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Published: November 23rd 2007
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Hello All!
What a crazy day or so!
Mike and Steve dropped us both off at Heathrow nice and early (thanks boys!). We had some hugs and then me and Nick headed off to check in, we got through to departures and security only for the fire alarm to go off! We got evacuated for about 20 mins then headed back in, luckily without going through all the check again!
Our flight was lovely, top stuff from BA! We had nice seats by the window and the entertainment was like sky plus, endless films/tv/music and you could start them whenever you wanted! After watching ' Control' we got some goooood food arrive, was 3 courses and we had free beer before our meal and free wine with our meal. Soon after this we both feel asleep, probably due to not much sleep before we left! We woke a few hours before landing and enjoyed some tv and sandwiches before landing in New Delhi at 2am after our 9 hour flight. Some of the things we flew over included, Germany, The Caspian Sea, Himilayars and Afgahnistan!
We then sat around in the airport relaxing until it was a
Main Bazaar
A Tuk Tuk out early on main bazaar more respectable time of day (about 630am). This is where the trouble began! We were whisked off into a 'taxi' on our way to the main part of town, Connaught Place. These people drive like nutcases! There is cars, bikes, tuk tuks and people all over the road, constant beeping and no lanes! It was scary stuff, added to this was the fact that it had became apparent our taxi driver wasn't a taxe driver and had very broken English. Once he stopped us at the train station he asked for 1200 rupees, I knew this was far too much so tried to get a few genuine taxi drivers to help us out, after much arguing and debate he ended up with his 1200 rupees and we had learnt a lesson (or so we thought).
Next was finding the hostel, we decided to start on foot, and this is where the culture shock hits you. Absolutly nothing could prepare you for landing down in New Dehli. The streets have people sleeping all over them, loose dogs all over the place (oops no rabbies jabs!), people are trying to sell you anything and everything, people were bushing thier teeth in
Delhi Skyline
This was taken from top of our first Hostel (Smyle Inn) drains. It was mad. We walked around and couln't really seem to find anywhere. So we ended up getting in a bike/taxi kind of thing. This guy seemed to have about as much idea as us about where the Smyle Inn was. So we went round and round in circles, mostly with him pushing the bike as us 2 and our bags were very heavy. We eventually saw a sign to the hostel, no thanks to bike man (Nick spotted it). So we get out there and the man behind reception is asleep under the stairs, and this seems pretty normal to everyone in there! They give us some keys and we went to find out room. The room was quite nice actually besides we couldnt seem to lock the door. But we were just glad to be inside and away from the trumatic streets of Delhi. Phone starts to ring and Bike man wants paying. We head downstairs, he then demands 500 rupees, which seemed far too much but there is very little you can do, he made off with it before our sleepy hostel owner could warn us. Lesson definetly learnt.
We then go up to our
Mosque in Old Delhi
Some scary beggars here - watch out! room for a bit of sleep around 9am. Just as we are drifting off, the power cuts to the hostel! Didn't seem to bother either of us at the time we just go to sleep then...Wake up at 5pm!!! Must have had some serious jetlag. We then head off to find some information and look around Delhi. Some guy starts chatting to us that worked for the train company and said he would take us to the tourist info centre, and he did. It was a crazy ride in a tuk tuk, which he then offered to pay for us (obviously on commision for dropping us there!)
This place was the first official place we seemed to have found, there was other Brits about and they worked with STA (the people who we booked flights with). We needed information about going to Agra by train and Jaipur to see the Taj Mahal and Agra Fort plsu the Pink City. Also we needed to get to Mumbai at some point! These guys drew up a package for us which included:
Tour of Delhi
Flights to Himilayars/Airport pick up
Accomodation and food on floating hotel for 3 nights
Train ride
Hard work!!
Adam pulling Nick on the 'Indian helicopter' to Agra
Agra Hotel and food
Entry to Taj Mahal
Jeep drive to Jaipur
Hotel in Jaipur and food
Train to Mumbai
So this took care of all of our travel and accomodation that we needed to sort out with the bonus of going to the Himilayars which we hadnt planned on! SOLD! We are being picked up from our hostel at 7am tomorrow.
We then went off to explore Dehli and found that after some good sleep and a few shocks we were actually quite comfortable walking around! Just have to say no to everyone trying to sell you things ranging from rugs to drugs! We then went back to the hostel and brought some water, walked around outside in the crazy streets! The markets are open until late and its still crazy outside now! We treated ourselves to a Chicken Maharaja Meal from McDonalds for about 1 pound and it was tasty! Photos coming soon for all your McDonald workers!
We are currently in an internet cafe writing this just outside our hostel, costing a whopping 12p to use. Unfortunatly we cant upload any pictures or videos from here - they will be coming soon!
Mosque...
Stopped on way to Station to visit, photos inside banned! The people and culture are so different to anythnig you can imagine, the streets are full of people laying about and selling anything, they walk along talking to you and then try and get you to go places and won't leave you alone. The nicest young chap we met about was called 'Mike', after us politly declining his offer of some good hash/crack or brown sugar he just said 'ok boys' and left us to it - unlike everyother person here that won't leave us alone!
Anyway its been a shock landing here, and nothnig like we imagined, but now we are settled its rather interesting and different! Adam even managed to direct some girls to thier hotel that they couldn't find (we could feel their pain!).
Anyway we must get some sleep before heading of to our new floating home in the mountains!
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Adam Gibson and Nick Burke
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steve goodger
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You can tell your from MK and not Luton!!!-always confirm the price before you enter- this is the case for buses,taxis,tuk tuk and birds!! Bet you a golden nugget you get Delhi belly within 48hrs