Delhi in a hurry
Trip Start
Jun 10, 2007
1
9
Trip End
Jul 07, 2007
New Delhi, India
Thursday, July 5, 2007
Landed at night in New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport and exited onto a sea of humanity. People waiting, people catching taxis, people loading stuff onto vehicles, people unloading stuff, people trying to sell stuff.... it was just people everywhere. The night air was like Singapore's too- thick, soupy heat that you wade through.
Let's just say that the moral of the tale that I am about to tell is that, if your plane arrives late in a city, make sure you already have a hotel room booked. (I can't believe that despite the exhaustive research I did for Pakistan and stops on the KKH, I totally forgot about New Delhi. Tried to read a fellow backpacker's Rough Guide to India while on a bus but nausea quickly put a stop to that)
(Note.. the whole place really is Delhi. Centre of New Delhi itself is marked about 1 suburb away from Old Delhi. Confusing)
So, armed with nothing more than a map of New Delhi that the airport tourism counter gave me, I jumped onto the (decrepit) airport-city bus. Outside Old Delhi railway station, one of the autorickshaw guys came on board the bus and told me that this was near the end of the line and that I should get off. To cut a long story short, he took me on his autorickshaw to look for a few hotels. He said most of the guesthouses around Old Delhi railway station (aka backpacker central) were closed due to work being done on the underground metro line nearby (huh.. I swallowed that!). We looked at a couple of 2-3 star places but they were all full. One had a vacancy but it was US$120 plus tax. The next one was also charging something similar.
At this stage, I was seriously tired, having not slept the night before either (was on 18 + 4 hour journey down the KKH). It was 2am in the morning, I'd spent the last 2 hours looking for hotels, there weren't any 24 hour cafes I could crash at, I couldn't go back to the airport to wait it out till morning, I couldn't very well sit outside a police station, I couldn't rent the autorickshaw for the next x hours.... so I forked out US$150 (A$180) for 6 hours in a crummy room that I found out later was worth about a tenth of the price. The whole thing was an elaborate scam. One word: Ouch!
(Meghara Palace Hotel in Karol Bagh.. you guys are cheating bastards!!)
Driving around Delhi in the wee hours of the morning was a very strange experience. Near the Old Delhi railway station, there were numerous men asleep under the stars on their cycle rickshaws. I am assuming that they are the working homeless?!? Cows, sacred to Hindus, wandered (and defecated on) the streets at will. Dogs, too, had the run of the streets at night. I realised that I had never seen a dog on the roof of a car - cats, yes, but never dogs... until Delhi! Ahh... Delhi quiet for a change.
The next day was HOT. Like 35+ degrees hot. It's summer on the Gangetic plain and not many tourists come at this time. In the time of the British Raj, the British would have retreated to the hill stations months ago. Nothing to do but just sweat into your clothes and look forward to a cool shower and air-con room at the end of the day.
However, what Kashgar failed to deliver, the New Delhi bazaars more than made up for. This is the bazaar to end all bazaars. On Sunday, I walked for block after block, wandering around a bazaar that must have spanned an entire suburb. Tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of shoppers were out in force. Brick and mortar shops, makeshift stalls on the road in front of those shops, shops down crowded back alleys etc. So many things to see, so much food to eat.
Oh yes, I got my I-want-to-eat-everything-in-sight appetite back. Street food is so plentiful and yummy here. Paneer (cheese of a tofu-like consistency) kebabs marinated with a light curry sauce and grilled. Freshly deep fried samosas. Hot off the tandoor rotis. Rich Korma curries. Mango lassi. Tempting local sweets covered in edible silver foil. Pistachio ice-cream. Shaved-ice popsicles drenched in syrup.
There were some weirder items too, like this drink that seemed to be made of mint but in fact tasted like crushed mint with pepper and tasbasco sauce. Oh yes, while we're talking about food and weird.. India has numerous McDonald's, none of which sell Big Mac (or any other sort of beef burger)!!!!
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The main purpose for setting foot in India was, of course, to see the legendary Taj Mahal... and what a sight it was. It is in a place called Agra, about 200+km south of New Delhi and another seat of the Mughal emperors. Here's a recap of the Taj Mahal tale (as told by mel based on what her guide told her): Boy meets Girl. They fall in love and marry. 20 years later, at age 39, Wife dies after bearing her 14th sprog. Griefstricken Husband, being Shah Jahan, Mr-All-powerful-Mughal-emperor-of-India, decides to build a mausoleum for her. 22 years and an unbelievably obscene amount of money later, the beautiful white marble Taj Mahal is finished. Shah Jahan then decides to build himself a matching black marble mausoleum across the river. His son, freaked out by how much more money Dad is going to drain out
of the coffers, seizes power. Shah Jahan spends the last 8 years of his life imprisoned 8km away in Agra Fort.
I was lucky that I got there just at sunrise, and during the off season. Like when I was at the Banyon at Angkor Wat, it is a really special feeling being able to spend time at something so awe-inspiring without having to share it with too many people. So here's the money shot.
For perfectionists, the Taj Mahal is just like a dream made real. The symmetry is just incredible, esp. the line that bisects everything in two down the centre. Up close, the intricacy of the marble work just blows you away. All the intricate black calligraphy is actually semi-precious stone inlaid in the underlying marble. Same with the flower patterns, except that each flower can be made up of many different different small petals, each being a thin, flat piece of semi-precious stone that has been tediously ground into shape before being fitted into the marble. Various semi-precious stones are used: onyx (black), lapis lazuli (deep blue), carnelian (red), jasper (brown), malachite (green), coral (pearly). All this is then repeated all around the building. In the interior of the tomb itself, there are marble "screens" of very complex patterns, each carved out of a single piece of marble. You could go crazy marvelling at the many lines of symmetry.
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