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Published: October 3rd 2017
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Connaught Place I'm not sure if I'll be able to find the right words to do our first few days in India justice but I'll give it a go! It's been somewhat of a roller coaster!
We landed in Delhi and arrived at our hostel late so we didn't do much the first night but we were excited about what lay ahead after all the stories we'd heard.
We decided the first day we would try and attack the sites in New Delhi first starting with Connaught Place, which is where the games began! The park in the centre was closed, like as we were to find out most things in New Delhi on a Monday, and whilst admiring the large flag in the centre we were approached by a 'friendly' man who claimed to work in the bank nearby. He told us he had lived in London before trying to show us to the local tourist information office. We thanked him but continued our walk round the park until we were greeted by another guy who wanted to find out where we were from and also had directions to the tourist information office, by the third and fourth approach we
were wise to it and even started talking to each other (or more like Julia talking at me) in German to put them off.
Once we moved from there we didn't come across anyone else interested in us until we reached India Gate and were asked to feature in multiple selfies with the locals! I'd love to know what they do with them, but I know they weren't that impressed with me asking for 10 rupees for my picture!!!
There are over 27 million people living in Delhi and it felt like we either bumped into,dodged cars being driven by or squeezed onto the metro with nearly all of them at one point or another in the couple of days there! And if we didn't bump into them we probably heard them honking their car horn from afar!
The next day we headed to Old Delhi and checked out the Chandi Chowk bazaar, the Jama Masjid and the Red Fort. On the whole I actually didn't mind Delhi too much and enjoyed it a lot more than I'd been expecting to. It wasn't as dirty as I thought it might be although there was an open urinal
at the end of the alley way our hostel was and where the cows suddenly appear from in the Phanj Gahanj bazaar at dusk every night will remain a mystery.
From Delhi we headed to Agra for the day before catching the train later that day to Jaipur. To say this bought us back down to earth with a bang would be an understatement! Having woken up at 4am and made our way to New Delhi station we were met at the entrance by a man who checked our tickets and told us our train had been cancelled! We had our doubts but he told us to go to the counter where we were met by another man who said the same thing. He told us we had to go to an office to get a refund on our tickets, then head to another station to take another train and led us to a taxi - by this point we were still doubtful but we didn't know any better and when the the third different guy told us the same thing we found ourselves in a taxi outside one of the 'tourist information' offices they'd tried to direct us
to on the first day. We got the taxi driver to take us back to the station dodged all the other gits and made it onto the platform where we found the train waiting for us with 5 minutes to spare! Lesson learned!
The problem this creates is that you feel like you can't trust anyone and you think they are all out to get you which I know having worked with many Indians and going for drinks and various cricket matches over the years this isn't the case. And it also meant once we got to Agra and were set upon by the waiting tuk tuk drivers we shut up shop and decided to walk. The combination of the heat and dirt made for a fairly unpleasant experience - it's hard to get your head round the idea that one of the most remarkable buildings in the world, The Taj Mahal, is in a place like Agra. It would be like going to the Royal Pavilion in Brighton but having to walk through the council tip first to get to the entrance. We did our touristy bit and took the mandatory pictures before wasting the afternoon away in
a cafe playing cards and Connect 4. When we got to the station we were well and truly ready to leave so the initial 2 hour delay wasn't the end of the world but by the time that increased to 6 hours we were pretty broken - although having spent time commuting to work with Southern rail we were grateful the train did eventually turn up and not get cancelled due to a lack of train crew!
But this is what we signed up for so we can't really complain and if that day in Agra was the worst we have than we will take that and if it isn't then I dread to think what's going to top it!
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kate
non-member comment
Good to hear from you again
Good to hear that you are still enjoying yourselves and getting to grips with the local games! I don't think there was quite such a large rubbish tip by the side of the Taj when it was built. Though I may be wrong. It is a relatively recent thing that builders tidy up when they have finished! Things are getting cooler here and we did have a fair bit of rain so enjoy the heat. Best wishes to you both Kate & Mark x