Dehli Meltdown

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We arrived in Delhi after a one hour delay ready to get out and explore. We caught a taxi to our hotel and I was dismayed to see dirty sheets and no window. In hindsight, the hotel room was not that bad at all (and Tayla was desperately trying to tell me this) but for some strange reason I had a breakdown and insisted on moving hotels. Looking back, all I can think is that it was a small dose of home sickness!



We went for a walk to have some lunch and see what other hotels we could find. As we were walking along the street, I suddenly became soaked with water… Two guys on a motorbike drove past and hurled a large water balloon at me bursting all over my chest! Thankfully I did not have a white tshirt on, but it did not really help my mood at the time!



We ate lunch at a place called Sams Café which was below average and then we went hunting for the new hotel, but due to my mood nothing seemed good enough. I then found one online called Red Maple Guesthouse. It was a little over budget and I decided ‘bugger it’ and told Tayla since I was being such a difficult cow and it was my birthday I would shout us to stay there. I approached the guy in the reception about moving hotels but he insisted that we would be charged for both nights. I argued with him and then the manager stating I was more than happy to pay for the first night but I would not pay the second night as per the terms and conditions of my booking. They eventually gave in to the crazy Western lady!



Brandon decided he would stay put in the hotel so Tayla and I set off for the new hotel. It was a little distance away, about 600 rupiah by taxi. We arranged to meet withBrandon the following day.



That night we wandered around the area of our hotel. It was in a small local neighbourhood and there were no other Western tourists around at all. We had dinner at a chain restaurant called Haldirams and then finished the night off with Kulfi from a street vendor. On the way back to the hotel, we managed to find ourselves in a massive big street celebration of loud music, drums and dancing. It turned out to be a wedding celebration and it was crazy crazy!



We woke up the next morning and I finally got to use a decent hotel room and wash/blowdry/straighten my hair. It instantly made me feel more human. After having breakfast at our hotel we took a tuk tuk back into town and met up withBrandonto do a walking tour of the area with a local charity called Salaam Balak Trust.



The walking tour is a 2 hour walk by kids who used to live in the streets ofDelhibefore joining the trust. These city walks allow the children’s stories to be heard and gives you a view of their world through their eyes. The tour is of the inner city of Paharganj and area around the New Delhi railway station. Our guide was Iqbal and he was a lovely guy. His story was amazing and he has since gone on in the past year to travel overseas for education. After our tour we ended up at a local restaurant with Iqbal and some of the other tourists – Asha and Magda from Poland.



That afternoon Tayla and I decided to head to the Railway station and try arrange her ticket on the train for the following day. When we arrived there all these men were telling us we could not get tickets there and we had to go elsewhere. Wary of various scams we had no idea what to do. Eventually a guy told us he would take us to the official office. We had no idea if it was the official office but he called over a Police officer and said he was his brother and that he would take us to the right place.



We jumped in a tuk tuk and the guy insisted on coming with us. He was being extremely flirty with me and he was extremely goodlooking… I was still on my guard however and it was making me very uncomfortable no matter how goodlooking he way! He took us to what looked like a travel agency and we figured that since we knew the price, it was no harm in trying as we really needed Tayla on the same train (and I already have my tickets)



We were introduced to Niyaz who worked at this agency. He walked us upstairs to his office and by this stage I was paranoid as hell. All I could think was we were going to be kidnapped and never seen again. The whole “India is dangerous for women” that had been fed to me prior to coming over really had started to hamper my enjoyment of the country.



Niyaz was lovely and charming and offered us Chai…. I was actually too scared to drink my Chai just in case we were drugged so watched Tayla drink hers hoping she would be okay! LOL. Tayla made mention after about it …. I managed to drink some down after a while when she was still normal… In the end we stayed there for an hour or two chatting with Niyaz realising that he was just a lovely lovely man who ended up getting us the ticket we required at the price we wanted and is a friend on Facebook to this day! It is moments like this that remind me of why I travel



After we finished chatting with Niyaz, he was kind enough to walk us outside and point us to FAB INDIA – a chain clothing store in India that sells good quality fashionable Indian clothing. We spend an hour or so in there shopping and I found a couple of lovely items to buy. Exhausted we stumbled into a tuk tuk and made out way back to the hotel. We ate a quick dinner at 9pm and stumbled into bed.



The following morning we had breakfast and then decided to find a gym for a workout. We found one just down the road and it was pretty awesome. I did have one of the trainers approach me and ask if I would like him to lift the weights off the machine for me, I laughed and said no thanks. From the look on his face, I don’t think he was used to women lifting weights!



The gym had a massive beauty salon attached so after our workout I had a pedicure, massage and some threading. The massage they gave me was one of the best I had ever had!



We had a late train overnight to Jaisalmer coming up so the guesthouse gave us a late checkout – we headed off to Haldirams for dinner again before deciding it was time to find some groceries for the overnight train. We negotiated a poor guy on a bicycle rickshaw to take us to a grocery shop…. I still feel bad at him pushing along well over 120 kgs between Tayla and I!



We checked out and set off for the Delhi Railway station to meet up with Brandon. It was peak hour and ended up being an epic 2 hour tuk tuk ride to get there! When he dropped us off, we were on the opposite side of the railway station to where we needed to be and got completely lost trying to find our train. At one stage we just stood on some stairs and watched, fascinated at the surrounding chaos of people going about their daily lives at the train station. Trains were pulling in to platforms and not even stopping, basically just slowing down as people jumped on and off as it went by! It was amazing to watch.



Eventually we stumbled upon our train, exhausted from the chaos ofDelhibut looking forward to an epic long train journey to Jaisalmer in the Rajasthan desert. Final thoughts on Delhi? Loved it!

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