Delhi, India Part One.........Oh boy

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Hey Guys,
Well we arrived in Delhi and well.....where to begin. After over 6 months on the road and some pretty extensive independent travel through 3rd world countries in South America and Africa you think we would be prepared for India, but alas we were still shocked! I'm going to try and really be objective with my India blogs but I'm also going to be brutally honest. There is Beauty in India but India is not beautiful.

Our arrival into the heart of New Delhi to the area of Paharganj where we were staying was about as much as you want to inflict on all your senses at once. The air is thick with smog and non stop horn honking, the smell in the air is a nice mixture of urine, cow shit and burning garbage and there are people everywhere yelling at you to buy stuff. OK now that I got my little bitch session over with, it was a lot but we managed.

Our stay in Delhi was going to be short, so we made the most of our time. We headed into Old Delhi and our first stop was the Red Fort. This is a massive Red Sandstone Fort which Delhi was built around. Our visit to the Fort also gave us our first experience with tourist destinations in India, which are full of Indian tourists. It was really cool to see so many Indians enjoying their own National Treasures and staring at a couple of Canadians! The Fort houses some beautiful marble buildings which were used as audience halls as well as some beautiful manicured lawns.

After exploring the grounds of the Fort we were off to visit Jama Masjid which is the largest Mosque in India. Well since we had a small altercation with the gatekeeper of the Mosque as they want to charge us 200R (4$) to enter and the sign clearly states that you only have to pay if you want to take pictures. After a lot of arguing I finally win and Tyne and I can go in one at a time while one waits outside with the camera. After seeing all the beautiful Mosques in Turkey it was no big deal to not take pics since it wasn't even that nice anyways.

After that we ended walking through the Bazaars of old Delhi slowly making our way back to our hostel. We decided to go get train tickets for the next leg of our trip. The New Delhi Train Station - what can I say, there are so many people and so much noise and it is so foreign to what you expect from a train station. There are hundreds of people just laying on the floor and I don't know if half them are waiting for a train or just live there. India is definetely suffering from overpopulation in Urban areas and their entire infrastructure system and waste management system is so beyond repair that I just about shit my pants when I read that some magazine had voted Delhi as one of the top 50 cities in the world for "must see" tourism. Believe me, I can name close to 200 cities off the top of my head that deserve to be ahead of this place.

So our start to India hasn't been so great but we're heading into Rajhastan and it should be a lot nicer. We're hoping!

Until the next one
Cheers,
Matt & Tyne

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Photos

Mosque
No pics of the inside cuz we didn't want to pay!

Comments

[Maria Gulbrandsen Asmyhr]

Great entry!!:)
Ha ha ha ha ha!!! My husband and I are currently living in Dehli (short term stay...luckily..) and this blogentry is fantastic!. I could not have stated it better,this place is such a mess!!! However, Rajastan is gorgeius, hope you enjoy the rest of your stay!!