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We arrived in New Delhi at night by train from Jaipur. The train was one of our experiences again. We had to book our tickets in advance and we booked the sleeper class, which promised a comfortable sitting and even sleeping. In one coach is suppose to be around 30 people. At the time when we got to the train there were I think over 100 people sitting everywhere. I was looking forward to a window seat, but my wish didn't come true. There was already sitting some old lady with a man who even didn't have tickets for the train. After few hours I discovered that nobody had a ticket in this train except people who booked the sleepers. One man came to me and informed me that until 9 pm all people who do not have the sleepers tickets have to leave the train. Oh, that is a good news I thought at the first time, but when I looked at the clock and saw that it is only 5pm and still 4 hours to go with these all smelly, sweaty people spying my every move (Joost was sleeping), my enthusiasm decreased. At 9 o'clock all these people really
left and we could finally sit on our seats and enjoy the wind coming in. At the train station was already a large group of ricksha drivers waiting and wanting our money. With some of our experiences we made a deal with one of the ricksha drivers and he brought us to our hostel. In the morning we set out to discover the beauty of this city. New Delhi is the capitol city of India and the fastest growing city in India. The center of the city was relatively clean but just a few steps from the fancy stores was still poverty and with many people living on the street. Because we didn't want to be screwed by ricksha drivers anymore and were not in mood to argue with them, we decided to take a subway. We must have looked really lost, because we got help from one Nepali guy and he made a price – the real Indian price – with ricksha driver for 20 rupees. To clarify the “normal” price for tourists was 200-300 rupees!!! First we wanted to arrange somehow a day trip to Agra to see Taj Mahal. So we did for the next day and
then hurried up to explore the the city. Our First stop was Jama Masjid where we got by subway. I liked their subway, everything was clean and we could get really fast and easy everywhere we wanted. Jama Masjid is the largest and best-known mosque in India. It lies at the origin of a very busy central street of Old Delhi, the Chawri Bazar Road. The courtyard of the mosque can hold up to twenty-five thousand worshippers. Guys at the enter took our shoes and packed us to their stuff just to cover our legs and arms. The floor was sooo hot, that wasn't possible to walk on it even stayed in one place. So we took just few pictures by running from one corner to the other and at the end dipped our feet in its small dam. On our way back trough Sitamar Bazar to the subway, it was sunny so the temperature of the air was hardly breathable, we have seen a man laying on the street covered by bicycles and all kind of junk. His eyes were bulging, clothes never washed and smelled like... bleuu 😞( The worst was, that he really seemed to be dead.
Joost's explanation why the man can not be dead was, that he was sweating. So, forget about it and let's continue to the other sight.
During the day we managed to go trough almost all the sights such as – Connaught place which was meant like a centre of Delhi and its subway, so easy to get everywhere. Trough the Central Ridge Reserve Forest we walked to the Lakshmi Narayan Mandir temple (the white marble and red sandstone temple). This temple was built by Raja Baldev Das in 1938 and its walls are adorned with various Hindu symbols and inscriptions from the holy books of the Gita and the Upanishads. The temple was inaugurated by Mahatma Gandhi and took six years to complete. Strictly controlled by security and being watched almost all the time we walked around and in. The walls of the temple were adorned with paintings depicting Indian mythology and a Buddha temple, with fresco paintings on the life of Buddha. We left checked by security again which made us laughing, because at the time we were the only ones who the security really cared about. Whatever... by Delhi's subway we got to a large park with India
gate, parliament and National Museum. We tried to figure out what was happening there at the time because all park was full of Tv's cars with journalists, but we didn't. It still has been a mystery for us. 😊)
We sat down for a while in the park, watched the events around us and relaxed until some really young child tried to sell us papadum – kind of Indian bread, snack. He was so persisted that it discouraged us and we left. We would love to help him and buy some papadum from him, but his price for it was 50Rp. By the way, normal price was maximum 5Rp.
We took the subway to our hostel and slowly walked in the area with all shops on the streets. Our minds were already on the way to Taj Mahal. In the hostel we met really nice English guy living in Australia for a while and because he was also planning to go to Agra and see the Taj Mahal, we invited him to join us. All of us were happy and looking forward to the next day 😊 So hurry up, go to sleep, we are leaving at 5:30am. 😊
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ThePale-Rider
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jaja
Hello J & D Everything ok?? Nice hé all that smelly people around you two's haha!! Maybe next time you can also travel on roof of the train for a nicer odour haha, Joost I noticed that you are buying you shirts to big, or did you lost some weight :) Dari are you gonna do some diving? or is that still a problem for your ears. Good luck you two's!!!!! gr chello, paula and Tess