Advertisement
Published: December 15th 2007
Namaste is Hello and Good-bye in Hindi!
We spent our last night in Europe in Paris. You are probably thinking “Oh, how romantic” right? Not so much. Yuri was really sick and we had to do laundry in a Parisian laundromat. That’s a travel experience all by itself. You NEVER know what you are going to see! Anyhow, the point is that I spent most of my time in Paris wondering if I was mentally and physically ready to conquer India. I know several people that have been there and the general description is “You just have to experience it. There is no other place on earth like”. Ok, what the hell does that mean………..! We found out (:
Our flight arrived in Delhi at 6:30 am. My sister had arrived the night before at 11 pm so she spent the evening in the Delhi airport reading Harry Potter in French. I’m sure she didn’t stand out at all! One gentleman took a liking to her and told her that it was Ok that she didn’t speak Hindi because his mom would teach her! Anyhow, none of us were terribly on top of our “travel game” that morning but
we managed to find the pre-paid taxi station suggested in our Lonely Planet book. Thank God for good old LP! This pre-paid taxi service really is GREAT. I cannot imagine walking out into the madness of taxi-ville and trying to negotiate a price. The government has set it up such that there is a fixed price to specific areas of the city or even to other cities. So we hopped in the taxi, gave the man the piece of paper with our hotel name on it, and we were on our way….sort of! He was driving very slowly away from the hotel, honking, and looking around. Being the idiotic “Westerners” that we are, we automatically assumed the worst. He MUST be honking to tell all of his friends to come out of the bushes, open the trunk and steal our backpacks from the trunk!!! It was with this terrible thought process that we yelled at him to GO!! We pulled into a gas station a few minutes later and that is when the terrible embarrassment set in. As he was pumping gas, he was also walking around to all of the other taxi drivers to ask them where the hell
The Gate!
Very commanding isn't it?our hotel was! It appeared that he may have been a new taxi driver and didn’t know every single hotel in Delhi yet! Poor guy. He was probably trying to get another taxi driver to come over and help him when he was honking and he had these crazy white people yelling at him from the back seat. And it was with this experience that we began India!
I have to admit that I was a bit nervous to step out of the save haven of our hotel onto the streets of Delhi. I guess it was mostly for fear of what I might see. After all, one of my friends warned me that when she went to India, she saw a man taking a poop on the street! Now while I doubted this would scar me forever, was I prepared for it?! Good news, no pooping! The street we needed to walk down to the Metro was also one of the major bazaars in Delhi, so it was very busy with shoppers and salesmen. In addition to the buildings of shops, there was also a second layer of vendors just in front of the sidewalk. They were selling
everything from huge mounds of sweaters to fresh-squeezed orange juice. The Delhi metro was just built a few years ago and is so great for exploring the city. It was very crowded, as you can imagine in a city of 12 million, but Molly said it really wasn’t that different than a D.C. train during rush hour!
The first destination of our big outing was to find the travel agent we had booked our Agra tour through so we could pay them. The hotel gave us directions as best they could but we required more assistance when we exited the metro! The good news is that Indian people are the friendliest we have encountered throughout our trip. When they saw us holding a map and looking confused, they would immediately come over and offer assistance. Actually, it even went beyond that. Some of them would even walk us TO the place that we were looking for! This could have been because they were extremely nice or because we looked too stupid to understand what they were saying! Either way, worked for us! Our first culinary experience (a LP suggestion) was PHENOMENAL! India is a vegetarian’s dream come true. There
were more vegetarian items on the menu than meaty ones! In most restaurants the menu was divided into “Veg” and “Non-Veg”. We ordered way too much food including several types of curries and garlic nan bread. We didn’t eat again for the rest of the day!
That afternoon we explored the Red Fort. Upon entering, we were immediately offered a tour by a man that appeared to be moving several of his fake teeth around in his mouth while talking to us at the same time! Sure, a tour sounds wonderful! He told us all about the history of the fort but I had to divert my eyes from his mouth because he continued to play with his teeth as his did so! It was just a bit disturbing to me for some reason! Anyhow, he was talking as fast as humanly possible because the sooner he was done with us, the sooner he could “catch” some more tourists at the entrance. The emperor that built the Red Fort was very accepting of all religions and indicated such on the buildings in the Red Fort area. All of the buildings have symbols representing Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Muslim and more.
Saalam Balak meeting point
This is the group of children at one of the meeting points. The one with the sweater over his head was new. I just wanted to hug him. That really surprised all of us. Of course, the emperors after him were not so accepting so, he was the forward thinker of his time!
It was that afternoon, in front of the seat of the emperor, that Molly and I experienced something that SHOCKED the heck out of us. A teenage Indian girl tapped me on the shoulder and said “photo”. Of course I will take a photo of you! Nope, she wouldn’t hand me the camera. Oh, I am so sorry; I must be in the way of your photo. Nope, that wasn’t it either. At that point I was at a loss. What did she want? She wanted a photo WITH Molly and I! So, several teenage girls, Molly and I all gathered in a group, arms around each other, and took our photo. I could honestly feel my cheeks getting red with embarrassment! It just felt so strange to me. It was later explained to us that many people from the countryside areas of India have not ever seen anyone with our color skin. They feel that it is an honor that we have come to visit their country and they want to show their
A fiesty one!
This little fellow was shaking hands with everyone! He was an "off" the street kid meaning his parents also lived on the street with him. They allowed him to come here during the day to get food. friends and family back home that they have met us. Pretty cool huh? I feel honored that they feel honored. Honor for everyone!
By 6 pm that evening our nap had worn off and we were culturally saturated, so we spent the evening in our safe haven. Funny how quickly a hotel room in Delhi can become your home! Molly went to sleep, I typed away on the free computer they had and Yuri watched Maverick on HBO! Talk about really getting out there and experiencing the night life of Delhi huh? Pathetic, I know, but we were tired!
The next day was very eye-opening, hard, emotional and even fun! Yuri found a tour in LP that was all about the street children in Delhi. I know that it may seem strange to go on a tour like this, but we felt like we wanted to try and get a full perspective of this city and country. The good with the bad. The touristy areas tend to just show you the good of course. Our guide's name was Javen and he lived in the train station from the time he was 8 until 12. He, like almost all
of the street kids, ran away from his home in the country at the age of 8. Most of them run away because they are being sexually or physically abused or other terrible problems. It seems that they hear about this fabulous place called the city and think that they can have a better life there. He said that about 26 new children arrive on trains everyday to live there. They get food by going onto the trains when they arrive and eating things that people have left. If they can't find anything, they dig through the garbage of the station. They earn money by digging through the trash to find recyclables and selling them, finding magazines on the trains and selling them to news stands, cleaning or doing things for the shop owners etc.... They sleep under a metal awning under a bridge that the police cannot get to. When the police find them, they often beat the crap out of them or take them to the train station. Anyway, as you can imagine, this is a terrible, terrible problem so an NGO called Salaam Balak is an organization that helps.
Each morning they have social workers that
go to the train station to try and meet up with new children that are coming in. They first try and take them back home (they go with them) and if the conditions really are too bad then they bring them back to the shelters with them. The street children that already live in the station do not trust anyone so it is hard to get them to go with the social workers. In addition, they feel like the trust would control their lives and many of them are addicted to the freedom that comes with living in the station! Anyhow, the NGO has three shelters for boys and one for girls where they get an education and live. They can live there until they are 18. The trust still helps them if they go to school though. Our tour guide was in school studying social work. We got to go to one of the shelters but first we went to a "meeting point". There are 7 of them around the train station and they have doctors and counselors for the kids in addition to a place to just be safe, color and learn for the day. Many of the
Yuri, tour guide and cows!!
I never got used to seeing cows just hanging out in the middle of a city! children are scared to go to the shelter so they go to the meeting point during the day and then back to the station at night. They also get food at the meeting point. There were about 10 kids there when we were there and they were learning and coloring. Our guide pointed out one of the "new kids" (meaning he had just arrived off of a train after he left his home and family) and he was sitting up against a wall with a sweater over his face. Totally overwhelmed I'm sure. Just horrible to see. The medical situation for these kids is also terrible. There is a store in the train station that sells medicine and that is how they treat the scratches they get from being beaten by cops. The guide told one story that one kid got beat up and didn't have the money for medicine so everything got infected. Finally one of his friends found a wheelchair for him so he could sit in it and beg for money. That is when he was able to buy his medicine. This was not normal because these street kids DO NOT beg for money. Apparently there are
Some of their school work
Each of the children at the shelter had their own folder where all of their work was kept. We thumbed through a few of them. two kinds of street kids; "on the street kids" and "off the street kids". “On” the street kids are these runaway kids living in the station or sometimes actually on the street. “Off” the street kids are children that belong to families that are on the street and their parents send them out to beg. Most of their parents are drug or alcohol addicts so they use their kids to fund their addiction. Those are the kids you see begging.
Anyway, the material of the tour was quite troubling but the tour was great. It was just so nice to see how enthusiastic this tour guide was about getting the message out there about these kids. They are viewed as dirty, gross nuisances and he wants to change that perception and let everyone know how hard their lives are. Like I said earlier, we ended our tour at the shelter and the kids were adorable! They were working on writing their numbers. They LOVED the camera because I could show them their picture afterwards. One little guy saw my sunglasses and wanted to put them on for the picture.
I encourage you to check out the website. It
The teacher
The kids eat, sleep and learn in one room. Their bed cushions were in a big pile on the side. really is an amazing organization. http://salaambaalaktrust.com/
After the tour we headed to another restaurant that was recommended by LP. We wanted to do our best to avoid getting sick and figured that sticking to these slightly more “expensive” restaurants might help us do that. Some might argue that we didn’t really experience Delhi because we didn’t eat any street food. I would argue back that I didn’t want to get to know my hotel bathroom that well! Anyhow, we had selected a restaurant on the 24th floor of a building in downtown. The restaurant turned so you could “see” the entire city. I use the word “see” lightly because the air pollution in Delhi was like nothing I have ever experienced before. It was a dark amazingly thick layer that just blanketed the city; so much so that the sun was this strange looking orange ball. Ok, back to our meal. It was going splendidly until we heard some commotion coming from a few tables over. Long story short: two white ladies had been seated with their Indian guide by the hostess. The manager then approached the table and told them they needed to leave because of a very
Very studious!
Most of the children were not concerned with us one bit! They wanted to continue working on their number sheets! strict dress code in the restaurant. By this he meant that the ladies were fine to stay, but the guide was not. Let me digress a moment and tell you that Yuri was wearing a beat-up North face t-shirt and baggy brown pants. The guide was wearing a nice pair of black slacks with a button-down, collared shirt. Dress code? I think not. This was our first experience with the caste system in India. Needless to say, the ladies were VERY upset and were not about to sit there and enjoy their lunch while their guide had to leave. They all left together but not before they gave the manager a piece of their minds for a good ten minutes. I am not saying that anyone was right or wrong, it was just a new experience for us. Definitely a cultural one. I did feel REALLY bad for them though and have to admit that our opinion of the restaurant immediately went down after that.
Shopping time!!! Having my mom in Greece and Italy and Molly in India meant bad news for Yuri! He definitely noticed an increase in my desire to shop when those two were around! We
Yuri at the craft museum
He thought this was the coolest thing. Like a really old Monster truck! didn’t have the energy to bargain at the markets so we went to the Craft museum instead! They had lots of Indian crafts displayed in the museum, and then in the back they had people making, and selling, handicrafts. I really liked it because you could see that the people actually made the stuff instead of it coming from a factory. We bought all kinds of goodies that I cannot mention here because many are gifts (:
I hate to admit that we headed in early that evening as well! It was necessary though as we had to get up at 5:30 for our trip to Agra!
What a long, crazy and interesting day! The tour crew for the day consisted of the three of us, a pharmacist from Iran that was taking an English proficiency exam in Delhi so he could move to Australia, a retired heart surgeon from New York that traveled around the world teaching doctors in developing countries and a Norwegian that we couldn’t figure out to save our lives! Quite the crew huh? The drive down was insane as usual. I cannot believe that it has taken me this long to describe the
Loved the Kaenon sunglasses!
At first I didn't know what he wanted but soon figured out it was my sunglasses! They had a great time trying them on and seeing themselves in the pictures! driving in India. Please excuse all of my diversions, but I just keep thinking of new things to tell you! And I quote “Red lights are simply a suggestion in India” - Yuri Swain! I think this is true of not only the red lights, but also the lines on the roads, or any traffic law for that matter! On a two-lane street there might be four cars across within four inches of each other! This is mixed with motorcycles trying to weave in and out and the occasional crazy bicycle rider! All of this is happening with constant honking. I got to the point where I couldn’t look out of the front of the car! It was just too scary so I pretended everything was normal and looked out the side windows! Anyhow, it was no different on the way to Agra. I suppose the only difference was that we were in a bigger bus so we felt a bit safer! An additional “vehicle” was added to the road as we got further out of town; a camel pulling a cart full of hay! Luckily, they were smart enough to stay on the side of the road.
The
We got stamped!
One of the booths at the craft museum demonstrated how they make these HUGE pieces of cloth using only stamps. The gentleman offered to stamp our hands (Molly and I that is)! Taj Mahal was everything we expected and more. It really is this majestic, white beauty in the midst of a city that is not! We had a great tour guide that was really excited to share every little detail with us. He really honed in on the fact that every single thing is in perfect alignment. The marble they used to build the Taj Mahal is the best kind possible so it has not really faded over the hundreds of years. The air pollution was starting to take a toll so now no gas vehicles are allowed within 500 meters of it! Wonder if that really makes a difference? The most impressive thing for me was the millions of semi-precious stones that were IN the marble. They had actually carved out a perfect space to fit every single piece and then glued it in. Apparently the glue they used is top secret. Only the families of the men that had that job have the recipe!
After the Taj we headed to the Agra Fort. It is much more beautiful and conserved that the Red Fort in Delhi. The man that built the Taj Mahal was imprisoned by his own
The beautiful Taj Mahal
We went on a Saturday so there were LOADS of people there but it was still great to see. son in the Red Fort for 7 years. He locked him up in a room where he had a perfect view of the Taj, but was never allowed to go there. Nice son!
The other three fellows in our group kept us entertained/irritated for most of the day! The gentleman from Iran and the Norwegian were constantly taking pictures and the tour guide would have to go find them before we continued on. I have never been on a tour like that. Usually the tour guide would just leave them there, and we thought he should have too!
The end of our day was spent at the marble factory where they explained the process and tried to get us to buy things we couldn’t afford. It was really cool to see how they make them though. The family members of the same men that put the stones into the Taj Mahal were sitting there making table tops and other souvenirs. The boy that carved the marble out for the stones to fit had this huge indention in his finger where he held the tool.
We didn’t get back to Delhi until midnight that night and our flight
Taj in the Kaenon sunglasses!
This shot was our guide's idea! Who knew that Kaenon sunglasses are not only the best, but they are great for taking pictures is as well! for Leh left the following morning at 5:50! We slept until 3:45 and then took another fun-filled taxi ride to the airport! You would be surprised at how many people are out and about at 4 am in Delhi. LA traffic has NOTHIN’ on that place!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.116s; Tpl: 0.018s; cc: 8; qc: 51; dbt: 0.0487s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
