The Stench of New Delhi
Trip Start
Feb 17, 2010
1
6
27
Trip End
Feb 23, 2011
New Delhi, India
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
The youth hostel I stayed at was absolutely fantastic, it was nicer than most hostels you would find in Europe. (It was called Nirvana Hostel for those who are interested). It was quite pricey at 700 Rs (£10) a night, but it came with free internet, free breakfast and dinner, free laundry facilities and free tea & coffee! The guy who set it up had spent a year backpacking around Europe and was ashamed that Indian Hostels rarely match their standards!
However this was about all that I enjoyed about New Delhi, it really is an awful city. You walk down the street and the smell hits you – rotting rubbish, raw sewage, car fumes and smoke…. Everywhere you look is absolute filth. The "footpaths" are whatever bits of road have too many obstacles for motorbikes to drive on, and this is right beside the steady flow of the open sewer where several men were working to shovel out all the rubbish that had fallen in and pile it up on the side of the street where it was left to dry out.
The crazy driving and incessant horn blasting was somewhat entertaining when I first arrived in India, but that too starts to get really annoying, vehicles will cut up along side other drivers in order to get an exta inch further in the queue only to have to cut back in over massive potholes to avoid something further up the road. Being impatient is one thing this but they really take this to a whole new level and with no result except a lot of noise and broken wing mirrors! And don't even get me started on the random triple speed bumps in pointless places… as if the pot holes were not enough!
So anyway, after chilling out in the hostel when I first arrived, the next morning I had planned to have a day trip to the Taj Mahal, but had problems booking the train, I tried to get a rickshaw to the railway station to book a ticket directly, but none of the Rickshaws wanted to take me, they would stop for me until I said railway station then they would not look impressed and drive off!! I tried to get an explanation from a few of them, but they did not want to elaborate… so I went into the city with some other backpackers instead. We had a Rickshaw driver who was an absolute nutcase! He had covered the rickshaw with flowers and the inside has several weird dolls handing on string, and he kept poking them and saying chook chook. He also has photos of his favourite bollywood stars pinned up, and was getting a little too excited about them! Went to see a muslim temple place which was ok, but definatly not worth the 250 Rs we paid to get in… although I did get a cool picture of me getting told off for standing on a the tomb of some muslim dude! I then went to the “Garden of 5 senses” which was very nice, but did seem to be the local hang-out for courting couples in New Delhi!
When I got back to the hostel I asked about the Taj Mahal and was told that it was closed on Fridays, so I decided to stay a second night here and the next morning head to Rajasthan for 2 days before going to Agra on Sunday.
Let the adventure continue!
Stay classy!
Irish Mark
Don't forget to check out my Facebook page for the full photo albums from my trip!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Irish-Marks-Epic-Global-Adventure/308809661792
