TRANSITION TO NORTHERN INDIA

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16 Feb 2009. We took a LONG (6:00 am to 3:00 pm) set of bus rides from Ooty to Kochi. Since it’s in the hills, Ooty was about 50 degrees (F), so we started out wearing quilted vests and jackets. We drove down steep hills for over an hour into a river valley and ended up back in Kochi where the temp was over 90 degrees F. This was the last night of our first Intrepid trip, so we went out to dinner with a few of the folks.

18 Feb 2009. Tom found the Hotel Arches in the Fort Kochi area of the city, where we spent two nights. This is the oldest part of the city, near churches and synagogues that were built in the 1600s and 1700s. We took a cab from the Grand Hotel in the newer Ernakulam part of Kochi, and the driver had to ask about five times to find the little Hotel Arches, which only has 11 rooms. It was very nice - we ate there, finding as usual that we’re pretty cautious about eating “street food”. We’re nursing head colds, so both bought books. We’re now on our way to Delhi, where we’ll spend a few days seeing the city.

19-21 Feb 2009. We checked into the Delhi B&B, which is located in an upscale Delhi neighborhood called the Friends Colony. The family (father, mother, 2 sons, and the man’s mother) lives in the building and has help to take care of guests. It’s an excellent place, and we’d recommend it to anyone needing a place to stay while in the city. Sheikh Perez (the father) helps to arrange travel for guests, and was great to converse with at the table. They offer dinner as well as breakfast, and everyone sits around a table chatting about everything from travel plans to world politics to philosophy and religion. We had a room on the top floor, where a skilled cabinet maker was building a beautiful buffet out of scrap lumber out on the patio.

We went looking for the Old Delhi markets at Chandni Chowk, walking across a terrible intersection to get a tuk-tuk, which took us to what he said was the market. OK, but all we could find were electronics. In our bad Hindi, we hired a rickshaw biker to take us to the vegetable/spice market, but found only a few veggie sellers after the little skinny guy (huffing and puffing) hauled our big western butts all the way up the road to the old railroad station area. We eventually caught a tuk-tuk back to the hotel, vowing to try again tomorrow. We took our lives in our hands, walking down the narrow streets of the Friends Colony to the Community Center (actually a market area) for dinner. Drivers here are worse than we’ve seen yet. They fly down the narrow streets and blind corners - pedestrians have NO right of way.

22-23 Feb 2009. We met our new group of Intrepid travelers. The group is small (hurray!), with only six members: two from the US, plus one each from Ireland, England, Australia, and Austria. Of these, two have just finished medical school and are traveling before starting their residency commitments.

We spent a half-day seeing Old Delhi (Chandni Chowk again) - turns out we were in the right place the other day. We just didn’t know which small street to take into the markets. This is one of the reasons we love traveling with Intrepid. They know enough to show you what you need and/or want to see. We walked along narrow streets, saw the spice markets, a Sikh temple (“gudwara”), a Muslim mosque/monument and areas that Tom says are much more how he pictured Indian in his mind. So far, northern India is cleaner than southern India.

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Photos

Tom and the Doorman
Tom loved the Doorman's costume!

Open Air Barber
These guys set up their shop each day by the side of the road.

Old Delhi Market
We had a wonderful time wandering around and getting lost.