Day 1: Delhi
I have arrived and it is quite the tail to tell about getting from the airport to the hotel. First of all my flight came into Delhi at 3:30 am. I was not met at the airport by my prearranged hotel transfer. I did the walk of shame up and down the corridor looking for my name or the company name on the signs three times. Then I went outside to check out there, nothing. Then I wasn’t allowed back into the airport by security, once you’re out, you’re out. Finally after having to show my passport and visa to another security guard it was ok for me to go in and use a pay phone. Luckily there was a dude there collecting the money and making the calls. I called the hotel twice as they hung up on me the first time and then the third time they didn’t answer. Lovely. Here is where PATIENCE needs to come into my world and where I realize these people do not know how to say the word no and choose to say yes to everything, even when it should be no. So I asked the hotel guy are you coming to get me? Yes in taxi you go to hotel. Yes the taxi ride I have already paid for or a taxi that I get at the airport? Yes. Yes to which question? Yes. Click. Second call; is there someone coming to get me? Yes you take taxi get to hotel. Right. Then I call G adventures as there are two numbers to call if there is trouble with your hotel transfer. No answer at either number.
I head out of the airport again, this time on my way to the taxi stand. When I am approached by people, you need taxi? You need taxi? No thank you I will get it. You are to make sure you go to the Delhi police taxi stand to book your taxi. So I go there pay my 400 rupees ($8) and get a receipt that says go to the parking spot numbered 41. As I am walking to number 41 a guy grabs my ticket and says come with me, I am #41. No you are not. I can see the cab in the 41 spot. Yes, yes, fine come with me. So I get into the cab with a guy who is sitting in the front in what in North America would be the driver’s seat but I haven’t registered they drive on the other side of the road here, so he is another passenger. Turns out he has to be dropped off at the domestic terminal. Yes, yes, ma’am, no problem, on the way. So after we drop him off he asks again where I am going and checks my information out using his cell phone as a light. He says the receipt says a different address so you must pay 200 more rupees. I say fine. In my paperwork it says if you are coming from the airport and not using the hotel transfer you should pay 700 – 800 rupees. So another 200 was fine with me and because I didn’t argue and said fine right away he told me good girl.
Then we pull into a gas station and I have to pay for the gas, 100 rupees. I say fine but that comes out of the 200 I am giving you. Yes ma’am. So we head out on the road and he says you pay now, I say not now I only have a 500 and I know you have no change (this conversation and fiasco already took place with domestic terminal drop off). So he turns around and goes back to the gas station takes the 500 and changes it there. He comes back to the car and counts off the hundred rupee bills 1, 2, 3 and stops. I say and 4? I already paid the 100 for the gas, so I need four back. Yes, ma’am right. Yes math teacher is what I am thinking.
So now the rest of the drive, it is pitch black out and we head down this road that looks deserted. It looks forested with all of the trees and at the roads edge on both sides is an 8 foot high concrete fence for kilometers. I cannot see anything else. No buildings no houses, no people sleeping on the side of the road and I wonder where are we and where are we going? So I figure chat the guy up then he maybe won’t do anything to me in the middle of the night. We discuss families, ages etc, he thought I looked 21, no body, I am old. He is in night college, drives the night, it is less busy on the roads easier traffic etc. Just trying to pass the time. I figure at least there are other cars on the road, if I need to get out of this vehicle it won’t just be me and him on a deserted road.(Later I found out behind that concrete fence was jungle and the concrete fence is up to keep the animals off the road). Finally we get into a populated area then he asks for my hotel information again. This time he calls the hotel and gets the specifics for how to get there as the streets turn into chaos. It was a dodgy ride in the middle of nowhere but I made it to the hotel and he only kissed my hand when I got out. Have I told you I hate arriving anywhere in the night because trust becomes a huge issue? He was telling me as a woman I should not be out after 11pm, you cannot trust the men. I am thinking, right and it is what 5am now and I am out with you and having this dodgy ride? Finally at 6am I made it to the hotel. You fine he says? I am fine. Thank you, good luck at school.
I have met my group. There are 15 of us and it is quite the group. A wide range of ages my roommate Emma is from the UK and in her early 20’s. She thinks there might be a 50 year age span. Should be interesting. 10 people are doing the full 28 days and 5 others just do 14.
So yes means no. I checked into the hotel at 6am. I had booked a room for the night before the tour started. So I literally paid for 6 hours as check out was at noon. I asked at 6am do I have to change rooms at 12pm? Yes. So at noon I repack and put on my backpack, carry my other bag and head down the three flights of stairs to check out and head to my new room. You stay in room ma’am, other girl come join you. Nice, you could have said that at 6 and I could still be sleeping is what I am thinking.
The group met at 5:30pm and did our paperwork and then headed out for an amazing meal. It was awesome. Aloo something? It was stuffed potatoes with cottage cheese and other things, it was so flavorful and of course butter naan.
The rest of the day went well, it is patience and yes means no, my new mantra. In the afternoon I did computer work and booked the next leg of the journey as I know this month will be really busy. After this? The Maldives. I am so lucky. What a cool place to look forward to.
Day 3: On a air conditioned bus to Jaipur
I never imagined that I would be able to type this portion while riding a bus. There are 15 people in my group and we have a large air conditioned coach bus to ourselves to take us the six hour trip to Jaipur. While I sit at the front looking out the large window watching the traffic and listening to the continuous honking I type this.
Our guide said when you travel in this country you need three goods. Good brake, good horn and good luck. The traffic is insane and I couldn’t believe we were taking this huge bus through the city. On the highway there is less traffic than I thought and the ride is quite pleasant. We saw hundreds of cows crossing the highway and coming in herds for kilometers down the side of the highway.
Horns, horns, horns. Oh my. It something to get use to.
We just passed another “local” bus that was jammed packed and had about 50 people sitting on the roof.
Yesterday we battled the traffic in rickshaws, bicycle taxis. We took eight of them and only one popped a chain and had to change rickshaws. We took these to the metro station where we then took the metro. Shocking the metro was clean, clean, clean. The front car is the women’s car. The women were separated from the men, less feeling up that way. At one point the security guard was jamming the men’s car door shut as they were packed in like sardines. We were just tight but not as tight as sardines.
Coming out of the metro we saw this huge pile of garbage and people having to pick through it for scarps, nasty.
We went to the Jama Mosque. Again women needed to be covered and were supplied with this time, bright and colourful abahas. Unlike the Arab countries where they are black. I climbed the minaret there for a great view of Delhi and the Red Fort.
We went to a Sikh Temple, Sisganj Gurudwara. That was a new experience for me. As part of their religion they do not cut any of their body hair and consequently have it wrapped up in turbans. They believe in paying kind acts forward so there is a soup kitchen attached to the temple and they feed people three meals a day. We were able to help make naan and roti (breads). The roti is not like Caribbean Roti it is like naan, but is made with whole wheat flour.
We had free time and four of us crammed into a tuk, tuk and went around the city to the India Gate and the Presidents House and Parliament. In this part of town we saw nice cars and we had a competition to see if we could find a car with no scratches. They drive so close together that they are bound to have dents and scratches. We did find one; it must have just been driven off the lot.
Our second tuk tuk driver was hilarious. He was smiling, clapping and jumping all around as we drove through town. You are only allowed to have three people in a tuk tuk so he was happy to be breaking the law. We caught in out front of the presidential palace so there were lots of police around. He drives up to the police and excitedly yells at the cop and is jumping up and down pointing as us crammed into the back, four people. Ha ha and puts his finger up to his mouth indicating shh, keep it quiet. Clapping, jumping up and down, saying ha ha four people. Cost up a $1 each for the ride.
We have been having Indian showers. It consists of taking a bucket of water and dousing yourself in water with a medium size plastic measuring cup. It does the trick.
Delhi has a population of 17 million people and at any one time 8 million people are on the road. India’s population is 1.2 billion for comparison there are 7 billion people in the world.
Our group has quite the age range as I mentioned. It is actually closer to a sixty year gap in ages as Doug is 81 years old. Good on him. Man India is a hard place to tackle and for him to be an American (not many travel) and 81, impressive. He is a little hard of hearing but he is making out just fine. He is only with the group for two weeks. The group is Canadians, Americans an Italian/Canadian and two people from Belgium.
Day 4: Jaipur
Jaipur is known as the pink city. All of the buildings facades must be pink. Now a days it is a terra cotta colour mixed with dust and dirt. The city of 3 million people has wide streets and large markets.
We went to the Wind Palace which is a building with many windows looking out onto the street for the harem to watch the goings on of the people on the street. The multitude of windows were put in so the people on the street wouldn’t know which windows the women were at and that they were being watched.
We went to the Amber Fort/Palace. It has a 27 km wall around it that reminded me of the Great Wall in China. It was a beautiful area with hills, water and neat architecture. The palace was a mixture of Muslim and Hindi architecture. The King had 12 wives and 256 concubines living in this palace. 268 women to please, he must have been a busy man.
There was also another neat palace in the middle of a manmade lake, the Water Palace that was neat to look at.
I hit the market later for an exhausting look around. The haggling wore me out. But I managed to buy a few Indian tunic type tops, but I had to work for them. You are to bargain around 80% off of what they ask and it was an effort where I was.
The group headed out to a Bollywood movie in the evening. It was a not to be missed experience. It is not like going to the movies at home. It was in a large auditorium/theater with neat architecture that would remind you of the 60’s. The people clap, yell and hoot and holler when their favorite actors/actresses appear in the movie or there is an action scene or a good speech etc it is hilarious to be a part of. It was called English Vinglish and was about this mother going to the States and learning English. So even thought it was in Hindi we were able to follow it easily and parts of it were in English.
The movie was ~ $2 and about another $2 for popcorn and a drink. The drink I had to buy separately from the popcorn. The drink was 35 rupees and the guy didn’t have 5 rupees change so he gave me 5, 1 rupee or penny candies to make the difference. I was not interested in eating them and thought that was pretty funny that they wouldn’t have change and they were giving everyone these candies to make up the difference. So when I went to pay for my popcorn which was another 35 rupees I gave that guy the 5 candies as part of the pay as again I didn’t have another 5 rupees and he took it. So I paid with candy today.
Popcorn for sale on the street, not how we got it in the theater.
When we arrived to our hotel in Jaipur we were greeted with a marigold lay, a cold towel to freshen up and a glass of Pepsi. We also saw snake charmers at the sites today.
Day 5: Bhadarej (A rural Rajasthan village)
We have arrived to a quiet rural village and are staying in a palace. It is from the 18th century. It has lovely open, green courtyards in the center and rooms around the outside. This area of India is not the typical tourist destination. My ears are getting a little bit of a reprieve from the continuous noise of honking horns. It took them awhile to adjust.
Wow we are just back from camel and cart rides through the village to an untouchable community. Wow. For the first part I felt as if we were in a parade. Well we kind of were. They paraded us through the village on three carts being pulled by camels. All of the children came out of their houses to wave and say hello. It is a poor community and one of those times where you count your blessings.
We arrived and were thoroughly welcomed by tons of children yelling hello and following our carts to the untouchable’s community. Doug the 81 year old guy said; “well they could sure use some birth control over here.”
India has a cast system and the untouchables are the lowest in the system. Never did I think we would see their homes and visit an untouchable community. The children and adults all wanted their picture taken and then wanted to look at them. It was a lovely experience.
There was a loom there and a woman was weaving a rug while we were visiting. She gets 10 rupees per row we were told, so about 25 cents. The math didn’t add up so not quite sure, but she is getting some money for her family which is great. She has been taught a specific pattern and will always make the same pattern for the rug company she works for.
At seven and eight years of age children in this community get married. Now the girl still lives with her family until she hits puberty, but seven or eight and married, I cannot imagine.
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