To the Capital

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Delhi was much better than Kashmir – maybe not as pretty, but way more to do and see. And best of all, I found out in Delhi what my favourite part about India is – the food. Back in Tanzania, the food is good but not a lot of variety, especially in Shinyanga. But in India, there is a tone of stuff to chow down on and almost all of it was delicious. I would literally just cruise the streets looking for stuff to eat. There are tones of street vendors everywhere so I’d just go to one and say, “whats this, this, and this,” and they say something in Hindi and I’d be like, “beauty, I’m in.” And like I says, most of it was fantastic. But because I have no idea what most were called, I can’t really go into it as much as I’d like. Most of the stuff was finger foods, similar to samosas, which they have in Tanzania too but a lot were veggy style in India, but still unreal. Bread rolls, momos, kababs, and samosas were by far the best of the ones I know the names of; could eat those all day.

Aside from the food we also toured around the town in a bus that took us to about 10 major attractions across the city. Ya’d stay at each place for like 30 min then run back to the bus to catch the next stop – good way to see the town if your in a rush. My favourite was this place called the Delle Hutt – a little market that had all these lil stores and different food fenders that represented all the different areas of India. Solid spot. Another cool place was Connaught Place, which had all the modern style shopping malls and restaurants. Kinda reminded me of home which was nice.

Although I really didn’t get to see much of Mumbai, I think I liked Delhi better in terms of looks and organization. It didn’t seem as crazy or ugly to me at all. But what I did find ugly was the people – well their attitude anyway, when it came to getting from one place to another. Whether its for a lineup or waiting to hop on the train, most people need a solid lesson in manners and class. Its clear to me that these folks have never heard of Jean Beliveau, Sly Apps, or Cary Grant. A few times I pulled a Jammer and lost it on some little bugger trying to push 10 people aside, including old folks and kids, just to get to the front of the door of the train. I actually was able to drop a good line a few times, saying “if you keep shoving, I’ll throw you over the Taj Mahal,” or for one guy, who kept sayin “this is my town, this is my town,” I says to him “you keep this up I’ll throw ya in the next one!” Other times I’d just look at the guy and say, “excuse me?” And then he’d back off and some even apologized.

Now don’t get me wrong, I think most people are great, and these folks I had run-ins with are probably decent folks too. The problem I don’t think lies with them but the fact that because there are so many people, almost everyone is aggravated, unpleasant, and ill mannered. Now this doesn’t excuse their behaviour, but I do think it’s a cause of it. Generally people like being around with other people – but when there are too many people around they get grumpy, selfish, and scroogish. Just look at Toronto. I once walked down a street and tried to say hello to everyone that walked by and not one person would even look at me (biggest regret of their lives for sure!). I can’t go 5 feet without someone sayin how are ya here in Shinyanga or in Stitty, but again, because there so many people in cities like Mumbai and Delhi, people just don’t care or respect the others around them as much as they should.

Delhi is also located a few hours away from Agra and Jaipur – major tourist attractions. So for a day and a half we headed to these parts to check out the sites. Jaipur we just drove through basically but it was a pretty cool town. Its probably most notable for being the home of a Bond movie, I think Octopussy, and we saw the building where the villains main hangout is. The main road was pretty sweet, looking really old but it had all these modern stores in them. Tones of forts all around too, but because we had car trouble that delayed us for 3 hours, we weren’t able to see what the town could offer. Our main attraction was in Agra, so we had to step on it to get there to spend the night.

As I said before, I’m no tourist. However, seein the Taj Mahal the next day was pretty cool. You think of India and that image is one of the first that comes to your mind so to actually be there was pretty cool. Really nice building. Brutal story though, highly overrated. I thought the guy built it for his favourite wife – which he did – but after she was already dead! First off, hes comin on a little too heavy doing something like that to begin with (what did she do for him?) but to do it when shes already gone? C’mon mehn! No wonder his kids locked him up for spendin all that loot! Still, really cool to see. After Agra we went back to Delhi, then took another train ride back to Mumbai, then the following day I was on a plane headed for Goa – the party capital of India.

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Photos

India Gate
Another gate was in our way so we couldn't get closer.

Gandhi
This is where he is buried. The guys a beauty and the father of India. So you'd think there would be more memorials dedicated to him. This was the only one we saw on the tour.

Intense
I forgot to mention that there were a tone of soldiers everywhere up in Kashmir. But hey, judging by the sign, at least there goin for the dubbya.

Cool Building
Can't remember the name, but its a temple too. It lights up at night too. But the lights weren't working that night when we were there.

Haha
So how much is it then? And who do we pay? Better question, how much is it for Grandad?

American TV
Jerry is huge here.

Snow?
Actually its just foam, but I got really homesick at this point. Man I'm gonna miss winter.

Octopussy!
This is the floating fortress.