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Published: November 11th 2009
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To Delhi
Rainbow in the sky Delhi
We flew with Kingfisher Airlines from Trivandrum (South Kerela) to Delhi via Bangalor. Delhi was much cooler than down south and the city streets seemed cleaner and less crowded (how weird for India!). The city is preparing to host the 2010 Commonwealth Games so this could have something to do with it. We decided to stay in the cheap backpacker area called Pahar Ganj and was surprised to find the airport taxi divers weren't too keen to go there! Our driver wanted to drop us off at the train station, nearby but no where near where we wanted to go so we argued for ages (Dee got a policeman involved!) and finally he agreed to take us to our guesthouse. We can see now why he didn't want to drive through Pahar Ganj..........it was crazy narrow, crazy busy, crazy dirty.......imagine trying to drive a taxi through Milton Keynes shopping centre at Xmas (with cows, litter and poo thrown in for good measure)!!
We ended up booking a city tour with a driver as we realised early on that Delhi is a crazy place with many hawkers, beggers and tuktuk drivers all wanting our business. We had a lovely
Delhi
Lotus Temple day touring the main sights in an AC car! We saw the Lotus Temple (India's version of the Sydney Opera House!), loads of temples, India Gate (their Marble Arch!), Humayun's Tomb and went to the Gandhi Smriti Memorial and Museum (in the place were Gandhi was shot). We rode on the new subway to see Old Delhi and the Red Fort. Now we know why Delhi streets seemed empty.....everyone is on the subway underground. All over India, 90%!o(MISSING)f the people we see on the streets are men. We're not sure whether the male to female ratio is really like this or whether girls and women just stay at home? We also find it weird how tactile all young India men are with each other. They'll think nothing of walking along hand in hand or stand on a street corner lovingly hugging each other! You never ever see men and women showing any PDA though!
Agra
The train from Delhi to Agra was all booked up so we also booked the driver to take us to Agra. It took 6 hours (should take 2!). We found a lush guesthouse about 10 minutes away from and with rooftop views
Delhi
Humayums tomb of the Taj Mahal......the main reason we had come here! They use horses and camels to pull carts here unlike down south where carts and heavy loads are moved by people power. The horses here have such fine white coats they almost look pink. They also look like they could do with a good meal. We went for a walk into Taj Ganj (where all the shops and cafes are) and found a nice rooftop cafe that served beer. We met a nice Australian couple and ended up staying until closing and getting a bit drunk. Getting up at 5am to see the Taj at sunrise was not easy! The Taj is as beautiful as everyone says. It wasn't too busy so the place was so peaceful. I don't like the discriminating entrances fees though..........locals pay 20 rupees and tourists pay 750 rupees. I wonder what people would say if we did this in UK??! We also visited Agra's Red Fort and Fatehpur Sikri (a deserted antient city and palace) before getting the night train to Varanasi.
Varanasi
Without realising, we arrived in Varanasi on the morning of the Deepavali festival (festival of light), which explained why the
Delhi
Lotus Temple train station and road were absolutely heaving with people. We had to get a cycle rickshaw to our guesthouse on Assi Ghat (you couldn't drive a car on the roads!). The 365 riverside ghats were filled with people preparing for the nights festivities by setting out and lighting thousands of little oil lamps and candles and covering the place with marigold flower garlands. There was music and dancing and eating. There were just thousands and thousands of people. We decided to get a private boat ride on the River Ganges to get a better view of it all (and because we were struggling to walk through the crowds and it made us a bit nervous actually). Amazing, as there were also hundreds of boats doing the same thing. We passed 2 burning ghats, where dead bodies are burnt on piles of wood. It's quite weird for it to be going on just meters from party music and families eating festival street food.
Next day Varanasi returned to normal and we went for a very peaceful walk up the ghats and into the town (a rabbit warren of dirty alleys filled with shops and people!). It's air was very polluted
Delhi
Wedding Procession here so we constantly had sore eyes and throats. Dee bought a candle in a lotus flower to float on the ganges but accidentally got stuck in the riverbank mud and had to wash his feet and flip flops in the Ganges, helped by a holy woman. A very enlightening experience ..... but it's ok, we had lots of alcohol gel and he did have a very long hot shower afterwards. The river is very dirty.......not surprising as everyone uses it to washes themselves, their animals, their clothes and pots, put their rubbish in, loved ones ashes, uncremated bodies. You name it, it goes in! The Indian Goverment makes no provision to collect waste so all rubbish in India (ans there's a lot!) gets thrown on the fl
After being in India for just over a month (and what a very long month it has been!) we were looking forward to starting our journey overland to Nepal. We have had a good time during our month in India but it is not any easy plase to travel around and the people (hawkers, begging children, people randomly wanting to talk or take your photo, ''tuktuk sir'', ''buy necklace madam'', ''come
Delhi
We went to see Gandhi. into my shop'', ''give me 10 rupees and I'll leave you alone'') all very draining. India is very beautiful and so vast we have only had a taster.....we'll let you know if we want to go back or not......
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lisa D
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WOW WOW WOW! Looks Amazing!! You lucky devils! sounds like it is all going well and fab. Keep well loadsa love from Rushden Devilles xxxx