India!! New Delhi
We received our Indian
Visas on Friday afternoon of the 20th Sept then immediately changed
our flight tickets to that evening. Not
that we disliked Istanbul but reasoned that India would be less expensive for
accommodation…
We said our fairwells
to Turkey after a five week spell in the country and boarded our flight to
India. We had a short stop off at Sahara
airport close to Dubai, so got to see a little of the desert. We then boarded our flight to Delhi and
arrived 12.30 in the afternoon of Saturday.
After all the customs procedures, paperwork etc. we picked up our
luggage and found our pre-booked airport pickup driver. He took us directly to the Smyle Inn which is
in a street which some people would consider an open sewer but many other
people call the place of work and even a place to sleep. Fortunately the Inn was clean the room basic
but with all that we needed, WIFI and
cable tv on a plasma screen! India is certainly a place of contrasts.
Nearly forgot, the
traffic… so coming from Istanbul where the traffic is very heavy and people
drive quite aggressively I thought Delhi would be much the same, and it is, it
also is very congested, more motor bikes and smaller cars than turkey, but that
is where the comparison ends. In Delhi
they seems to have no notion of what lane discipline is, they just constantly
change lanes, beep their horns at each other, drive down the wrong direction on
bicycles into traffic, seemingly play chicken with other drivers whilst
overtaking…. Pure mayhem to foreign drivers…
Our airport driver
wanted a tip, but I had no change to give him, since we had just arrived, I
offered him a 2€ coin, which would be a very good tip, but he did not accept it
and instead walked away in a huff!!
After having dropped
our bags off we decided to find something to eat and were directed to Nirvana,
imagine only 2 hours after being in India and we found Nirvana already, who
said it takes a life time of self-sacrifice and dedication!! Ok so I play on words, it was just our local
restaurant where we adventured into the local cuisine and where not
disappointed. We were soon talking to a
young Indian name Pelota who spoke good Spanish and wanted to speak with us in
Spanish. He worked for the local tourist
office where they arrange everything from Golden triangle tours, Delhi day
tours, local advice etc. Pelota was
quite gentle in his approach so we spent some time with him took his
recommendations from the menu and talked about local customs, gods, railways,
public buses etc. We did buy the Delhi
day trip from him, which meant we had a driver and a car for the day take us to
some of the attractions, cost about 9€!
Pelotas
recommendations were; train travel is good, but you normally need to book 1
week in advance, as a foreigner go for the air conditioned wagons as these have
security and therefore no hassles from the mafia, “his words”. Public buses are for 50 people but 100 people
will have a ticket, so you may have a seat or you may be on the roof! Tourist buses, which of course are more
expensive, have 50 seats and 50 tickets!!
Our Delhi day tour was
on a Monday when everything is shut, we went to a Hindi temple to start, which
was very nice, set in a nice garden which was peaceful and the first time that
Lili could run around since we had arrived, 48 hours before. We all had a blessing of some kind and red
paint daubed on our foreheads. Everybody walks around barefoot. Next we stopped at a Sikh temple we arrived
at the foreigners office and where greeted by a kind gentleman who took some
time to explain a little about the temple, he asked why we thought most people
went to church, mosque or temple, and I replied to pray, this he told me was
the first mistake that everybody made, he said the purpose of the temple or
church which applied to your religion was to instruct to learn. We went into the temple and there was a band
and a singer in the middle with everybody who wanted to sitting around
listening learning. We met up with the Sikh host again and he showed us the
second part which was a canteen and kitchens, apparently anybody was welcome to
eat and to help in the kitchens again this was all part of an educational
idea. We then stopped for lunch in the
Red Onion and had some very nice food served by some very friendly waiters who
all wanted to play with Lili of which she obliged. Part of the tour we stopped at a shop, the
driver instructed that we should go in and have a look around, I did, saw
plenty of carpets and friendly faces saying hello sir, and promptly left the
building, our driver did not look too happy but a stiff word from me meant we
were soon on our way to the next tourist attraction which turned out to be some
big tower which we had to pay to go inside, not being overly happy I saw
another temple just up the road, spoke to one of the tour guides and he
informed me the temple was open and free… We went back to our driver and
instructed him we wanted to go to the temple up the round he obliged and
dropped us in front of a six lane road which was a little overwhelming to cross
safely, we did in the end manage to do it with the help of red lights and hands
held up to drivers, they may not follow road rules but running over foreigners
is not something Indian drivers want.
Across the road we also found a Buddhist temple, which had a big Buddha
and views overlooking Delhi, which gave it much better impression than the
ghetto we were staying in.
We have decided to go
to Leh which is one of the highest villages in the world. Having been here 24 hours, I can tell you
it’s beautiful, I can also say I had altitude sickness and Lili still does, the
other girls have been fine.
