period of time I was numb to it, or maybe because for many people Delhi is their first point of contact with the country.
Anyway, back to our time in Delhi - we spent our first day exploring the sights of Central Delhi including Rajput Rd - the main road in central Delhi, connecting parliament and the secretariat buildings to the India Gate. Unfortunately for us, we couldn’t actually see any
of the former due to more security restrictions (... Mumbai). We also checked out Humayun’s tomb, which was an unexpected highlight for us. In terms of the architecture, it was very similar to the Taj Mahal, but red, with fewer crowds and not as beautiful (but still pretty good). In the afternoon we popped into a restaurant called “The All American Dinner” for what was undoubtedly a fat fest and very un-Indian - just what we needed. What we didn’t need however was the surprise 22.5% tax that was thrown on at the end, making it quite an expensive meal.
On our second day we checked out Old Delhi. After navigating the extremely efficient metro system (it really puts Cityrail to shame) to avoid dodgy rickshaw drivers, we arrived right in the middle of Chandi Chowk and made our way down to the Red Fort. The Red Fort really seems as if it is a shell of its former self, with many of the buildings inside extremely dilapidated. It was nothing on the Agra Fort, which was built around the same time also by the Mughals. One of the strangest things however was seeing what appeared to be several
large marijuana bushes growing in the middle of what is a large tourist destination!!
After the Old Fort, we weaved our way through Chandi Chowk and the surrounding streets to reach the huge, old and beautiful mosque, Jama Masjid (also a feat of the great Mughal Empire). As Merric was wearing shorts - not appropriate mosque attire - he had to wear a rather fetching skirt over the top of his shorts, which for me, was the highlight of the day. In the evening we wandered around Connaught Place - a surprisingly modern and upmarket area of Delhi, for shopping and some dinner.
The following day we payed a visit to the Baha’i House of Worship - more commonly known as the Lotus temple. The architecture is funnily enough very similar to the Sydney Opera House, but in reverse with the sails sticking inwards instead of outwards. I have to say I was most impressed with the Baha’i faith, they seem to be very accepting of all beliefs and other ways of life, even inviting people to pray for different religions in their most holy temple. Oh and they also had very nice manicured lawns - something you
appreciate after having not seen gardens - let alone well kept ones in a very long time. In the afternoon we tried to go see a movie - Ghajini. From what we have been told by other tourists, Ghajini is a Bollywood version of the movie Memento but with singing and dancing intertwined with very violent action scenes. Unfortunately for us, we never got to witness this fine display as due to Merric’s backpack we were denied access to the theatre - just another security precaution put in place thanks to the terror in Mumbai (we were even bag checked upon entering McDonalds!!).
Our final day in Delhi was primarily spent dealing with the inefficiencies of Indian post. Posting a parcel home managed to take me over 2 hours with the process generally going like this: line up at main counter for 15 minutes, then find you have to go and do something else, spend another 30 minutes lining up to do that, then going back to the main counter. Repeat many times. The rest of the day was spent splashing out on an expensive meal in a revolving restaurant overlooking Delhi and watching some new Bollywood movie (unfortunately the
previous day was Ghajini’s last) which we didn’t understand and didn’t have enough singing or dancing in it.
That evening we said our farewells to India and jumped on a plane, arriving the next day in steamy Cambodia for some new exciting adventures...
Overall we really, really enjoyed our time in India and for us, 2 months was a great amount of time to spend travelling around - long enough for us to feel like we really got to know the place and the people but not too long for it to start getting too much and irritating. We also have plenty left to see next time (hopefully there will be one!). India is an absolutely fascinating country and I think you either love it or hate it - I’m so glad we were the former.
Highlights for us included meeting the family in Madurai, cruising the backwaters in Kerala, Mysore Palace, the relaxed vibe in Hampi (and the ruins), relaxing in Goa, Bollywood movies in Mumbai, the Taj, Udaipur in general, Jodhpur fort , the Jaisalmer Camel Safari as well as the food and the people. Lowlights and things we will not miss include food poisoning
in Varanasi which took us 3 weeks to recover from, trains being over 5 hours late (regularly), often seeing people urinate/defecate/spit in the streets, rubbish everywhere, being stared at by men all the time, how it takes a long time to do anything as well as the food (again!) and the people (some).
On a train journey somewhere in India I met a pair of locals who thought that the main problem holding India back was chronic mismanagement everywhere and I have to say I agree. For example, when you go to a restaurant it takes at least 20 minutes to get your bill, even though there are usually about 9 waiters. However, instead of bothering to serve you, they would always stand around together talking, not doing anything! In fact some of the best service we had was at an extremely understaffed restaurant because the only waiter working there had no one to talk to!
In the end, despite everything, we loved India and even though we are having an awesome time thus far in Cambodia, we find ourselves missing it.
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AnnaAdventuring
Anna Louise
Hey - just stumbled across your blog. I really enjoyed your photos of Delhi. I've just come back from there myself, so it's nice to see places like Humayun's Tomb and India Gate again. Just off to browse through your earlier blogs... :)