Our day in Delhi

Well, looks like our original plan has gone completely out the window now... One of the guys at the hotel we're staying at showed us a tour which included transport and accommodation for all around Rajasthan, also Agra and Varanasi, so... We decided to take them up on it because even though it would've been cheaper arranging everything ourselves, it would have been so much more hassle as well, and even from going around Delhi today, I became reeeally appreciative of having an air-conditioned car to go back to, and also windows to hide from the constant barrage of beggars.

In a way, I guess it would be more 'authentic' to go super-budget, but there seem to be so many scams and people wanting to rip you off that things are much more likely to go wrong if you go completely DIY. Not that we're exactly going 5-star, either! You can't really escape from the... I guess I'd have to say... crappiness, if you go outside at all. I mean, India is indeed Incredible! as advertised, but not all in a good way. Every time you stop at a traffic light there's a beggar woman holding a baby asking for money, or some kid banging drums, also hoping for a rupee or two. At the tourist attractions themselves people are constantly coming up to you and trying to sell you useless trinkets. We're pretty good at ignoring them and saying no, because there's just no way giving beggars money is going to help in the long run, and the hawkers will just totally rip you off. Also there are quite a few people who come up and say 'photo?', I presume they want you to take a photo of them and then give them some money, but none of us were really big fan of portraits of random strangers, and there are enough of those on the internet... Actually sometimes the first thing they'll ask is 'what country?', and when we say 'New Zealand', sometimes they go away again, which is a bit funny but I guess it works in our favour!

Today we got a driver named Dinesh who took us around to all the main sights including the Ghandi Memorial Park, Humayun's Tomb, Lodi Gardens and India Gate. He was really helpful, and it was a bit funny because when we were waiting in the car while James and Mark stocked up on rupees at the ATM, he asked me, "So you and James are... friends?" I took that to mean boyfriend/girlfriend so I said, "yeah", which he quickly followed up with "Are you married?" To which I had to suppress a laugh and say "No"... I guess that sort of thing isn't really approved of 100%, though you'd think they'd be used to it from tourists by now...

There are so many animals here! Mice, squirrels, crows, stray dogs, cows... We even saw two mongooses (mongeese?) chasing each other around the park. Squirrels are unheard of in New Zealand so I was highly amused and took plenty of photos, but by the end of the day the novelty value had worn off... Also there are these gigantic ants which are about five times the size of normal ants in NZ. Yum!

We've only spent about 24 hours in India so far and already I miss things like Auckland's mild climate, being able to drink tapwater and not being hassled for money every five minutes... But! I'm still excited to be here and see all these amazing things in the flesh. One thing we really lack in NZ is the deep history which exists in other, long-inhabited countries. And I'm sure that when I look back on this we'll mainly think of the good parts, and the bad parts will become funny stories. Not that anything really bad has happened yet, but as I said, it's only day one, so we shall see. I'd like to avoid any major catastrophes if possible, but of course this won't be under our control. Also, money-wise I had no idea US dollars would bethat handy, I wish I had stocked up heaps when it was at 80c to the NZ dollar, but ah well, it's still way cheaper than travelling in NZ or Western Europe!

A slight change of plans

New Delhi, Hotel Ajanta

Okay, while I have a chance to type it up, here is our renewed itinerary:

18/9 - Delhi to Bikaner by car

19-20/9 - Jaisalmer, includes 'evening camel, stay in desert, and morning camel' according to Guman, the guy who organised it, LOL

21/9 - Jaisalmer to Jodhpur

22/9 - Jodhpur to Udaipur

23/9 - Udaipur

24/9 - Udaipur to Pushkar

25/9 - Pushkar to Jaipur

26/9 - Jaipur

27/9 - Jaipur to Agra

28/9 - Agra to Varanasi (by night train)

29/9 - Varanasi

30/9 - Varanasi to Lucknow

1/10 - Lucknow

2/10 - Lucknow to Mussoorie

3-6/10 - Mussoorie

7-12/10 - Hiking in the mountains

13-14/10 - back to Delhi, Mark leaves for NZ, James & Clara go to Mumbai, possibly by domestic flight (better than a 24 hour train ride!)

Okay, from then on it's sort of similar to our previous itinerary, but it's probably subject to change so I can't be bothered re-typing it again.

One of the downsides about this trip is that everywhere you go you have to try and avoid being ripped off, the problem is you can't avoid doing things like paying for accommodation, transport and food, and whoever you get it from will obviously be trying to make as much profit from you as possible, so it's just a matter of choosing who to get ripped off from... Like for example when we got the business room we were told that breakfast and the minibar stuff was included in the price. I was a bit dubious, but there was never a pricelist on the stuff, and we were so thirsty so we decided to just drink the Coke anyway. Of course, when we checked out it turns out they totalled the amount for the minibar stuff and asked us to pay. I was nearly going to argue with them and try to find the person who told us it was included, but then we worked out that it was going to be about $5 NZ, which is... actually not much at all - in fact it was cheaper than getting the same drinks from a roadside stand, i.e. 30c for a soft drink. So it wasn't a ripoff at all, but I would've appreciated them being more upfront about it. Ah well, I guess if we even think of $5 as a tip, then that's not too unreasonable.

Arrived safely in India!

New Delhi, Hotel Ajanta

Well, KL turned out to be a bit... underwhelming, given that we had limited time and money. Our hotel was in the wops (not unlike the airport hotels in Auckland) and it took 40 mins to get into the city. We turned up at the Petronas towers, marvelled at the height and shape, and then found out we had arrived too late to get tickets to go up to the bridge before we had to go back to the airport, so... Ah well. At lunchtime we met up with Natalie, James' sister's friend, and we had lunch at a Penang restaurant at the mall, which had the best Char Kwei Dieu (sorry for the mangled spelling, I have no idea) I've ever eaten... And it probably wasn't even close to the best in Malaysia itself, but easily surpassed anything I've had in NZ.

Back at the airport we visited our good friends Ronald McDonald and the Colonel for dinner, mainly because we were enticed by McFlurrys (for some reason NZ seems to be the only country to have discontinued this delicious dessert) and the KFC had been recommended to me by Malaysian workmates. The chicken was nice enough I guess, but I was highly disappointed by the potato & gravy (usually my favourite), which tasted nothing like the stuff in NZ.

I've often been told that smell is the strongest trigger of memory or something like that... So I guess when I stepped into the Delhi airport terminal it wasn't surprising that the smell immediately reminded me of Indian shops and restaurants I'd visited in Auckland. After heading through customs I was a bit apprehensive about the gauntlet of drivers I'd heard/read about who apparently accost you as soon as you come out of the arrivals gate, but fortunately we found our hotel pickup person easily enough and headed off with him back to town.

I had been expecting the driving to be crazy, but I was still a bit shaken at all the close calls and frequent honking. James said one of the interesting points as well is that all the drivers seem completely calm as well, even as they're cutting in front of other people or being cut in front of. Also, while I was dozing off, apparently he saw a cow on the side of the road! I'm sure we'll see plenty more later on as well.

At the hotel, we were ushered into the manager's office where he took down our details, photocopied our passports, etc. While that was going on, his small mouse nonchalantly scampered from under the door of a neighbouring office into the one we were in, and then quickly under the manager's desk! Nice. We also saw a whole traffic island full of field mice in KL as well, which was kind of cute and gross at the same time.

Anyway, it's nearly midnight and we're all dead tired, so I better end this entry and let everyone go to sleep. Hope I actually get to upload this sometime soon...!