Our trip to Delhi was a morning trip and we arrived in Old Delhi at around 4pm. Our Hotel was beside New Delhi station. Sounds easy, we will get the metro underground. We thought it would be as easy as a simple day in London, down some steps, get tickets/swipe card and travel on the different colour lines. Not so much. In the wake of the Mumbai bombs all the security in the major cities increased dramatically so you were now unable to just stroll through. There were about 1000 people in a queue to get through security. We didn’t have any tickets or swipe cards and the thought of waiting then getting 2 bags searched put us off thinking about it. So we went outside and got a cycle rickshaw. Both of us, two backpacks and a little thin man with a carriage and a bike. At a few points, even in my weary state I felt like taking over for the guy. It was about 4km in distance, and through rammed streets of Delhi and taking two people plus luggage was not in this man’s comfort zone.
We got this man to leave us to New Delhi station as our hotel’s instructions informed us that it was a 7 minute walk. It would have been, that is if we had got off at the other side of New Delhi station. Giant. We were at the wrong side, we had to walk through it or walked around the outside (like walking around a small town) and with the security increases it was once again going to be difficult. That is unless you’re sneaky. We waited for one of the guards to get distracted and then quickly walk up the steps before you get directed away. It was close, and a few other people did it also, but it should be noted, for such a dramatic increase in security, it certainly had its holes.
Once we got across the station, and out the other side, we made our way to Pahar Ganj and followed our instructions whilst asking people along the steps if we were going the right direction. Eventually we found it, decided that we would take our bags to the room, get washed up and go to one of the Nepali restaurants to get momo’s. That we did, good thing as well, the more time we spent outside the room, the better. Matchbox city, on the 4th floor. It wasn’t worth climbing all those steps to get to that room.
I decided against Momo’s. I wanted soup. Tomato soup. It was made out of ketchup I’m sure, was not impressed by that I can tell you. Tasted like ketchup, boiling water, blended and with a little dollop of cream and some burnt toast. Not cool and it wasn’t a wonder why I had decided to eat packaged food on quite a lot of this trip. We spent some time in this tourist area, filled with multinational tourists then retired for the night. Next morning we basically got up, went for breakfast and went to the train station for our next destination Agra, the home to the Taj Mahal.
Another daytime train. This one passed off relatively easily although near the end of the journey, a lot of village families jumped on, with no reservations and tried to make us move up seat or give them space. We knew enough to tell them to go away. An Indian guy also explained to them, unless they had a reservation for the booth, which they couldn’t have (the 6 seats were filled) then they weren’t getting in.
It wasn’t much longer that we were at Agra Cannt station, taxi to Taj Ganj area. It was full of budget accommodation, close to the Taj and a few were recommended by the Lonely Planet guide with views from the roof, one of which was Hotel Kamal. For £7 a night, between both of us, this place was a steal. Large enough room with fan and then the view from the rooftop. Brilliant. Having breakfast with the Taj in the background was awesome. There was a rush for the table closest for unspoiled views. There was a Muslim festival on across the street on the first night. Toni found it quite frightening. It lasted into the small hours but eventually we got to sleep.
In Agra the people are renowned for hassling tourists, and they did live up to their reputation. We renamed it Agro. One guy was trying to offer us a cheap room and when we told him ‘no’ he tried the “think of the poor children” routine. We just ignored and walked on where we would be hassled by a small boy to buy Taj Mahal snow globes. HA! It was about 40 degrees, I doubt the Taj has ever seen snow but this was the crap they were selling to tourists. Not this one that’s for sure.
The Taj lived up to the hype. It was a beautiful structure, awesome to stare at, but we should have got shoe protectors instead of taking them off. The marble was roasting hot and not good for our delicate feet. We must have looked funny jumping and skipping along to get away from the hot ground. We spent about 2 hours at the Taj. We would have spent more but when we went outside to get some water and tried to come back in they wouldn’t let me back in with my laptop in my bag, after the other security guard let me through with it. The only thing I have found India to be consistent in, is inconsistency. At this stage I was done with the pleasantries because it was rare that we would be on the receiving end of it, we were just walking wallets to most of them in my opinion.
We checked out of the hotel but were able to leave our bags there and wandered around for the day. We got our luggage then went to Yash café, a nice place that let us shower as well then we got an auto rickshaw to the station. I enjoy cycle rickshaws but at night I figured it’d be difficult to see on the road. Our train was at 12.30 and was only 15 minutes late which is very good by Indian standards, although it was 13 hour long so it didn’t really matter. We got on, got our bags up on our beds then eventually got ready to try an get some sleep, which I am surprised we did. I think it was because there was only 6 stops so we didn’t have the disruption of people getting on and trying to find their seats.
Eventually we arrived on Varanasi, the oldest city in the world that has been constantly inhabited, some 6000 years although most of the buildings are only 300 years old at most because of lootings by many different factions over the years. It was our anniversary the day we would go to Nepal, and since we had done so well we decided to splash out a little. We went to Hotel Alka, a very popular hotel for tourists and we got the most expensive room. It was a large room with TV, freezing cold AC, two fans and a balcony overlooking the Ganges River, the main reason that this was on the itinerary. It was definitely worth the money, and it was nice not to eat with the commoners ;) ordering room service and eating on the balcony away from them all. We did over indulge a little but we didn’t care, we deserved it.
We spent nearly half a day trying to find an ATM that would work for us. We knew Bank of Baroda worked but the one we found was out of order. Bank of India wouldn’t take our MasterCard’s. Eventually we found Punjabi Bank and it worked. IT was tiring. Constantly hassled, maybe 37 degrees in the middle of the day, trying to navigate very busy roads and the dust, it all takes it out of you; so it was back to the hotel room to hide under the AC an order room service again.
The next morning we took a 5am boat ride up and down the Ganges lasting around an hour. We were able to see loads of people bathing and performing Puja (prayers), a lot of people dressed in Orange (I hear it’s that time of the year here too ha) for the Shiva festival and a few burning Ghats. This is very some people decide to get cremated, in an open air bonfire, so we had seen maybe four dead bodies burning at the side of the river. It was quite interesting to see. I do have one concern over the boat rides though. Should it really be a tourist attraction? Riding up and down a river watching people get cremated, pray and bathe? It just doesn’t seem right, although the Lonely Planet guide wants you to do it at sunrise and sunset.
We spent two nights in Varanasi, both really enjoyable. This was basically the last time we would be in an Indian Hotel and we tried to work out what we did the last month, discussing trying to sum up our trip so far. We weren’t finished just yet though. We still had a 6 hour sleeper train to get, and a 2-3 hour bus to the border and a border crossing to go through before we would finally be in Nepal; which we knew we would have our own troubles having to get a 9-10 hour bus from the border to Kathmandu where we would stay for 3 months. Il leave the border crossing and the beginning of Nepal to the next blog. It seems fitting to leave the blog in the niceties of room service and A.C because it has been through so much already.
Hope you readers have enjoyed my accounts of India. In Nepal Toni and I will be teaching English at Pathshala School for 3 months, based in Patan and New Baneshwor in Kathmandu. Neither of us have taught English before, should be an interesting read.
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