Arriving in India – Plus first few days

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Hi Everyone,
So were in India. What a difference a few days makes. It feels a bit like we have gone from the civilised to the uncivilised. India is so much busier than we ever expected. It is chaos everywhere. It seems it anyway. It is the only place we are ever going to see cows walking through a bazaar as well.

But besides this initial ‘shock’ we like it. It has the energy to it. The people come across as very certain and most people (if they aren’t trying to sell you something or scam you) seem very friendly and willing to chat.

We love the fact that the language barrier is not so ever present. Its great talking in English and being understood and getting a response back in English (unlike most of china). It is also a lot cheaper than we thought it would be. So we are pigging out on food yet not breaking the bank! The food all seems pretty good too. I didn’t think we would like the indian food, but it’s not like what you get in Australia (much the same as Chinese food in Australia not being like Chinese food in China).

Congestion of India

I think the thing that makes India seem fast and busy is its roads. They are all in pretty bad condition by western standards which does not allow traffic to go very fast. When combined with the amount of traffic, espically auto rickshaws, you can also understand why. So far we have been to both Varanasi and Delhi. In Delhi you find that most of the traffic is Auto Rickshaws (or it seems this way) thrown in with a few buses, doorless trucks, rickshaws and motorbikes (not like chinas electric versions though - these are sportbikes rather than scooters). Varnassi is the same sort of mix but with more horse/massive cows and carts. It also has a whole heap more normal pedal powered rickshaws.

Clothing

There is another vast difference between China and India. While in both countries you seem to see more males than females (maybe the females are at home?), the males here have better fashion sense (well the young ones anyway) in India (wearing pinstriped pants and dress coloured business shirts )- in China most males had little taste at all (bar a few). However, it is the opposite when the females are concerned. Chinese women (the classy ones) tend to follow popular western styles and show lots of glam. On the other hand , Indian women wear more traditional clothing - usually bright sari style dresses with a gaping hole in the middle to show off their tummies. I definitely prefer the designer fashion of Beijing’s wealthy young middle class women better.

Sights

In Delhi, the best things we saw were Red Fort and a massive Muslim Mosque. Both were unreal. They were both grand as - the same ore as Chinese monuments. Red Fort consist of a massive pale red wall surrounding a complex of white marble buildings. The marble was especially nice being imprinted with many designs. The wall itself was absolutely massive and imposing. The gate was huge and as you enter an assault rifle is pointed in your direction(kind of scary). The Monguls kings throne was very intricate. We were amazed by the amount of Indian people who had come to spend their Sunday relaxing on the grass next to the buildings. It was very peaceful even though it was busy. If I lived in Delhi I would come here all the time.

The Mosque, only a short walk away from the temple was amazing. It had a huge prayer hall - all white marble with cloth on the ground for people to sit and pray on. The best part of our visit (besides the Mosque aesthetic design) was walking up the extremely narrow stairs of the tower to overlook the whole of Delhi. It gave spectacular views over the surrounding areas and of the fort itself. Though it was a tight struggle rubbing shoulders with the herds of tourists on the way up and down.

Touts

When we were in Delhi we were shocked at the amount of touts trying to get us to go to phoney government tourism centres. They were everywhere and you just didn’t know who to trust. It was also difficult when trying to ask someone something or get a single price for a rickshaw whithout being surrounded by many people all trying to con you. In Varanasi we also had a big problem, cause the taxi we got into dropped us at an intersection and gave us bad advice on how to get to the Ghat (stairs going into the river) where we wanted to go. We tried getting a rickshaw who took us to Raj ghat instead of Raja ghat. Though it worked out ok in the end, cause we ended up getting a river boat down to the right ghat and saw the river too - so killed two birds with one stone.

Bargaining

Its great when you buy some items from stores cause some common products have the Maximum Retail Price imprinted on them. For example, Links deodorant Rs150 (about $4) and Coke Rs22 (about 50 cents). It makes it so much easier than having to haggle on a price. Sometimes it not there and you feel like your getting ripped off though.

Train Tickets

I love their system. They have a tourist quota system where on some trains that will allocate a few tickets in a few classes for only foreign tourists (you need to show your passport as proof). This made It heaps easy (easier - we only got one of four of our preferred trains) and means we were able to get all the tickets we needed (they were all booked out for Indian people). This definitely is a great way to encourage tourism.

Well thats about it,

We are loving India so far, even if there are problems trying to do anything.
Love Andrew and Amy

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