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Published: January 18th 2013
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After a 5 hr flight, we arrived in Delhi at 2:30am. We had very little sleep, and the metro wasn't running until 5am, so we slept on the floor at the airport. It was freezing and so uncomfortable, but it had to work. We woke up around 7am, and found the metro for a ride into the city. So far everything was much nicer than anything I had imagined. With the exception of the officer sitting behind a sand bag bunker at the entrance of the metro with a machine gun pointed at you as you walk down the stairs. Never seen that before, and not sure I like that feeling. Then we got to the New Delhi Railway Station. Ugggghhhh…. What a morning. From what we could see, there were only main roads that weren’t walkable around. We went inside to try to book our trains to get around the country because they have closed down booking outside of the country. We just had to take our chances, and in India, its a little difficult. So, we saw a sign, for tourist information and decided to go there. It was an official sign at the station, so we trusted it.
When we arrived at the door, a very nice gentleman was standing outside and told us the office was closed until 10, but we could go to the main reservation office to reserve our tickets. He told us that it was the official office, and we believed him(morons). So, he said he would direct us to the government tuktuks so that we wouldn’t get ripped off on our fee for our ride there. When we got to the tuktuk, he "negotiated" a 20IDR fee, but he said that we didn’t have to prepay. I knew from researching that to get the good government rates, you have to prepay and get a slip, so I found this odd, but still went with it. We head out in the tuktuk to the “government” office, which is about a mile of twists and turns away(and the guy told us we couldn’t walk it bc the bums would cut our legs and steal our purses-also found that odd). The building had no government markings, but we were tired, and still went along with everything. After sitting down in the office, we were informed that all of the trains were booked for a week because of a festival. Yeah right- I’ve participated in that scam before, so I completely didn’t trust the guy by then. He informed us that the only way to get where we wanted to go was to take a private car with a driver to Jaipur and Agra, and then he could magically pull some strings and get us a train to Varanasi, even though they were all booked. This trip, for 1st class(which isn’t that great) was somewhere in the $300-$400 range. I wasn’t having it, and started questioning his credentials and asking about this supposed festival. He didn’t look pleased and informed us that this was our only option. So, we decided to head to the hostel area and see if we could locate any backpackers to talk to. He was persistent though, and said we could do D class for around $250 each. D class involves 12-14hr rides on wooden bench seats… not a chance. Luckily, we thought, our cheap tuktuk was still waiting for us. Well he was in on the scam too, and took us to the “central government office”, and we refused to get out. He stopped the vehicle and insisted that we got out, and enlisted several associates in the attempt. We refused, and insisted he take us back to the train station for the 20IDR. He wasn’t pleased, but he began to continue down the road. Then he stopped and insisted we take a cycle rickshaw instead… and pay another fee. We were very persistent though, and eventually got back to the railway station for the price promised. Then we went to the hostel and internet café, which was an adventure in itself, to search online for trains and talk to some other backpackers about what to do. After walking through the crazy main bazaar, we followed the signs to the hostel, which took us down a tiny winding maze of back alleys. Oh my, just lots of gross sights and smells, but we made it, checked the internet and discovered that there was an international tourist bureau at the train station where foreigners could book tickets in an official office. So, back we went to the train station, with packs in tow, for a wild goose chase. We searched the train station for this office for probably 2 hours before finding it. The station was swarming with lying touts all stopping to “help” us and inform us that the international tourist bureau had closed. Plus, the place was packed with people, several not completely clothed, and all staring at us. I don’t know if we saw 1 other foreign looking person in the probably 100,000 people we saw there… until we finally reached the correct office. Thank god! Finally some serenity. We filled out some paperwork and waited in a long line, but were able to book all of the train tickets that we had wanted, and for…. Drum roll…. $22 per person(2-12 hour overnight trips in sleeper cars, and 2- 6 hour trips in sleeper cars). Much better than $400!! We were exhausted from carrying the packs in the heat and walking and walking and walking, so we decided to go to the national mall(some other name, but the same thing) area and relax in the park. Getting there by metro was insane. The lines just to get on the metro were HUGE and it was so packed and chaotic, I didn’t know how we would ever get there. When we finally did, we went and laid in the shade to take a nap. After napping for an hour, a young couple woke us up and told us that some bums had been scoping us out and that it was not safe for us to be there. It was time to leave for the train station anyway, so we easily made our way there and on the train. The train is interesting… not bad, but interesting. Not like anything I’ve done before…. But apparently in the last few minutes, the cockroaches have decided to descend on us. Oh well, hopefully Varanasi will be more relaxing.
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