My title is a pun that I wanted to make the title of the blog (the 'here we go' part,) but Alex and his French No vetoed it. Who's right? Cute/funny or cheesy/confusing?
Our photos this far can be found in total, ici: http://https://www.icloud.com/journal/#8;CAEQARoQuWj_bg94JNNh9wuTyGGCSw;242F7606-5684-46DD-920F-F13428E98761
We left Malaysia and I was SICK. I probably trusted one ice cube too many in the heat of things and paid by spending much of the eve of our departure comforted by the cool tiles of the bathroom floor. If it were not for Alex, I never, ever, in a million years, could have flown to India that day. I was crippled with a fever and literally took several naps between the check-in counter and boarding the plane. I envied the wheel chairs of the elderly, but I did make it on my own two feet. Again, with enormous thanks to Alex. He would have let us stay behind, but I was determined. And I lived to tell the tale, obviously!
We were picked up at the airport by a taxi driver holding a placard with my name on it. This was smart foresight because we did not have it in us to negotiate a ride. We stayed at a guest house in Connaught Place, a major shopping hub in Delhi. It is also notorious for "touting", which I will get to shortly.
We settled in and got some food down the block at a lovely and popular South Indian place. Our first meal was a paneer dosa and a thali. Yum.
I needed to stock up on clothes that satisfy basic conservative standards, so we found the local Fabindia shop. Alex still hasn't found Indian-style clothes that fit him yet, but he doesn't have to cover as much skin as I do for safety.
In Delhi, especially in CP there are countless young men who are keeping an eye out for light-skinned foreigners in order to convince them to spend their money. There is one official government travel information center in the area, but a million and one for-profit places ready and eager to convince naïve tourists to spend money needlessly. Men pretending to be just friendly and helpful constantly pounced on us saying that the info center is just across the street here, "free Delhi map!" And of course if they bring us to one of these places they earn a comission worth playing this game every day. This is touting. The same is true for shopping centers. Plenty of people will say the place we want to go is closed but they know a better place, "five floors!" This type of thing, unfortunately, is a constant annoyance here. We cannot trust anyone we speak to out on the streets because 99% of them will lie to try to make money off of us.
We took a trip to see the India Gate and the National Museum.
We asked a rickshaw driver to take us to Humayun's Tomb, but either to get a bigger fare or because he didn't know any better, he dropped us off at Lodi Gardens. As it turned out, this was a secret gem we would not have thought to visit. It redeemed Delhi for me. Or at least convinced me there is at least one nice, peaceful place in that crappy city. It was serene and georgeous to climb around exploring the old tombs amidst the clean, green wonderland.
We did a small walking tour near the train station led by two "former street children." They are members of an organization that houses, educates or returns street children to their original homes when possible. Many children run way from their homes for various reasons and bord trains to Delhi. They often live in/near the train station. They are able to find ways to make money, but they must spend it every day so as not to be robbed in their sleep. This life often involves really damaging drug use such as glue sniffing. Or, in the case of women, child prostitution. Salaam Baalak, as they define it means, "salute the children." The tours are led by the children themselves as a way to improve their communication skills and give them a small job while they are in school. We had a really nice experience with Noor, our guide, and the other boys.
We began our train adventures softly with the Delhi Foreign Tourist Office. This is a big air-conditioned room specially created for people like us. It is unique because in the rest of India we have to elbow our way to the front of the ticket window like everybody else. On the way there, of course, there are dozens of men telling us that this office does not exist or that it burned down, but that we can go to their travel agent. So helpful! Groan.
At 5am on our 5th full day in India we boarded our first train, headed for Agra and the Taj Mahal.
It truly is an incredible building.
To many Indian people it is like a bonus to be at the most beautiful building in the world AND see a white person there. We refused many photo requests, but for this one Alex was too hot and tired to refuse. These two men don't even know each other, they just both jumped on the opportunity to be "clicked" with Alex. (I agree, he's a good looking guy!) The couple on the right looking bashful and amused are Agra natives. We had a lovely chat with them after giggling over the photo ordeal. The man works in Bangalore and is home visiting his girlfriend. We wish them all the best.
The tourist ghetto of Agra.
The Agra Fort.
Again we left in the darkness to board another early-morning train. This time headed for Jodhpur in the state of Rajasthan. Lots more photos and updates to come.
Beaucoup d'amour et gros bisous pour tous!
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