India (part 1): New Delhi & Agra

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India is without doubt the most diverse nation we have visited on our trip around the world to-date. Its population is the second largest in the world with well over a billion inhabitants, rivalled only to China. Within its geographical borders there is a mind-boggling variety of languages, cultures, ethnic groups, beliefs and lifestyles, that few continents possess, let alone any one country. India is indeed a powerful assault on the senses; noisy, frantic, vibrant, and fair to say chaotic; a land of incredible contrasts of rich and poor. It is overwhelming at first, yet if you look closely enough there are patterns of continuity; an indefinable essence which is quintessentially India.

As we travelled through India, the country appeared to be a work-in-progress, and it has proven difficult to try and pin down our views on this subcontinent. An extremely diverse and young nation; with more that 1,000 language dialects spoken throughout India, and over 46 religions practised (Hindu being the most prevalent) - no one culture, no one view of India is pervasive. Everywhere we went from New Delhi to Calcutta, from Varanasi to Goa, we found something different, something unique. We found India a wonderful intriguing place - at times mind numbing - at times fascinating - at times humbling.

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Boarding the flight to India was our first sense of Mother India. Separate queues for men and women to embark the plane - how quaint! We got the emergency exit seats, which meant the cabin crew informed Nicola she was responsible for the evacuation of the passengers by opening the emergency exit door; a job she took very seriously indeed, and throughout the flight remained vigilant to any potential activity which may lead to her pulling the trigger. Nothing of the sort manifested itself though; and as we stepped off the plane, we looked forward to 5 weeks of good old Indian hospitality and culture.

We’d been advised by many people before we arrived in India that it would be a bit of a culture shock, and to be honest I guess if you came straight from Ireland to here, you would likely re-board the next available flight back home. Yes indeed, India is a bit chaotic to say the least… and absolutely crazy to say the most! Literally anything could happen once you set your foot outside your front door. The odds of you getting to your intended destination are somewhat slim - without some distraction, tourist scam, someone just wanting to talk with you out of curiosity, or being led off to some Indian emporium shop to view inflated priced local goods. Even as I booked a hostel over the phone the previous day, the voice on the other end told me the odds of us getting to the hostel would be low; the reason why, I was to discover many times in the coming weeks.

New Delhi

Taxi’s at New Delhi airport are pre-paid so you don’t get mugged with prices outside on the street and it wasn’t long before I heard ‘please sir, what is your good name’ (a classic Indian phrase) - as we had to fill in the taxi forms to get to our destination. Once we were in the car, the fun and frolics began! The taxi driver pretended he didn’t know where our hostel was (although he never said anything earlier!), and wanted to bring us off to another hostel, where we knew he would get commission. Eventually after much arguing with him we decided to get out - heavy backpacks in tow; there we were dumped in the middle of the city not sure where we were! We sensed that New Delhi after dark is no place for unaware tourists. The city lightening is very poor and it wasn’t long before we felt somewhat iffy. Luckily I had spotted a YMCA hostel driving through the city earlier and we got a rickshaw driver to bring us there.

We stayed in Connaught Place (basically the centre of New Delhi) and on the first day there we decided we would go off up town exploring. We didn’t get 50 feet from the hostel, before we got picked up by taxi touts! …who told us the road we were walking up was very dangerous and not safe for tourists, and who whisked us off to a make shift tourist office where they tried to flog us over priced travel trips with a pretty hard sell. Once we got out of there (needless to say, without buying a tour!), we were brought to some Indian emporium where they sold highly-marked-up local goods (again, we did not part with our cash!). By his point in our travels we have learned the art of neutralising their attempts at the hard sell! None of the taxis we got seemed to want to bring us to the city centre and it wasn’t long before we felt overwhelmed, so we made for a 5 star hotel to get away from it all….and have a nice peaceful lunch!

The civility and calmness of the hotel was in stark contrast to the mayhem out on the street. You can’t walk 100 meters down any street in New Delhi, without someone approaching you to flog you something, and on top of that we must have really stood out. I don’t think over the three days we were there we saw more than a handful of westerners out of a reportedly 16 million population. Once we felt brave enough we went back out on the road again only to be overrun with more touts wanting to take us to other amazing places; once again we tried to get to the city centre only to end up in a row with the driver. Eventually we managed to get there after much argument and got dropped off in what’s known as the inner circle.

The first thing that would shock you about a city like Delhi is the contrasts. The poverty really has to be seen to be believed. There are literally people living and dying on the streets with absolutely nothing to their name, while at the same time there are gated shopping complexes and 5 star cuisine for those who want it… or more correctly, those who can afford it.

It wasn’t long before the scammers / entrepreneurs spotted the two India-newbie’s walking about town and were straight over to us. The first scam is - when you’re not looking, someone throws some cow shit on your shoe without you noticing… and then a few minutes later points it out to you; and for a small fee offers to clean it! Sounds childish, but it’s true! Luckily I had read all about this one in The Lonely Planet Guide, so I just had to laugh. Then we had the ‘ear cleaner guy’; now this one was very funny in fairness… a guy approached me and asked what country I was from, and swiftly pulled out a handwritten letter from his Irish ‘friend’ stating that he was one of the best ear cleaners in New Delhi (you just couldn’t make this stuff up!). He then continued to pull out letter after letter from countless clients from France to Belgium, from the UK to Jamaica, as to prove his competence in his field… finally pulling my head down to look into my ears, and telling me I needed a good ear clean, for just 50 rupees. At this stage we counted 9 grown men standing around us, acting more like big children than adults! Anything draws a crowd around these parts. After paying a negotiated 30 rupees to get my shoe cleaned, by a fellow with a toothbrush and a box of tricks, we declined the marvellous offer of the ear clean and quickly took off!

We didn’t get too far as another man insisted on leading us to the “GOVERNMENT tourist office” across the street where we would get good sound advice, as well as be informed of the scams to watch out for, in the ‘not-so-safe’ Delhi. This was going to be good. Again more written letters pulled out offering proven testimonials from Irish clients, accompanied by another very hard sales pitch, and 30 minutes of our lives we’ll never see again. It’s very easy to think ‘I would just get up and leave’ but when you’re in a foreign city like Delhi, in a country with a completely different culture, thousands of miles from home, trying to navigate your way with no one to spoon feed you advice - not so easy!

Whether they bring you to an emporium selling handcrafted goods, or to a hostel/hotel, or to a travel agent in the business of flogging tours… it’s all based on a system of commission. They know that for every 10 tourists that arrive on the doorstep, I would guess that it only takes one or two to succumb to the sales tactics and purchase a nicely-priced product, and to keep it a profitable business. It’s a win-win for both the touts and the Indian businesses.

After doing a quick perusal around the “posh” shops as one rickshaw driver called them, then wandering about a few other places and getting a bite to eat, we managed to get a taxi to bring us back to the safety of our hostel that evening. We had literally spent an entire day being dragged about from Billy to Jack, by scammers trying to make us part with our money; all part of the Indian adventure I suppose.

The following day we organised for a driver and a guide to bring us around the city. For €15 - €20 you can get a private driver and a guide for 8 hours, to bring you around in an air conditioned car and go where ever you want. We asked to be brought on a tour of the city taking in the main points of interest, in order to learn as much as possible about the place, in what little time we had there. Some of the more interesting spots we visited were Ghandi’s memorial, the Lotus Temple (a temple for all faiths to share jointly) and Old-Delhi (the older part of the city). The India Gate and Red Fort are also spectacular to see and worth a visit. We took in lunch at an Indian restaurant, where the food was absolutely fantastic and the service great. We spent a couple of hours at a carpet factory where they made silk and Kashmir carpets. We endured a VERY hard sell, one that had been absolutely perfected over the years… but obviously I was well able for it! Delhi (the capital of India) is a somewhat interesting pace and it was a good city to acclimatise to Indian culture. The sights, sounds and smells are all here to experience. However we felt we had pretty much seen all the major things and were ready to move on.

Arga

Our next stop was Arga; a city in India about 2 hours from Delhi via train, where the Taj Mahal is located. We caught the 5:50am train and landed in Arga just before breakfast. More chaos here; including cows wandering everywhere, even all over the roads. Cows are scared in Hindu and allowed to wander freely wherever they want, which takes some getting used to. And no, McDonalds don’t serve Big-Macs!

Again we were happy to see prepaid taxi cabs on offer, with the prices being fixed. However it is not uncommon for a random guy to also hop in the cab for the ride, and pester you all the way to your destination, regarding hiring his services as a guide for the day. We declined. At our hotel, we asked if our room had hot water, and were told "no - it's not the season!". I sniggered at this initially, but the more time I spent in India I realised it’s probably just good financial sense on his part! It’s so hot here in any case, you don’t often need a hot shower. There was a good view of the Taj Mahal from the hotel roof... along with the many wild monkeys climbing up and down the walls of nearby buildings!

Being a Friday, the Taj was closed for the day, so we had some time to kill. We decided to go about trying to organise a train ticket to Varanasi for tomorrow evening; a 14 hour overnight journey. This didn’t work out too well as all the trains were full when we checked at the station. With well over one billion people in India, I can imagine this is a frequent occurrence. Luckily a helpful tout/rickshaw driver picked us up, and brought us to a make shift ticket office, who were able to organise tickets for us after a few phone calls. Seemed dodgy but we chanced it!

Once that was sorted out, the rickshaw driver offered (and offered again, and then offered some more…!) his services to show us about town for a small fee. We agreed and arranged for him to pick us up later from the hotel. The poverty is Arga is more shocking than Delhi and basically the city isn’t the prettiest site you’ll ever see. You could literally see anything here. We ate in a café and saw mice running across the floor, unfortunately it was as we were leaving! We went to the internet café and there were mice there too. But what amused us most while we sat there surfing the net, were the three camels we saw walking down the street when we glanced outside! Then there was the funeral procession of a man being carried down the street, laid out on a wooden plank. Well at least the horn-honking stopped for a few minutes when that was going on. Cows roaming everywhere, parades goings through the narrow streets, people lying on the roads homeless, motor cycles & rickshaws whizzing all around; beep; beep; beeeepppppp!! Not to mention the countless other things that just make India a complete shock to the senses. Everywhere you go people try to sell you something, or taxi touts annoy you to go here there and everywhere, and then there are those damned mosquitoes! If one of these suckers bites you - you’ll know about, as it means complete misery for the next few days. I already have over twenty bites and counting, and each and every one turns into a red raw sore after about 24 hours... nice! Yes India; it would make you want to scream at times.

Not to get too bogged down by the tougher side of travelling, we got our (by now) ‘official tour guide’ rickshaw friend, to bring us to a top hotel in the city. Really, all we wanted was some peace and quite for a few hours and to be left alone - hassle free. Five star in India means five star. The hotel was fabulous and it costs several hundred dollars to bunk in for the night. We had dinner there and I must say the food was phenomenal, the service top class and the ambience superb. Again the contrasts in India are striking, as I knew only too well that the homeless were no more than a few hundred yards away on the street.

The following morning we wandered over to see the Taj Mahal, deemed to be one of the most beautiful feats of architecture in the world, and described as “one of the most extravagant monuments ever built for love”. This is one of India’s biggest tourist gems; build by Emperor Shah Jahan as a memorial to his second wife, with construction taking over 20 years. The building is simply magnificent. However, the dual nature of India are again very evident - where inside the gates lies this exquisite structure with beautiful gardens, even though poverty and the struggle to survive reign beyond the walls; existing in the shadows of one of the most beautiful buildings in the country.

Later that evening we picked up our train tickets and headed to the station. There was some confusion initially as we boarded the wrong train. Indian train stations are very busy places and the boarding system is somewhat messy. Your name gets put up on a printed piece of paper on the carriage door that you’re supposed to be in. Anyway we figured it out afterwards and ran to catch our ‘real train’. Luckily we just made it with only seconds to spare. Trains in India wait for no one; period. There is no well dressed conductor blowing his shiny whistle, to let everyone know the train is leaving. Nope; the train just goes whether you’re on it or not!

We hadn’t ridden the night cabin trains in India before now and we were in for a surprise! It’s open plan; so you pull back a somewhat see-through curtain (in place of the cabin door) and there’s your cabin - surprise!! Beds are stacked like bunk beds and jammed packed together. Three beds on one side, three on the other opposite side and two more in the aisle. Compact! Like little shoe-boxes within a big shoe-box! We were again the only westerners in the carriage and this drew the usual stares and goggle-eyed gawks. We’ve been on enough trains before this not to be too bothered by it anymore, and it wasn’t long before we were sleeping soundly…

(Cont'd to Varanasi, Kolkata, Mumbai, & Goa: India Part 2 ).

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Photos

Ghandi memorial
(New Delhi)

The Lotus Temple
A very peaceful & serene place

Carpet factory
... And the hard sell begins!

Not too impressed with the clobber!
Before entering a Muslim temple

Roof garden
Wild monkeys jumping around the concrete jungle

Picture perfect
I always wanted to do this!

The Taj Mahal
(Agra)

Indian food
Yummmmmmy!

Closing the sale
After much negotiation..... on a pack of postcards!

The 'Baby Taj' as it's referred to by the local touts
Nearby monument

Lady in red
Indian shop owner insisted Nicola try on his newest design

The Taj
The most beautiful monument ever build in the name of love