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Published: December 3rd 2014
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It started with a fateful remark. We had cleared the airport, all very modern, and were on the super efficient express train heading for New Delhi Railway Station.
"I feel Delhi has not really hit us yet", I said to Jane. And it hadn't. We could have been in London or Paris.
By the time we had got to the station we had decided to try and book our train to Amritsar before heading to our hostel in South Delhi.
All the guides books and signs say do not get taken in by touts and yet we still were. Now it is not easy to find the International Tourist Bureau at New Delhi station. We failed to do so on this visit and got persuade to take a short tuktuk ride to find a good city map. At least this journey gave us enough time to realise we had been 'touted'. We refused to go into the office we were sent to. We did get a Delhi map out of them and then escaped their clutches.
We decided to abandon our original idea and head for the hostel. We
Humayun's Tomb
A model for the Taj walked to the nearby Metro station to get the train. We had to swap trains at 'General Secretariat' and the platform was packed even though it was only 2pm. There was a great surge as the doors opened and as the crowd splurge into the carriage and I focused on making sure Jane was OK I felt a hand remove my wallet from my pocket. I turned round and swore. But which of the 15 faces had my wallet? Unlike Madrid some years ago there was not an obvious candidate. There were several good candidates, four or five young teenagers looking cocky. I know it was one of them. We had to spend the next twenty minutes looking at them before we got to our stop. We were not happy bunnies.
We negotiated a cycle rickshaw and he took us via an ATM so we could pay him. It was a relief that the Moustache Hostel was so nice. The staff were friendly and sympathetic. They also knew it was a lost cause.
Once in our room I started phoning the first bank to block cards. Simultaneously we got a message that some one
had found my wallet. They were at the nearby Lotus Temple. They knew which hostel we were in because it said on the SIM card receipt I got at the airport . We went with one of the hostel staff members to find the person who had the wallet. There it was. Just as I had had it minus the cash. Unfortunately I had been to an ATM in the airport and we lost 90,000 rupees. Looking for positives the incident has promoted a behaviour change and we are splitting our money up as soon as it comes out of the ATM. A yoga session offered by the hostel on the roof terrace helped to calm our jangled nerves.
The following day we had a fruitless morning failing to book rail tickets on line. We head back to New Delhi station. This gave us the challenge of a crushing crowd on the train. It is OK if you are tall. I just drove through the scrum with brute force when we got to our station. Poor Jane got pulled through behind me. It was only 1pm so we thought we might try other forms of transport for
A perfumed flower seller by the Hazrat Nizam-ud-din Dargh
The flowers are put on the mausoleum as an offering with prayers future journeys.
We found the International Tourist Office this time (very good if you ignore the ticket queuing system). We bought a hard copy of the India LP guide - the ebook just does not have the flexibility you need when travelling.
It was 5pm when we set off to head back by tuktuk. Many streets had solidified with the rush hour traffic. We saw one motorcyclist knocked down. It was close to 2 hours to get back to our hostel. For site seeing the following day we decided to try the buses.
The bus to Humayun's Tomb was very efficient and cheap. Outside the main attraction we discovered the peaceful Sunder nursery garden. It was full of large birds and green parakeets and was a great way to start the day. Humayun's Tomb is one in a complex left by the Mughal emperors. Restoration has just been completed thanks to the Aga Khan. The Museleum floats above the gardens and contains the graves of many nobility from the era. Visitors were a mixture of Westerns and local uniformed school groups with their teachers.
It was a short
walk to the Muslim Hazrat Nizam-ud-din Dargah shrine. It is difficult to described the riot of colour, perfume of flowers offered to the saint and the spectrum of people around the shrine. It was India in a nutshell.
The Lotus Temple further South is a major Bahia temple, a faith I was completely unfamiliar with. The building is utterly magnificent, a large lotus flower in concrete and marble which can house 1300 worshippers below the petals. The information centre had an excellent film on its construction. You were ushered into the temple shoeless for silent contemplation.
Our final visit of the day was to the Qubt Minar complex. This is a mosque, maseleums and large minaret created by the Moguls from the 12th century. The minaret is particularly spectacular. It was an interesting comparison with the one in Bukhara. Here we had many local tourists wanting to have their photo taken with us, a common theme as we travel around.
The day very much restored our impression of Delhi after two days of 'acclimatisation'. I should be careful what I say too early in future.
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Michele Bell
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Ugly memories
The pick pocketing reminded me of our journey from the Paris airport to the city. I smacked the "bastard" when I caught him trying to access me waist pack and no one helped me, but i was able to keep my stuff as I yelled at him to get off - in English which of course he seemed to not know even with my hand gestures. Dave and the boys were in the front of the bus. Maddening moments...........