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Published: December 16th 2011
RECAP! WE HAVE NET WOO! (the blog entries are typed on different days as we make sure we write every two or so days but there is delay because of net access). Photo's we'll try and add tomorrow, now is tooooo late!
14-12-2011
We're back! Or more we've just arrived (2nd) day. I'm not too sure if you will actually be able to read this real time (actually i KNOW you won't) so we are scribbling tonight on Wordpad so that we can add it to the blog later. After two flights (one being incredibly long for a virgin longhaul flyer like me) giving a total of around 12 hours travel, we arrived at Delhi airport. We managed to get a Bollywod movie in in the plane named Singham, and now cannot get the song out of our heads. Not too many problems except for not actually knowing which hotel we had booked in Delhi (info which was needed for immigration purposes).
After chilling out in the open in front of the airport (and ignoring any taxi offers), Dunc with cig in hand, me with a bottle of water, we headed to the spotless spanking new airport metro link which took us to Delhi central station within about half an hour. The exchange rate for the rupee is around 68 to the euro, so for those who want to figure out what we are spending on stuff if we mention it along the way... you can work it out yourselves.
Arrived at Delhi central after sitting comfortably in the (pretty much) empty metro. We thought we had figured out the way to our hotel (which seemed easy peasy) but in a frantic walk, also being rushed due to escape from the tens of Indians offering us bike taxi's, tuk-tuks and the like, we obviously headed the wrong way. The shock to the system of walking out of the clean inconspicuous metro to this ammass on the senses was also most dizzying and we engaged in our first rupe-off with a tuk-tuk driver. OK, it was only 70 cents in euro's but it was the first lesson learnt. Indians mostly can not read roman letters, so holding an address up infront of them is also not the easiest way of getting around. After 5 attempts at the name 'Arakashan Road' we got to where we needed to be.
Delhi in all honesty is... undescribeable. Grotty, smelly, busy, colourful, active, poor, helpful but most of all want we have come to notice is that everyone who is anyone that see's a tourist he can make a buck off of, will try to do so. Prices for locals are doubled if not even tripled for the likes of us. After dropping off the bags in the hotel room and having a nice 2 hour nap we decided to have a wander up the 'road' . I put this between quotation marks as road/pavement/dirt pile/undefinable makes up what is called a road here. The food is inticing at the small stands on the way but I'm scared to even approach a vendor. The frights of disease and basic yuckiness convince both of us just to gander instead of interact.
Deciding to understand where we went wrong with the initial walk from the station, we walk back to the station. Dodging traffic is almost like playing pinball, accept here you don't want to get hit by anything! Got through with a mere run over the foot from a taxi bike! The roads in India are... well amazing. Or better, the way of driving, well, they know how to drive... its just the WAY Indians drive, it's not GIVE WAY its HONK and TAKE WAY... Duncan will explain later in the blog.
From the station we get informed by a government worker (who gives information to tourists at the station) to see another area of the station for acquiring tickets for the train (we decided to query how to get to Nainital, our initial next port of call). This lead us to another guy who asked what we were doing and informed us to go to an information tourist centre and bunged us into a registered tuk-tuk (only 20 rupees) to take us there. The drivers right hand informs about some history on the way and we arrive at this little office on Connaught Place (richest shopping area of Delhi), inbetween the cracked up road and dirt.
This is where we had the most strange 3 hours of chatting about what to do, where to go and that they could arrange everything through this organization and 'what are you doing 7 nights in Delhi, Delhi is one/two days and seen'. After an inspiring talk and a lot of saying yes, smiling and excitedness, we have ended up with ditching our original hotel (getting the money back for the time we already had booked) and now we are starting a tour round Rajastahn.
x Becca
It seemed almost like we had no choice in the matter, which was strange because we could have said no we didn't want to speak to the next guy, or no we wouldn't get into the tuc-tuc, or no we didn't want to go into the tourist office or no we didn't want to change the kinda plan we had, but we just didn't say no and now we're sitting in a beautiful hotel room in Pushkar, the holy city hundreds of miles away from Delhi.
So today, we meet our driver properly for the next 3 weeks, 'K.C', who we've been chatting to all day in the car, for almost the entire 10 hour drive. During which we really got to see the countryside of this unbelievable place, where almost every building is delapadated and being lived in and/or around by someone. Almost every single woman is wearing a bright pink, orange or green sari, even if they're working on their hands and knees in the fields or carrying piles of wood on their heads. Which, by the way, I have no idea how is possible... I don't think I could balance a twig on my head and walk at the same time, let alone their ridiculously large precarious loads!
Basically it's difficult not to stare at everyone and everything, the poverty is in your face and often quite extreme but so are the colours and the obvious national pride. Every battered old truck, literally, had bright colours painted on it, funny little sayings in Hindi or just GREAT INDIA posted on the rear. For some reason they also have the most absolutely ridiculous horn sounds, multi tone, wailing sounds that I could not stop laughing at even after 10 hours. It's just such a happy, silly sound.
Anyway after 8 hours or so we are getting on very well with K.C. and then he asks Bex her name again but clearly having difficulty saying it, he says, "o.k. I give you Hindi name", and then looking at me in the mirror he says "I give you Hindi name also...", thinking about it now he might not have remembered my name either... So henceforth Rebecca shall be known as 'Radika' and I as 'Kisan'. Then he tells us his real name, which sounds something like 'Kushlesh'.
So now we are friends. He offers to take us out somewhere for locals where we can eat dinner. After a short pitstop at our new hotel we are off again and pull over at a beer spirit and wine shack with bars on the service window and door. After seeing the 'gora' and 'gori'/me and Radika, we are allowed in the shop while local people are qeueing up to be served at the window. Luckily Kushlesh does the bargaining and we're not too badly ruped-off for the strong whiskey and beer. We go further and park up again, in front of the locals restaurant, Kushlesh gets out, tells us to wait in the car and disappears. When he finally returns he tells us to get out and follow him leaving the alcohol in the car. We go through the restaurant and into the dark space out the back bordered on every other side by trees where we are guided to a table.
Alcohol is not allowed in this town, so someone has to first enquire whether the owner of the place will allow it on the sly, in our case they did. Kushlesh blessed the ground first by pouring a drop of whiskey on it before he poured for himself and the waiter came and lit a fire for us by the table, then brought us excellent poppadums (oven or 'tandu' cooked and oil fried) followed by a spicy chicken curry and buttered chapattis. We talked all through the meal together and Kushlesh invited us to meet his family in Delhi for the new year when we finish our few weeks away. It was very touching and I don't think he invites every tourist to eat and drink with him, in a local's place. The three meals cost a total of 550 rupees or about 9 euros. Now we await our day in the holy city and an overnight camel safari into the desert tomorrow.
x Dunc
For ease Kush has renamed us Radhika and Kissan (i think spelt like this I'm not sure) as Rebecca and Duncan prove to be quite tongue twisting for your average Indian. Saying that, I still cannot pronounce Kushlesh properly. Camels have long legs! Already having seen locals riding around on them it's quite daunting but exciting none the less!
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Ineke
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You already have the characternames, I think you should right a novel ;) Have fun on the camels!