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Published: March 3rd 2007
2 Ozzies in a rickshaw
Viveck and Connor in their rickshaw taken from ours, it seemed to encourage the drivers to race alongside each other, hoping for a bigger tip I guessHey everyone, I've been in Delhi for 2 days now and we're just getting ready to catch the 12 hour bus(!) to Dharamsala later this afternoon. I haven't got much time so I'll keep this short as Bharaat's waiting to go get some lunch at a place we found yesterday - cheap and tasty, I can have a meal designed for 2 for less than a pound.
Arriving in Delhi you could notice the smells from the plane when it landed, they weren't bad just a bit different. After discovering that Bharaat's bag hadn't managed to make the flight and negotiating customs (the guy didn't look up from his paper and just waved us through, legend) we emerged at about 6.30am. The first thing that really hit me is the dust, it's absolutely everywhere making the sky golden and hazy.
We met 2 ozzies who are here with gap at breakfast at our (pretty decent, no cockroaches and a functioning toilet for us if not some of the girls) hostel and a few of us headed out with them having decided to try and stay awake for as long as possible. We caught an auto-rickshaw to Old Delhi where
Me at the Red Fort
... looking slightly tubby the Red Fort was. Indian driving is insane - a functioning horn is far more important than good brakes. So we did the tourist thing at the fort (amusingly some local guy took pictures of us instead of the impressive palaces! i tried to snap one back but he was gone) then made for the medieval style bazaars where we first really sampled the huge crowding of Delhi, there's sooo many people just winding about their own business. The smells of the spice market were pretty intense and the hssle wasn't too bad, especially after what I'd been warned of. I slept the rest of the day.
Yesterday we met Rekha the cool gap rep for Delhi who gave us a briefing and basic Hindi lesson before having a mini-tour, ending at this market called Dilli Haat whoich was brill, stalls from all the states of India and filled with the most colourful everything.
Rekha told us that Delhi and India is a place of total contrasts and it's totally true, there's businessmen in immaculate western suits driving mercs walking past tiny street children dressed in bright rags, covered in dirt and always coming up to you. It
does hurt to ignore them but we've been told not to give them money as it's usually taken from them from older people who kind of 'control' them. Bharaat handed out the bananas bought from the bazaars instead. The school children are dressed immaculately despite all the dust and there are 2 paths; one walked on and the other a bit further away used as a street toilet.
I better go now but special mention to all the dogs that roam the streets, they're so calm and don't pester anyone despite being rediculously thin (lucky really considering most of them probably have rabies), they just don't get the same treatment as the holy cows which are the only things that the traffic will stop for!
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Delhi ?
Delhi[Not New Delhi] is supposed to be a place of cheaters and thugs and is dirty-Mostly these are taxi/rickahaw drvers or hotel owners or street sales mans-Not oridinary people.Beware of pick pocketing,stealing etc.It is not tourist friendly. New Delhi-the place where all emabassies and president's house etc is clean and posh area.It is NOT a common man's area and so it is clean. Amongst metros-Mumbai,Delhi,Chennai,Calcutta -Mumbai is decent-people are friendly and polite .Mumbai things are little bit in order compared to Delhi and other metros. Recommended travel areas for first time visitors[so that they face less hassles]: Southern India-Goa beaches,Kerala backwaters -Less Hassles from street sales people. Northern India-Rajasthan [Jaipur,Udaipur etc] -Little hassles but places are great. Common People are really friendly -So differenciate between sales persons[rickshaw/taxi ,street sales mans etc] and common people.