delhi

Last night we arrived in Delhi.  (Population 12.8 Million- Area 1483 Sq km)

It seemed like a paradise after Amritsar!  Big freeways with organized traffic, markings on the road, traffic lights and the cars even use signal lights!  Unlike the chaotic mayhem of the streets of Amritsar where everyone just goes where is most convenient driving whatever they can as fast as they can.  We were thrilled with the quite of the night here! 

We had booked a hotel in advance, from Amritsar, because the LP said that Delhi was a busy place and sometimes hard to find a room.  That was all arranged.  We arrived quite late at night and had the best bartering experience ever when we negotiated for a cab.  We had paid Rs 500 to get from the hotel in Amritsar to the (The exchange rate is $1-Rs50).  He said Rs 400, N said Rs 300 ad it’s settled!  I love Delhi already, so hassle free – or so I think!

 So our very friendly driver gets almost to our hotel and the only road to access it is blocked off, for no known reason.  It’s likely barricaded for the festival tomorrow, which we didn’t know was happening.  The hotel neglected to mention this when I booked it!  So anyways we can not get to the hotel.  And so the driver takes us to the very cheerful/chatty but not especially helpful tourist office.  Where after hearing all about the “real India” and how we need to redirect our trip he finally tells us Delhi is very expensive right now with this birthday and we will have to pay more so he sends us to this random area called Market Street and says instead of continuing to make phone calls there we should have the driver just pull up in front of random places and ask if they have room.  It is now 1:30am and we have been at the tourist office for around 45min on the phone with hotel after hotel that does not have room or is barricaded off from the road.  And it’s night so the metro isn’t running and we can’t walk in because it is “not recommended.” 

Fortunately after driving down some very sketchy allies we pull up in front of a quite nice looking place called The Danish Resort.  It’s a lot more than we were hoping to spend but it’s still definitely affordable!  Hurray!

This hotel is pretty swanky!  It’s all glammed-out.   Our last hotel we had to use sleeping bags on the beds and it should more appropriately have been called a backpackers as you did not get towels or fresh bedding and were only allotted a small role of TP.  Here we have all the luxuries including a flat screen TV (to watch all the Bollywood you could ever dream of!), air conditioning, two fans, even air-freshener’s.  It’s really beautiful with leather furniture.  I was in tears I was so taken a back!

And we both even mostly slept through the night! 

It feels like we’ve been here forever but I know it’s really only been three full days.  Although I still don’t feel like we’ve gotten much of a sense of the country. 

Nov 11 2011 6am

We’ve kind of done the luxury tour of Delhi.  There was nothing that we especially wanted to see here.  And our fancy hotel is out in this random area where there is not easily accessible transportation. 

On a side note it’s, actually, really bizarre the lack of geographical divisions for different economic classes.  We didn’t realize it was something we took for granted at home, until it didn’t seem to occur in the same way here.  It’s like super glamorous looking compared to anything else we’ve seen.  It looks like a nice hotel at home.  The room has faux leather coaches and class top coffee table.  A gigantic bed with white linens, satin curtains and a spacious on suite bathroom.  It’s lovely!  Then you step outside the hotel onto a crowed back alley street filled with animal excrement and other mysterious puddles. There are pigs, goats and I even saw a cow.  Chickens resting on top of the warm hoods of vehicles.  We went on a short walk to a tour agency and children were running up to us begging for money a young mother with a baby on her hip who was wearing only a tiny t-shirt (no diaper).  We have commented several times how strange it is to have it all mixed together.  There are no divisions of this is a ritzy area this is a total slum.  I mean to some extent yes but not like we’re used to.  The poverty is literally right there in front of us.  It’s upsetting because I think as North Americans we find it much easier to separate ourselves and send our money.  N and I are really at a loss for how to respond to this new reality.  Does giving out hand outs do anything but make us feel better.  Is there something more meaningful or significant we can do to care for these orphans and widows. 

So anyways, at a loss for how to explore Delhi we ended up arranging a “tour” through the hotel.  This consisted of an unenthusiastic cab-driver, trucking us around the “monuments” of Delhi.   So he would drive to this and that and let us out and wait for us to come back.  We spent the day powering through the highlights of this diverse city.  It’s not going on my favorites list but it definitely has some cool sights. 

So we checked out:

Red Fort (1638-1648 AD) – From the Mughal reign.  It’s huge and quite impressive.  N was really thrilled with its grandeur. 

Raj Ghat - Ghandi Memorial where he was cremated.  It has a beautiful gardens surrounding it. 

India Gate – has all the names of the soldiers who fell fighting for the British WWI.  There names are all written on it. 

Government Buildings

Humayun’s Tomb (mid 16^th century) – LP said this was a must see and we would totally agree.  It was enormous and just stunningly beautiful.  Another fantastic example of early Mughal architecture

Qutb-Minar (end of the 12^th century) diameter of 14.32m at the base and 2.75m at the top.  It stands 72.5m high.  It is the highest stone tower in India.  Our driver told us you can no longer go up it because, “people walk up and jump down.”  However we really enjoyed the ruins from the ground. 

We ate butter chicken for the first time, in India!  And are shocked but pleased to report it tastes the same only even more delicious!  This was a wonderful discovery. 

There were probably some other good ones we missed out on but by the time we got through these we were pretty exhausted.  

Like the Gandhi Smriti memorial where Mahatma Gandhi was shot dead by a Hindu zealot in 1948

As we weren’t really enthralled with Delhi we’ve decided to head to Agra earlier.  We will catch a train there at 9am.  It’s only about a three hour journey.  I’m a little nervous for my first train experience I’ve heard many stories, none of them overly positive.  Then again I’m beginning to feel, a bit, like I can take on anything!  Besides we’re spending the next two weeks traveling all by train so I better just settle in and decide to love them! 

Apparently the Taj Ma Hal is closed on Fridays so we’ll have to wait to get in until tomorrow but Agra is supposed to have a lot of other gems that tourists often miss because they only a lot a day to see the Taj.  So we’re looking forward to that!