Making friends in Delhi

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Flag of India New Delhi, India
Tuesday, April 12, 2011

oh and a small child

Early start for us as we left Bangkok at 4am to head to the airport. It was only a four hour flight but it seemed to go on forever. We sat next to an Indian guy by the emergency exit so we all had to undergo a little chat about tray being stowed, no mobile phones switched on and blind must remain up throughout the whole flight because we are next to the exit. As soon as the air stewardess walked away our neighbour by the door pulled the blind down, unfolded his table and slumped on it and started using his mobile phone. Obviously that doesn't apply to Indians! When we hit a little turbulence I made a rash decision to pop a valium as I couldn’t drink alcohol due to being on antibiotics, so a drug cocktail seemed far the most sensible option....but it wasn’t! I slumped into my chair without a care in the world until breakfast came. After wedging two matchsticks in my eyes to keep them open I peeled back the foil wrapper on my breakfast to reveal a curry, "a curry for breakfast" I shouted, maybe a little too loud! What did I expect from an airline called Spicejet that was flying me to India? I ate what resembled an English breakfast, bun, tea, butter and fruit then passed the rest to Justin who sat looking like all his Christmases had come at once. I then slumped back in my seat and dozed the rest of the way there. Now when the plane landed I was whiteness to the funniest thing ever, as the plane was still moving on the runway (Not stopped) about a third of the passengers jumped up gathered their bags and ran for the door (still on the main runway). The air steward announced twice to remain seated but this fell on deaf ears, then on the third time she shouted “Sit back down NOW” but the isles were all blocked so she marched everyone backwards down the plane to their seats and shouted to each and everyone to “Put your seatbelt on”. If I was her I would have opened the door and watched them all fall out. It was hilarious to watch but after chatting to other people this is the norm on Indian flights. What was funnier was we were all fumigated before we could get off the flight, into New Delhi I should be fumigated when I get on not off!

Bara Gumbad

We have met so many people who have travelled through India and every time I say “Oh we are going to New Delhi” their faces drop and they diplomatically say “Mmmh it’s interesting” or “Crazy Delhi haha” one went so far as to say “Oh it’s a shit hole I hated it” so needless to say my expectations were not very high at all. The airport was new and clean but we later learned that had been built for the Olympics 2010......it’s nearly finished. When we came through arrivals our driver form the hotel was there to take us to the hotel. He opened the windows and shouted “Air-con” at us as he drove like crazy to the hotel. The hotel was tucked away down a little alley/toilet/sewer and the first thing I noticed was millions are flies everywhere, probably because there was a urinal in the alley. I think I was so tired I just walked right by or maybe we have been doing this for so long now nothing fazes me anymore. The owner was very friendly and told us to have a rest then he would get a driver to take us to lunch and to a tourist information office to gather some info. It was great we had lunch and met Del Boy the wheeler dealer at the tourist information centre, he did however give us a driver who took us around the whole of Delhi in one day (5 pounds each).

Red Fort

He took us to The Red Fort where I first started to notice that everyone was staring at me, once I had checked with Justin that I hadn’t ripped my pants or had toothpaste all over my face, we realised it’s because I am different (blonde and blue eyes). We visited Rajght Park where Mahatma Gandhi’s memorial sits, Humayins tomb, we relaxed in Lodhi Garden (No not lady garden) and watched the local men play cricket, the drive took up to the Royal Palace but as we are not allowed to stop (security reasons) he drove at about 5 miles per hour so we could take some pics. It is a crazy place every time I stopped and stood still for one minute people would ask if they could have their photo taken with me, some didn’t ask and tried to be discreet but failed miserably. At one point Justin went to the toilet and when he came out I had a full family around me, child dangling over my head and they are all franticly trying to get their picture taken with me it was so funny. That night we ate then settled down as we were shattered, we then heard noise from outside, we got dressed and ran downstairs and there was a full street festival procession going past our bedroom, so we stood and watched as the tractors pulled floats, goats ran in fear and trumpets were being played. It was great fun to watch.

The following morning we walked out for breakfast to one of the local cafes and we saw the area for what it really was. There were cows walking around the street and with them comes the crap, the area looked like a bomb had gone off and this is normal for the locals. We sat up in the cafe looking down on the streets below and realised that it is so dirty and unorganised, I was happy to get a taxi back to the airport a few hours later. The area we stayed in wasn’t the best, but what do you expect for 3 pounds per room, but the New Delhi we saw on our day tour was fantastic, the people were friendly and polite and best of all we had a really fun day. 24 hours in Delhi has made me want to see a lot more India has to offer so we both left for the airport re-thinking what we want to do for the last 8 weeks of our trip.

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