Delhi is pretty much exactly as i prepared myself for it to be, hot, constantly bustling, dirty but beautiful, and close to overwhelming.
The flight over was fabby, have never been on a super huge plane before so even that was a bit 'woah'. Was going to get some sleep, but with a masive range of newly released films to watch (+ free g&t), how could i? Ended up watched Juno, and most of No Country for Old Men. Both excellent.
Landed, queued up for ages, blah blah, got into a taxi which took me to Paharganj, the ultimate in budget tourism. Transport in India is manic, i havent been anywhere yet where i haven't heard honking every 3 seconds. We passed tiny motorbikes with famlies of 4 on, overtook tuk tuks through oncoming traffic and very nearly hit a cow lounging at the side of the road. It seems that a lot of people and animals simply lounge their time away at the side of motorways and roads. I love it.
It took me approx 1.5 hours to find the hostel, with no map and no road signs i blindly wandered around simply hoping to find it. Finally i befriended a boy who took me there, and to my pleasant surprise declined any money i offered him. Lovely. Got into my room and crashed, its a small room, but i get a double bed, there's a reasonably warm shower and its one of the cleanest places i've seen so far, so i'm happy.
The amount of people trying to get you to go somewhere, or buy something, is one fo the most overwhelming parts, eventually i got pulled into someones room to see some photographs, which turned out to be a place he wanted to take me, Kashmir, in the north of India. I was actually very tempted, but i said i'd think about it and took his advice to go and see the red fort. Which was huge. Massive. Had a little shufty around there, then crossed the road to see Jama Masjid, the largest mosque in india. Got given a short tour by two boys, who really seemed more interested in buying jeans.
Left the two boys, who were now involved in a deep conversation over the price of a fake nokia, then took a motor tuk tuk back to the area i was staying in. Took me another two hours to find my hostel again, through a lot of dark alleyways and bewildered looks. Finally (and very, very luckily) the Kashmir man spotted me and together we found the 'Smyle Inn'. Dropped some stuff off and went back to his for a meal of nann, paneer, caulfilower and other sorts of curry on his bedroom/kitchen/living room floor. His room is fantastic, it's his brothers actually, who owns a shop in Delhi, and so the whole room is covered in stock, little marble elephants, boxes shaped as turtles, cats, dolphins, bells hanging from the ceiling, carpets going up the wall. After more talk about Kashmir i escaped to go back to my hostel (which i found this time) , and promptly fell asleep.
At the moment it doesn't seem like any photos are uploading, which isn't really a big issue, none of them are very good, but i'll get some up next time i use a computer. Hopefully i wont write as much next time, either.
Love to all, Tom
edit- i managed to upload this one...
2 comments:
yeah! yeah!
Good to see that you enjoyed the flight and arrived safely. It's great to hear that the locals are nice and friendly and are taking good care of you. We hope that the rest of the world is just as nice and looks after all the backpackers that we know, who are currently making their way around the world. All the best and take care, Mike and Sarah
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