Delhi

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My journey from Cambodia to Delhi was fairly uneventful. My backpack fell off the tuk tuk as we drove over a large pot hole on the way to the airport but apart from that everything went fine. I even got what I think must have been a first class seat for the flight from Bangkok to Delhi - I had loads of legroom and proper china and cutlery and a full manu with a choice of Thai and Indian meals and drinks including champagne. I had Thai Red Curry with Chicken and a pineapple juice and Earl Grey Tea. I also got a complimentary bottle of water which I have not yet drunk. Unfortunately my hotel does not have a minibar to keep it cool.

So far, on my first day here, I have seen the Red Fort and can confirm that it is, indeed, red and that it does seem to have been fortified. It's much bigger than I'd expected and was bulit by Shah Jehan, the same chap who had the Taj Mahal put up. I've bought a picture of him and his wife.

I then went to the Jama Masjid, which is the largest mosque in India. I was asked to tip a doorman for "looking after my shoes". But it's so hot. And you need to keep drinking all the time. This morning I hardly sweated at all, I was so dehydrated.

I took a cycle rickshaw ride through the old city of Delhi. The whole of the old city ias a market with shops and stalls on all streets didided up into various bazaars - so one street is the boksellers, on the sari sellers and so on and so forth. Electrical cables overhang the streets in a massive messy cluster, I asked the rickshaw wallah what would happen when it rained and he said, laconically, "Many shops and houses burning down".

I went into an old Jain temple where they were very strict. At all temples and mosques you take your shoes off but her you had to divest yourself of any leater artcle - my watch because of its strap, my belt and my wallet. I climbed up on a bamboo ladder to see the painted and gilt interior of the dome - I'm not used to climbing bamboo ladders barefoot!

It really is hot here, even for India. My hotel gives me a complimentary copy of the Times of India and today's paper said that on Tusday the maximum temperature in Delhi was 43.7 and the MINIMUM was 31.9! Temperatures today are expected to top 45 degrees. The monsoon is overdue and not expected now until July. So much powere is being used on air conditioning that there are fears of a power failure.

Sleeping dogs lie on every pavement. It's too hot for the dogs. They lie under shade, if they lay on pavement open to the sun their fur would be singed. I have seen many birds with their beaks open. I suspect that they, too, are finding the heat a problem and have to keep their mouths open to breathe properly. Although the air here is certainly polluted it doesn't seem to me to be so bad as that of Phnom Penh.

The traffic here is chaotic. They do drive on the right side of the road (that is the correct, or left, side) but in practice vehicles come at you from all angles. The rickshaw wallas are much more aggresive then the tuk tuk chaps in Thailand and Cambodia. The cycle rickshaws are very common here, especially in the old city, and the auto rickshaws look like crazily mutated tuk tuks, maybe after cross breeding with giant insects. They have grown a protective shell, but not yet doors, and have shrunk a little. They are all painted green and yellow.

On the streets you see cars, motorbikes, the autorickshaws, many cycle rickshaws - especally in Old Delhi - and also various animals. Some monkeys appear to live not far from my hotel in Asaf Ali Road - named after an Indian who fought for independence from the British, and there are also many cattle and horses (there are horse drawn carriages plying the roads too) and goats and what look like mules to me but could be donkeys. The Indians, as a whole, and especially when driving, do not seem to have the patience of the Thais and Khmers. As you walk along a main road - and yesterday I walked to Connaught Place, a massive circus of modern shops designed by the Brits to be the centre of New Delhi - you hear a constant noise of horns being blown in various tones and for various lengths of time.

Many vehicles specifically invite this - most lorries have Please Sound Horn or some such formula painted on them. They had rather know when some faster driver is behind them and ambitious of being ahead of them in advance, rather than just upon a collision! Mostly they don't sound their horns in any sense of annoyance but merely to notify other cars or people or cattle that they are too close for comfort.

India, or this part of it at least, does not depend so much on tourism as do Thailand and Cambodia and is therefore less tourist friendly. Fewer people speak English here, at least in a way which is comprehensible to me. There are hardly any internet cafes - I am typing this in a hotel near mine om their office's computer. I'm not sure at the moment if I'm going to be able to stay here for three months!

I typed the second intalment of this blog on a tourist agency office computer after booking my onward journey - still no internet cafes yet, and no chance of uploading photos.

But I'm feeling a bit better now, with my next fortnight planned out before I meet up with the people from Udaipur.

I've now been to the Hayamun Monument which was a sort of precursor of the Taj Mahal and the National Museum here as well as seeing the President's House, the Raj Path and India Gate. The museum was very interesting, giving a clear perspective of the history of Indian civilisations.

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Comments

[Raman]

hi there
hi, I'm a design student and an architect here in India and I'm researching on the problems that tourists face while finding there way in Indian Cities. Please mail me your comments, ideas, observations on this. I'm based in Delhi and this research is for the improvement of signage systems in the city. Thanks Raman