Happy Diwali from Delhi

By the time we arrived at the train station for our four hour ride to Delhi, the combination of dehydration from my upset stomach and the fierce sun (it was 95 in the shade) had gotten to me. Boarding the train I climbed straight into one of the upstairs bunks and just lay under a fan for the entire trip and tried to sleep. Bob tells me that I didn't miss much on the ride in, but I should have ample chances to see it as I have one more train into Delhi and two out coming up over the next week. I had steeled myself for the journey and even with the train being two hours late, my stomach played nicely. Getting into a taxi we were promptly introduced to Delhi traffic and hardly moved and it took another hour and a half to get to the hotel. Even in the pitch black of night we could tell how much pollution there is here and light more than about fifty meters away were dimmed by the smog.

Right after arriving we went out for one last dinner, as this was the last night of our tour and it is certainly strange to think that I have been travelling with Bob and Raj for two weeks now. I have had such a good time and seen so many cool things that time has just flown. Unfortunately, even though I only ate two pieces of nan, I just couldn't stay out and headed back for an early night in the nicely air conditioned room.

Within minuted of waking up in the morning it was clear that I was completely over my woes of the day before and was keen to get out and explore the city. I have a total of three and a half days here in Delhi and so Bob and I decided to focus on the New Delhi section today, before he was due to fly back in the evening. Our first challenge was to navigate the Delhi Metro, which I have to say is much nicer than I was anticipating. the stations are clean and well maintained, while the trains are new and as nice as any I have ever travelled in. And as a remnant of British times, there is a lady that occasionally announced Mind the Gap. Because the train is so cheap and easy to use (and gets you out of the hellish traffic above) many locals make use of the service and even on a Sunday morning there was a seething mass of humanity that Bob and I found somewhat claustrophobic. We only had four stops to go, however, and we were soon disgorged in front of parliament house.

We did not end up going for a closer look at parliament house and instead walked the two kilometers down the park-lined main road to the India Gate. Even at 10am the sun had a real bite to it and the walk made me think of Australia as we were walking under eucalyptus trees and really enjoying the cool of the shade. The India Gate is constructed in the style of a roman Triumphal Arch (similar to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris) and is dedicated to Indian soldiers who fought in World War One (as a side note I didn't know that Indians fought on the shores of hell at Gallipoli). Covered with the names of the fallen soldiers in the Indian Army (many of whom were British) it is a somber memorial.

Leaving the India Gate, we headed to the Purana Qila, a ruined Afghan fort (built during the short time that the Mughal's temporarily lost control of India in the 16th Century). It turns out that the fort is almost completely under renovation, with the tiles on the floor pulled up several crews of people working on laying concrete. The gates and main building, however, are not currently under reconstruction and since the work crews didn't seem to care, Bob and I decided to just walk in and take a look around. We ended up climbing up two stories of the entrance gate to get a good look at the fort and could see that this place will be under reconstruction for years to come.

The third and final site that we visited was Humayun's Tomb. Arriving at the tomb, we discovered that there was a 250 rupee entrance fee and were having second thoughts on going in as we couldn't see much at all from the gate. However, since we were there, we bit the bullet and went in and were both very glad that we had. To the immediate left of the entrance is a very nice tomb and we assumed that this was the main site. Having walked around it for a while (and disturbing the bats in the belfry) we headed back to the entrance when we noticed people heading off to the left and decided to see what was there. Luckily for us, through the gate was the actual Humayun Tomb and what a sight it is. Built in the late 16th Century of red sandstone, it clearly provided significant inspiration for the Taj Mahal and is a magnificent building, with clean, symmetric lines and well manicured gardens all around. The only problem was that we had seen the Taj Mahal the day before and with memories that fresh, it totally overshadowed this place. I tried to put aside those thoughts and appreciate this in it's own right and while I was partially successful I was almost regretting seeing the Taj first. Almost.

By this time it was early afternoon and Bob wanted to head back to the hotel and pack. I didn't want to push my body too hard in the heat and so I joined him and we spent the rest of the afternoon veging the room and watching TV. This was the first TV that I really watched in almost two months and I realized how little I missed it. This does bring me to the topic of the very odd relationship that Indians have with the English language. We were watching Indiana Jones, in English, and it was subtitled in English. Very strange. It seems that all the movies here are titled in English (and have English posters) but are actually in Hindi. On the subway the Hindi announcements would have worlds like "yellow line" in them and I am sure that the words for both yellow and line exist in Hindi. I just don't get it. Amusingly, they call whisky "English Wine".

In the evening Bob took off for the airport and I will certainly miss him. I was really worried when I found out that there was only one other person on the trip and didn't know how we would get along. I needn't have worried at all as Bob and I got along great. We have the same sense of humor and outlook on life, which is key when travelling together. When I am 65 I hope that I am still travelling and acting like he is.

Before first light the in the morning I was off to the train station and on to Shimla and will take up this blog upon my return in four days...

... and he is back!

After an overnight train down from Amritsar (this one first class, with a curtain for privacy) I arrived back in Delhi in the morning and took the subway back to the hotel. Even though it was nearly 9am on a Thursday, the subway was almost empty, apparently nothing really opens until 10am in India and so rush hour really doesn't start until 9.30. On the other hand, it is still a madhouse at least 7pm and people do not go out for dinner until fairly late. I hate to admit it that pretty much the rest of the day was taken up with lying on my bed in the air conditioning, surfing the internet and planning the next steps of my trip. I tried to go to the National Museum, but the line for subway tokens was 45 minutes long and after 20 minutes of waiting, when the guy selling them randomly shut his window, I gave up and went back to the cool. As a side note, I have decided to not go to Sri Lanka, but instead to home to Oz at the start of December. I found a really cheap flight and the extra time at home will let me get to Karratha one more time and spend more time with my parents.

The next morning I dragged myself from the cool hotel room and down to the National Museum, right as it opened and before the subway became a seething mass of humanity. The museum itself is quite wonderful and is definitely worth a look if you are in Delhi. Even though everything is well signed in English the ticket comes with a a free audio guide, which helps bring a few of the artifacts to life. The displays themselves are very similar to those that I saw in Varanasi, just more comprehensive. There are excellent displays of carvings from the various eras in Indian history and from the different empires. They flow from room to room in a logical sequence and so it feels like a trip through time. On display in particular is quite spectacular, a miniature golden stupa that contains some of the relics of Buddha. I was the only one in the room at the time that I passed through, but fifteen minutes later I could hear the chanting of a dozen people; Buddhists who had made a pilgrimage to the site. There is also a wonderful display of miniature painting, which is typical of India. The amount of detail and colour that they manage to get into such a small area is astounding. The arms and armour display is quite cool there is the best collection of bows and arrows I have ever seen, and the elephant armour is very cool. Unfortunately, one of the things that I really wanted to seen, the jewelery display, was under renovation and so I couldn't see that.

Back in the heat of the day I really had intended to visit the Ghandi museum, but my laziness got the better of me and so I decided to just head back to the hotel and watch cricket for the afternoon, until meeting my new group in the evening. Raj had told me that there was 10 people on my new tour and I was really looking forward to having a big group to hang out with after just three of us for two weeks. It turns out that there are three guys (sweet, a room to myself every third night) and seven girls, all travelling along, though not necessarily single. We range in age from 22 to 40 and from the first moment we all got along well and by the end of dinner it was clear that this is going to be a fun trip.

Heading out early in the morning for a tour of Old Delhi, the roads were eerily quite as it was Diwali, the Hindu equivalent of Christmas and the biggest holiday of the year. The roads, and the bus we rode in, were nearly empty and most of the shops were closed. I have to say that even though this is not quite the "true" Delhi, I wasn't upset at not having to fight through crowds and keep an especially keen eye out for pickpockets (which are notorious in the rabbit warren streets of Old Delhi). Our first stop was Jama Masjid, the main mosque in Delhi. The mosque, constructed in the 1650s, is a little different in structure than the other mosques that I have visited in that it has a large, open air courtyard (50,000 can pray at a time) and covered areas for the mullahs. There is no cover for worshippers and there is very little ornamentation on the main preaching area (sorry, no photos in here). There are two very tall minarets, one of which is open to the public and so course, which I climbed. On a clear day the views must be stunning, across the whole of Delhi and especially the monuments of Old Delhi arrayed at your feet. Unfortunately, with the choking pollution, clouds of dust and no rain for weeks, I could hardly make out the near side Red Fort 500 meters away and certainly couldn't see the far side. The mosque does create great updrafts and so kites and eagles lazily soared around me, and that was very cool, as for some reason I cannot get enough of seeing birds of prey in flight.

We spent the next 45 minutes being led through the winding streets of the Old Town, which pulse with energy even though the vast majority of the stores are closed (fireworks stores being the glaring exception). Since many people live in the labyrinthine streets there are small temple, food stalls, jewellery stores, clothiers and chai sellers all around and at one point we stopped for a great cuppa. Our next stop was the main Sikh temple in Delhi, the Sisganj Gurdwara. Like the Golden Temple, we had to remove our shoes, don bandannas and wash our feet before entering. Due to the size limitations in downtown Delhi, the temple is more in the structure of a typical temple, with a central area of worship, rather than the courtyard, lake and temple structure of the Golden Temple. Similar to the Golden Temple, three priests continually chant verses from the holy book while the devout chant along quietly. After five minutes of quite contemplation (and sideways looks from turbaned men and bolder looks from inquisitive children) we took a walk through the kitchen that was preparing to serve more than 600 free lunches later that day. I got the opportunity to stir the largest pot of vegetable chili that I have ever seen. The pot was at least four feet across, three feet deep and the stirring spoon could have easily been used as an oar.

Outside the Sikh temple, the group split with half going for a lunchtime coffee fix and relaxing afternoon in Connaught Place while the rest of us walked down the street to the Red Fort. Built on the banks of the river, the Red Fort was built by the same emperor that built the Taj Mahal, with the intention of moving his royal court from Agra to here. Unfortunately for him, before it was completed he was overthrown by his son and imprisoned in Agra Fort. The son did complete the construction and did move the court here, but the rule of the Mughal's was on the decline and he was the only emperor to rule from here. Even though the walls, gardens and palaces inside are quite nice, they are nothing compared to Agra fort. The palaces, however, are more spread out and you get a much better feeling of the layout of the place, unlike Agra, where the palaces all abut one another and you have much more of a feeling of walking from room to room in a single house, where this feels more like a true palace "complex". I will say that the inlay flowers on the white marble facades of the emperor's bedrooms were the best I have seen yet, exceeding even those on the walls of the Taj Mahal.

Making our way back slowly to the hotel we stocked up for our 17 hour train ride out into the Thar Desert and Jaisalmer. Before I sign off on Delhi, I do want to say a few parting things about the town, as I know I have outlined a bunch of positives and negatives. Overall, like any big city in the world, Delhi can certainly overwhelm you if you let it. I If you have never been to India or other large Asian cities, you may be better starting in somewhere like Kathmandu and make your way down like I did, to let you get used to the honking, touts and heat before trying Delhi. I will say though that there are some wonderful pockets of calm and sights not to be missed and the pulse of the city sends adrenaline through your body. If you do start your Indian odyssey in Delhi, do yourself a favour and take a day to see the National Museum to give you a historical perspective of what you are about to experience in the rest of the country and use Humayun's Tomb and the Red Fort as an delicious appetizer for the main course that is Agra.

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Part of trip: The Big One

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