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Published: March 16th 2008
New Delhi
A typical rooftop scene in PaharganjIndia seems to be one place that when people know you're going there, they say one of two things. Either 'Wow, you're going to India, that's great, how exciting!', or 'You're going to India, why would you want to go there?'. Well, we were on our way, to the place where people are usually quite intimidated to visit for the first time, ready to expect the unexpected, bring on the challenges, and say hello to living life on the edge with sacred cows, on the crowded streets of New Delhi.
From Bangkok, we set off on Jan. 21st, with another nice, short flight of four hours. This was the first flight where we noticed how loud everyone on the plane was. Indians arguing (or so we thought), singing, laughing, and drinking loads of whiskey. We just sat back, ate our first Indian meal, and prepared ourselves to touch down in New Delhi at around 9:30 pm.
We landed, got our visas stamped, and then waited for our bags for almost an hour. The airport was tiny and run down looking, in comparison to others we had been through. We decided that it was a great idea to get a
New Delhi
Cooking chapatis inside a barrel oven prepaid taxi to our hotel, to avoid haggling over a price. Our hotel, of course, was not really ours yet, since we hadn't made a reservation. We would find out when we got there if they had a room for us or not. What were we thinking, no reservations in New Delhi during the busy season!
Stepping out of the airport was like stepping back in time fifty years. The cars were all old and run down, people wore their traditional clothing, and the buildings all looked ancient and decrepit. There was a huge crowd waiting outside the airport, and many people were holding up signs with names on them. Hard not to wish that our names were on one of them. We bought a ticket from a booth, then climbed into the cab and set off to the area of the city called Paharganj, a cheap area frequented by backpackers.
The ride was surprisingly mellow and smooth, until we realized the driver seemed lost. He drove around the block many times, confused, but we could see why, since there seemed to be hundreds of tiny, little, cheap looking hotels in the area. Although honestly, we weren't sure
New Delhi
Christine is so excited about her 'Welcome to Delhi' gift if this was part of some sort of hotel scam. Finally we told the driver that we'd just get out of the taxi and find a different hotel, but he refused, saying that it was not safe to be walking in the area, since people were crazy and did drugs. Not always what you want to hear when searching out a hotel.
It was almost midnight at this point and we had been in the taxi for way too long. Our driver began asking people we passed in the street for directions, and to our delight, many seemed to know the hotel and pointed us in the right direction. As we drove up the tiniest alley, a neon sign showed us that we had finally found it. Our driver was very sorry; he ran up to us as we were getting out of the taxi and gave us a pre-teen novel called 'Kiss' that had been sitting in the back seat of the taxi. Someone had written 'I love India' in the inside cover. We guessed it was either a welcome to India gift or a sorry for getting lost gift, but it was a funny introduction to Delhi
New Delhi
Traffic jam involving a huge cow either way.
Our luck held out, and by some miracle, we got the last room in the hotel. We were now realizing how cold Delhi was in comparison to the humid heat of Bangkok. Happily, we pulled out our sleeping bags, put on our touques, climbed in to bed and piled on all the wool blankets in the room. Seriously, it was that cold, especially for our first night in India, which to us, seemed pretty weird.
The next morning we ate a quick breakfast in the rooftop restaurant of our hotel, while watching all the action in the streets below. What a fascinating scene it was, seeing Delhi by daylight for the first time. Big horned cows roamed the city streets freely, eating garbage off the cracked sidewalks. They looked as if they had no worries in the world, probably because they didn't, since they are sacred and nobody will kill or eat them there. People chewed and spat huge wads of chewing tobacco out their windows, just missing the few fortunate souls that walked below. Dogs wandered, sniffing out their next tidbit, and people were busy everywhere, making chapatis, pedaling their bikes, washing laundry or chatting
New Delhi
Hangin' on the rooftop and drinkin' chai with a neighbour.
We got up the courage to go out and explore this strange, new landscape. Rickshaws (motor powered) and cycle-rickshaws (pedal powered) constantly stopped and asked if we needed a ride, sometimes even begging us to go. Guys yelled out to us, trying to get us into their stores, saying 'It doesn't cost any money to look'. Sometimes people would grab our arms, asking us to give them money. The poverty was overwhelming, and the smell of urine hit us like a slap as we wove our way through this strange obstacle course. Dodging cow crap and piles of garbage in the streets was essential while walking.
Women walked down the streets, a blur of pinks, oranges, yellows, and blues. Their saris fluttering behind them as they walked, and their bangles tinkled on their arms. Often, their hair was covered in cloth as well, and many carried large parcels somehow delicately balanced on their heads. Brightly dyed textiles, jewelry and clothing hung in little shops everywhere. There were so many things to choose from in this vibrant, colourful country.
All of these new sights and smells were part of some serious sensory overload. We discovered
New Delhi
That's what B.C. is missing, cool rooftops to hang out on! that a great way to recover from the culture shock was to partake in the national pastime, sitting down and enjoying some masala tea, the liquid gold of India. Also known as chai (the hindi word for tea), there are chai stalls everywhere serving this delicious sweet concoction. A cup or three of tea, and we were relaxed and ready for the next of many challenges faced each day.
It was strange to start eating Indian food for every meal, but we didn't think it would be too much of a problem, since Indian is one of our favorites to order at home. We got to enjoy our meals in high rooftop restaurants, which are everywhere in the city. Tasty treats of dahl, malai kofta, butter chicken, palak paneer, naan bread, thalis, roti...and the list goes on. Eagles soared in the skies everywhere. The smell of incense mixed with urine filled the pungent air. It sure was different there, more different than anywhere we had ever been. How we would feel in a month, only time would tell.
Our plan was to stay in Delhi for a couple of nights, and then take the train somewhere less busy,
New Delhi
Pumping our drinking water with authority (yes, we drank it and it was fine)! so we could enjoy Delhi more on our way back. All we needed to do was get a ticket from Delhi's notorious train station. This station was always busy and full of touts trying to trick you into going elsewhere to purchase your train tickets, usually their friends travel agency, where they would charge you an outrageous price and the tout would collect commission. We knew the routine, and so prepared to walk into the train station and not let anyone change our minds.
The touts would tell you on your way into the train station that you were going the wrong way, the old office burned down or it was being repaired so you had to go down the road. They would then politely direct you to a 'cheap rickshaw' that would take you to the right place. We had thoroughly read up on this scam, and thought we were ready for anything.
We must have had the new to Delhi 'deer in the headlights' look on our faces, because a man stopped us as soon as we were about to step into the station. First he asked to see our tickets, then when we said that
'Pestaurant', Jaipur
They could at least check the spelling first on such a big sign we were on our way to buy them, he began to explain that the booking office had moved this year and was now located a short distance away. We could get a pre-paid rickshaw to the office to buy our tickets there. He began walking us towards the rickshaws, and as we were almost there, we realized that we were about to be touted away! Talk about a smooth operator!
'Trust me, I don't lie', he shouted as we dodged him and looped back towards the station. Again, just as we were about to step in the doorway, a completely different person stopped us and gave us the exact same story! We were so frustrated, and at this point starting to wonder whether the office had actually moved. In the end we called their bluff and decided to return to our hotel to regroup and relax for a moment before trying to get to the ticket office a second time.
It was either the determined look on our faces or the fact that we were walking so fast that no one could keep up, but when we returned to the train station the second time, we stormed passed
Jaipur
'New' taxi stand everyone with no problem at all. Racing our way through the packed station, we finally found the tourist ticket office. Inside, we saw many other travellers with the same ear to ear grin on their faces that we had. They obviously had found it as easily as us, searching while avoiding touts, and were just as happy as we were.
For our first Indian train ride, we got up early to catch the train at 6 am. It was weird to see the empty streets in the morning, compared to the insanely busy streets we had experienced during the day. On to our next stop, the capital of the state of Rajasthan, also known as 'the Pink City', Jaipur. Our train ride was great, we were served breakfast and chai, and had comfortable seats to relax in, much better that what we had expected.
Arriving in Jaipur, we got a prepaid rickshaw to the hotel, only to find out that they were full. We decided to take a look at the hotel across the street. The room was ok, but nothing great, and the most interesting part was when we went to sign into the hotel (which every
Jaipur
Just another normal sight on the streets of India tourist must do) we noticed that nobody had stayed at this particular hotel in over a month! Pretty strange seeing that the hotel across the street was full.
For some strange reason, we still decided to take the room. After we settled in, there was a knock at the door and it was the son of the guy at the counter. He had brought us a couple towels and a bottle of water. We thought for a moment, maybe we had exaggerated the situation, and it wasn't so strange, until we noticed a big grease stain on the bottle and that the seal had been opened. Possibly they had filled it with tap water or something. We figured that maybe the guys were trying to get us sick with the water, so that we would have to stay longer. We dumped the water out and thought to ourselves, welcome to India.
We decided to venture into the unknown, so we set off into the streets of Jaipur. As soon as we left our hotel, we were instantly approached by rickshaw drivers wanting to take us on tours. As soon as we got away from one, another one would
Jaipur
Rickshaw driver, just relaxing be there asking the same questions. One of these pushy fellows asked us where we were from and we said Canada. He replied, 'Oh ya I know Canada... Toronto, Vancouver, Chicago'. Then whenever he saw us walking down the street, he would chant 'USA, USA'!! He was obviously a bit confused with his geography!
We made our way towards a restaurant we wanted to eat at. On the way there, we saw babies laying half naked on the cold pavement while their mothers begged us for money. Really dirty little kids would hold our hands, then gesture towards their mouths, 'eat, eat'. A hard thing to see, and then to turn a blind eye to. The garbage was everywhere in the streets, which were also in ruins, and very dirty. Animals, mostly dogs, also looked in a terrible state, half starved, mangy, and some had sores all over them. All very sad sights.
We seemed to constantly pass guys peeing on the side of the road. When we get back to Canada it won't seem as strange to see that ever again. We felt almost famous because everyone would constantly say 'Hello, where you from?', or want to
Amber Fort, Jaipur
Amazing view from the side of the fort talk to us. Sometimes this led to an invite to a store, for shopping, or to get some sort of money out of us, though not always. Some people were genuine, and really friendly.
Jaipur was packed with traffic, mostly motorbikes and rickshaws. No surprise, since there is supposedly close to 4 million people there. To make things easier on ourselves, we decided to take a half day tour on a local bus, which would take us and others around to some of the major sights. We first visited Jantar Mantar, a strange collection of massive astronomical instruments, including the largest sundial in the world! And it is accurate to two seconds! Later we drove past the Jal Mahal, a beautiful lake palace, and passed many elephants walking the streets and dodging traffic inside the old pink city walls.
Then on to the highlight, the Amber Fort. Actually a palace complex inside the Jaigarh fort; we explored the palace on a rushed tour, but still managed to enjoy the incredible views of the foothills around. Inside, it was filled with monkeys wandering around and many locals in traditional dress, who were also enjoying the sights. After the fort,
to no surprise, we were dropped off at a handicraft store as part of our tour, where guys would try to pressure everyone into buying items at 'fixed rates' as in fixed high, with a commission for the tour guides. However, we easily resisted, and seeing the amazing sights was well worth the small hassle.
It was very different being in India so far, in comparison to Thailand. The biggest difference we noticed was in business, especially with people selling handicrafts. In Thailand, it was mostly women who worked at the stores, but in India it was almost always men that did the selling. To tell you the truth, we hardly noticed any women at all in Jaipur. We would look down a street full of hundreds of people and the only female in visible sight would be Christine.
Our next great plan was to take the overnight train from Jaipur to a smaller place, a place that was voted one of the top ten cities to visit by the Travel and Leisure magazine, Udaipur, the 'Venice of the East', the 'City of Lakes' and we were on our way there to check the rumours out first hand!
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