First days in Delhi

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Delhi has the most chaotic traffic I have ever seen, and that's saying
something after all my travels. We travelled by autorickshaw (motorized 3 wheeler) and bicycle rickshaw today. Took lots of pictures of the chaos, will try to send some pictures later. I can't believe more people aren't killed.

Jamie seems to be ok, he was sick in Singapure, went to the hospital with food poisoning but I don't think it was serious, and he's fine now, just a little tired.

The begging isnt as bad as I thought, but we still had some persistent
beggars. Everyone wants to get money from you. That is expected. Last night, our taxi driver said we couldn't get to the hotel because access was blocked, but they could book us another hotel. again expected. I insisted on going to the Hotel Ajanta, and we were ultimately successful.

Interesting to see cows wandering around through traffic etc. last night we saw cows and pigs together lying in the garbage.

January 20: We had an excellent day yesterday, even better than the first. The day before we had arranged with a young (27) year old fellow named Mohammed to take us on a 6 hour tour in his motor-rickshaw. He was right on time, and we spent the day driving through delhi in his little 3 wheel contraption. We stopped at 5 really interesting sites, mostly archaeological or tombs built mainly in the Moughal times (1500-1700 approx). Entry fees were generally 10 Rs ($.35) for Indian nationals, and $7 to 10 for non-nationals, so we spent quite a lot of money on entrance fees. when you enter these sites, non-official guides will approach and start telling you rudimentary facts, generally in pretty basic english, then they want to charge you 5-10$. Jamie fell for it the first time, now he is wiser.

We invited Mohammed to join us for lunch. He chose a fairly up-market muslim restaurant, but the total cost was only $21 for all three of us. Jamie ended up eating sheeps' brain (dead). He was halfway through when he found out, but it didn't make a difference. I was quite impressed; he is very adventurous with food, although he certainly doesn't eat much.

WE have arranged to share the costs of a car and driver with a couple from Spain (she is Dutch); they live on the Island of Majorca. The cost is very reasonable, but it will be cramped with four of us in a small car. But this means we get to travel for about 12 days without all the hassle of public transportation. we are leaving Delhi today for Agra.

IN the afternoon, Mohammed invited us to have dinner with his family. I told him we would be honored. IN the evening, he took us to his home in a muslim compound of extremely narrowlanes and open sewers, very crowded. We raised a lot of stares from the locals obviously the sight of tall westerners was unusual. The family, including brothers, nephews, mother father, in-laws lived in a collection of three very small rooms. there was essentially no furniture; eating, sleeping and sitting around was accomplished on the concrete floor, covered by a thin carpet. Mohammed is the only income earner for the family group, he makes I think about 5 to 15$ per day, but sometimes he loses money because he rents his tuktuk. His nephew is 9 (looks 5) and goes to public or government school. I saw his english (which is the number one subject) book for standard four. It was amazingly advanced. I don't think our grade fours have more sophisticated english books. Nevertheless, only Mohammed of the family could speak any English, and his was pretty rudimentary.

We have seen a lot of Delhi now, and we are starting to feel more comfortable with travelling. I find people here very friendly, although there are a lot of conmen out to scam money from tourists. Enormous poverty, many beggars. Mohammed could frequently identify the origin of the beggars by their clothing. Many of the beggars appear to be from different parts of India. As in many countries, the big cities are swelling from an influx of poor from the country.

We are both well and enjoying ourselves. So far so good!

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Comments

[James]

Quick learners.
You're learning quickly how to survive as a tourist in India. It never ceased to amaze me how convincing the tuk-tuk drivers can be when trying to (mis)direct you from your intended destination. They are a truly amazing, ingenious and mischievous race, and thoroughly enriching to be in contact with. Enjoy your time in Delhi!