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Published: April 26th 2008
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I have leukemia, Lucy has heat exhaustion, and we both develop a germ-phobia.
The flight from Heathrow is great; we were told to allow tons of time for the snail's pace of the airport, but the lines were so short I had trouble figuting out where to go next. Usually there's a half-mile long queue the directs you from station to station, but here there were more security agents than passengers. This gave us plent of time to kill reading one of the dozen or so new books we've bought for the trip. The flight out was similarly smooth and easy; BA is a wonderful airline.
Delhi is neither smooth nor easy, but it may well be wonderful. After clearing customs and grabbing our bags, we found ourselves met by a taxi driver from our hotel. He led us out to his car (four wheels), popped the trunk, and his compatriot who I hadn't noticed until just then helped me off with my bag and into the trunk. A distance of less than a foot, as he didn't even have to take a step to insert the large backpack into the taxi. He then turned to me for a
tip. Unsure what to do, I gave him 10rs and and realized I needed to be more careful or I was going to get bled dry by a thousand parasitic requests for tips for "services" rendered. After receiving the 10, he asked for english money. I told him I didn't have any, so he asked for 50rs. I told him no, slightly redeeming myself. True, he got over, but 10rs is 25 cents. No worries.
The trip to our hotel was uneventful, although we did see an oxen and typical crazy Indian traffic. The oxen was off to the side, while the traffic was all over the place. We were on a two lane in both directions highway, which meant that at any one time up to five cars were squeezed in abreast of each other. All manner of conveyances passed so close to either side that our driver folded in his side view mirrors to avoid getting them sheared off. Which was fine, as the sight through them would probably just more daunting and depressing than helpful. Finally getting to our part of town after an hour or so, we were informed by our driver that he'd waited
more than an hour at the airport and that he expected a tip for his troubles. We gave him 50rs, which seemed OK. Lucy was a bit concerned that we were offending people left and right (she'd stiffed a towel-hander in the bathroom airport for lack of Indian money), while I figured that people doing essentially rude things (ie, demanding tips for nothing) could expect rude behavior in return. Besides, we were tipping, and no one expects to get the price originally asked for.
Checking in, we decide to head right back out and see the sights. The place most recommended by the guide book was a bit of a walk, but we're good walkers, so loathe to spend any more we head out for a stroll. A six hour stroll, as it turned out. Our first act was to get ourselves out of our dirty neighborhood (my first step onto the ground out of the taxi had to be over a pile of empty pill plastic and cotton balls, some of which were bloody) and into the center of town. We walked through our local bazaar to the train station, then consulted a map whilst simultaneously fending off
predatory taxi drivers with offers of "help" and guidance. Ignoring their pleas and remonstrations, we walked to Connaught Place, the center of New Delhi. We sat in the park there and again consulting the guidebook, having to move once when a group of a half dozen or so young men came over and stood around us smiling. They said little to us but were too close for comfort, and Lucy later told me she'd probably inadvertantly solicited the attention by reflexively smiling at them from a distance. No problem, as they weren't at all aggressive and didn't seem to want anything beyond basking in our proximity.
From Connaught Place we walked for about an hour or so to the India gate, another park in central Delhi. We found bottled water and a huge war memorial, with a passing resemblance to Hadrian's arch in Rome. The park was quite pretty and offered great views of the surrounding city-scape, and the brief rest and respite there was quite pleasant. From India gate we headed out to Hayuman's tomb, a collection of tombs, temples and mosques built around the mid 1500's. It was just short of stunning, a collection of several acres
in the middle of the city with fairly well maintained monuments that we were allowed to crawl all over. One of the side tombs had an internal staircase leading to its roof, with precipitously inclined stairs and 30 or 40 bats clinging to the walls. The way up was smooth and the view pretty, but the wasy down was marred by the fact that we could plainly see all the bats clinging to the narrow walls and low ceiling. There was some mild screaming and a quick exit.
The rest of the tomb area was immense, but we weren't able to tarry. It was by now about 2o'clock, and the hottest bit of the day was looming. We'd been walking for several hours, and were in no condition to walk back, so we discussed a taxi and decided between ourselves that 150rs would be a fair price to get back to our hotel. We found one of the ubiquitous taxis immediately outside the monument, and asked how much to return to the New Delhi Train Station. Expecting an inflated price, we were pleasantly surprised by his asking for only 80rs (about $2, or 1GBP). We accepted without haggling, which I believe was a mistake. He took us for an easy mark, and spent much of the trip trying to talk us into going to a tourist center, a common scam in Delhi. We held firm and made it back to our dingy hotel.
After taking a nice 5 hour nap, we've decided to head out to dinner with a stop at an internet cafe. Mission accomplished, and to tomorrow it's Old Delhi!
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Paul
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Hey, I hope you are having fun in my homeland. You should definitely go to the golden temple (a Sikh place of worship) the Taj Mahal of course, the city of Patala (fathers side of family lives there) and the city of Chandigarh (Moms side), both have lots of history to take in, and very safe for you white people. Anyway, glad to see you are still alive and have not killed one another, let me know if you want anymore suggestions... Love Paul