I arrived! My flight from London was pretty good... Doha was just like you'd expect, a kingdom of oil wealth in the desert sticking out into the Persian Gulf. I was upgraded to business class on the flight from Doha to Delhi... VERY fortuitous and relaxing before the onslaught began. I slide off the plane no problem and cruised through an almost empty immigration line, grabbed my bag within 5 minutes at the carousel, changed some money (10,000 Rs for about $250), sped past customs and got a pre-paid taxi ticket, brushed past the scammers and hucksters outside the airport and jumped into a taxi all within about the first 20 minutes of arrival. I thought I was doing pretty well considering, but then we hit the highway and I pretty much lost my nerve. What the hell am I doing here?! Who did I think I was trying to do this trip through India?! Delhi is pure insanity... and not your expected reasonable insanity that New York City seems to be, I mean INSANE like you can't believe what you are seeing and you just have to sit back and ride the continually cresting explosion.
Delhi traffic is shear whitenuckle insanity, made seemingly even more crazy because everyone else around me is calm as can be, and I can't believe people aren't getting killed left and right in front of my eyes. Everyone shares the highways, and I mean everyone included... pedestrians crossing everywhere (this is a highway!), people pushing carts toppling with bales of asian electronics, bicycles, auto-rickshaws (3-wheeled green/yellow carts running on 2-stroke engines with no seatbelts... fun!), motorcycles carrying 2 or 3 or even 4 people (men always driving with a helmet but women ride on the back side saddle with no helmet... to protect their hair? in full pink and blue sari and jewelled sandals, sometimes with one or two children clutched in their mother's arms), taxis looking like they're straight out of the 1950's, cars (many with their side mirrors tucked in because the proximity of traffic means they'd be knocked off in 2 minutes... no one seems to use mirrors anyway), trucks, buses packed to beyond standing room, everyone. And there are no lanes... well, there are markings for lanes but no one pays attention to them. You drive wherever there's space for you to fit... finding it by whatever means necessary including cutting off everyone, you pass on the right into oncoming traffic, weaving in and around at top speed... I don't think anyone uses signals other than constantly honking at each other to make sure you know they're inches from your bumper. Actually, the backs of most taxis and auto-rickshaws say "honk please" and also (ironically) "keep distance".
The place I'm staying took a little effort to find (me lugging my bags through the allyways of an actual Tibetan refuge camp) but I got there ok after a few misteps and a lot of questions. It's outside Delhi proper and is definitely more quiet but I think it's too far from things. I got to the hotel last night around 5pm, hauled my bags up to the 4th floor room, and watched the sunset over the Yamuna River from the communal roof terrace. It was hazy and smelled like a gypsum quarry (acrid and dusty). Then I went to the bathroom in a hole in the floor, took a shower, and went downstairs to the restaurant to get dinner. I forgot to take my malaria medicine Tuesday morning with the overnight flight so I took it towards the end of the day right before dinner, which turns out was a bad idea because it makes me feel a little nauceous, so I didn't eat more than a few bites of what I ordered for dinner at the hotel restaurant (veg dumplings, prawn rice, and some kind of steamed bread thingy... actually the food is more Chinese than Indian because of the Tibetan community). I also didn't eat yesterday morning or all day so by last night I was starving... I think I'm going to loose a bunch of weight here.
Tuesday night I went to bed around 8pm because I was exhausted but I woke up around 1am under a mosquito attack! Oops, I had forgotten to close the screens after I aired out the room because someone had earlier gunned their motorcycle in the street and sent a huge plume of noxious blue/black exhuast all the way up 4 flights and into my room. Of course, at 1am under panic of getting malaria I had forgotten there were screens on the windows so instead I set up my mosquito tent in the dark, poles going everywhich way and making a racket on the stone floor, and then tried to go back to sleep. I think I finally got to sleep again around 3am or so and I slept on and off until about 10am.
Wednesday morning I got up and packed up my stuff so they could switch me to a different room with my own private hole in the floor. Outside in the ally a young man begging for money showed me his thin deformed right arm which apparently had no joints as he could bend it every which way forward and back. Next to him was a woman also begging who's right side of her face appeared as if it were wax melted from a flame at her eye, cheek and lips. I caught an auto-rickshaw into the city proper to the New Delhi Railway Station so that I could get a train ticket for Shimla. The taxi left me at what turned out to be the back side and I wandered a bit through the crowd of travelers packing huge bags on their heads and in their arms fighting to get to their train... it would appear that there is only one 12 foot wide stairway up from the main terminal to the gangways that lead over the tracks and somone had, appropriately enough, blocked a third of the stairs with a gate... before I found my way into the actual train building and upstairs to the tourist travel beaureau. I bought a 1st class ticket to Shimla for Friday morning on the Himalayan Queen express.
After the mad mad mad railway station I went to see the Red Fort (mughal seat of power subsequently used by the British Raj). It was relatively quiet and peaceful there so I spent a couple of hours wandering around and then caught another auto-rickshaw through the bazaars over to the Jama Masjid (incredible mosque built by Shah Jahan). I couldn't go in immediately because they were having prayer (yes, it is still in active use), but they let the gathering crowd of German, Spanish, and Swedish tourists, myself included, in after about 20 minutes. The mosque was truely stunning and seeing it in use was blessed. I was able to climb to the top of a minaret and catch a little overview of Delhi, insane even from a hundred feet up. I left just at sunset and made my way through the local bazaars looking for an electrical adaptor and a sim card for my phone. I found the adaptor at a crazy electronics street market that carried everything from laptops to lighting to adaptors (which surprisingly works just fine) but I didn't have any luck with the phone card. I grabbed another auto-rickshaw home.
I wolfed down some vegetable chow mein as if I hadn't eaten in days... which come to think of it I hadn't. Then I went up to my room and sat down to write the events of the day in my journal and read a little. I noticed as soon as I turned on the lights that there seemed to be a certain frozen panic... as if small creatures stopped in their tracks where moments before they had been happily cruising around the floor, bed, walls, etc. and then I caught a few small cockroaches scurrying for cover... Oh well, I suppose I should get used to it, so I took a shower, laid down on the bed after carefully checking for roaches, and turned on the TV. At first I was watching the discovery India channel just in the background, but then I found LOST!!! Ah, the comforts of home. I fell asleep for just a short while but then was awake again from 1 until about 3am thinking about the roaches. I could have set up my tent but whatever... they're just as scared of me as I am of them. Yesterday morning I slept until 10:30am and got up to take my malaria medicine, which made me nauceous for another hour so I laid back down.
I finally got out of the hotel at 12:30pm after arranging for a car at 5am tomorrow morning to go to the New Delhi Railway Station where I'll catch the 5:55am Himalayan Queen express to Shimla. I also called a hotel so I have a place to stay when I get there... hooray! I was a bit worried with the non-pre-plan. I'm feeling much more confident and comfortable now that I've got my first day under my belt. This place is really crazy and right now I really don't know what to think. I'm just so busy taking all the noise and color and smells in and trying to avoid getting run over at the same time.
Delhi traffic is shear whitenuckle insanity, made seemingly even more crazy because everyone else around me is calm as can be, and I can't believe people aren't getting killed left and right in front of my eyes. Everyone shares the highways, and I mean everyone included... pedestrians crossing everywhere (this is a highway!), people pushing carts toppling with bales of asian electronics, bicycles, auto-rickshaws (3-wheeled green/yellow carts running on 2-stroke engines with no seatbelts... fun!), motorcycles carrying 2 or 3 or even 4 people (men always driving with a helmet but women ride on the back side saddle with no helmet... to protect their hair? in full pink and blue sari and jewelled sandals, sometimes with one or two children clutched in their mother's arms), taxis looking like they're straight out of the 1950's, cars (many with their side mirrors tucked in because the proximity of traffic means they'd be knocked off in 2 minutes... no one seems to use mirrors anyway), trucks, buses packed to beyond standing room, everyone. And there are no lanes... well, there are markings for lanes but no one pays attention to them. You drive wherever there's space for you to fit... finding it by whatever means necessary including cutting off everyone, you pass on the right into oncoming traffic, weaving in and around at top speed... I don't think anyone uses signals other than constantly honking at each other to make sure you know they're inches from your bumper. Actually, the backs of most taxis and auto-rickshaws say "honk please" and also (ironically) "keep distance".
The place I'm staying took a little effort to find (me lugging my bags through the allyways of an actual Tibetan refuge camp) but I got there ok after a few misteps and a lot of questions. It's outside Delhi proper and is definitely more quiet but I think it's too far from things. I got to the hotel last night around 5pm, hauled my bags up to the 4th floor room, and watched the sunset over the Yamuna River from the communal roof terrace. It was hazy and smelled like a gypsum quarry (acrid and dusty). Then I went to the bathroom in a hole in the floor, took a shower, and went downstairs to the restaurant to get dinner. I forgot to take my malaria medicine Tuesday morning with the overnight flight so I took it towards the end of the day right before dinner, which turns out was a bad idea because it makes me feel a little nauceous, so I didn't eat more than a few bites of what I ordered for dinner at the hotel restaurant (veg dumplings, prawn rice, and some kind of steamed bread thingy... actually the food is more Chinese than Indian because of the Tibetan community). I also didn't eat yesterday morning or all day so by last night I was starving... I think I'm going to loose a bunch of weight here.
Tuesday night I went to bed around 8pm because I was exhausted but I woke up around 1am under a mosquito attack! Oops, I had forgotten to close the screens after I aired out the room because someone had earlier gunned their motorcycle in the street and sent a huge plume of noxious blue/black exhuast all the way up 4 flights and into my room. Of course, at 1am under panic of getting malaria I had forgotten there were screens on the windows so instead I set up my mosquito tent in the dark, poles going everywhich way and making a racket on the stone floor, and then tried to go back to sleep. I think I finally got to sleep again around 3am or so and I slept on and off until about 10am.
Wednesday morning I got up and packed up my stuff so they could switch me to a different room with my own private hole in the floor. Outside in the ally a young man begging for money showed me his thin deformed right arm which apparently had no joints as he could bend it every which way forward and back. Next to him was a woman also begging who's right side of her face appeared as if it were wax melted from a flame at her eye, cheek and lips. I caught an auto-rickshaw into the city proper to the New Delhi Railway Station so that I could get a train ticket for Shimla. The taxi left me at what turned out to be the back side and I wandered a bit through the crowd of travelers packing huge bags on their heads and in their arms fighting to get to their train... it would appear that there is only one 12 foot wide stairway up from the main terminal to the gangways that lead over the tracks and somone had, appropriately enough, blocked a third of the stairs with a gate... before I found my way into the actual train building and upstairs to the tourist travel beaureau. I bought a 1st class ticket to Shimla for Friday morning on the Himalayan Queen express.
After the mad mad mad railway station I went to see the Red Fort (mughal seat of power subsequently used by the British Raj). It was relatively quiet and peaceful there so I spent a couple of hours wandering around and then caught another auto-rickshaw through the bazaars over to the Jama Masjid (incredible mosque built by Shah Jahan). I couldn't go in immediately because they were having prayer (yes, it is still in active use), but they let the gathering crowd of German, Spanish, and Swedish tourists, myself included, in after about 20 minutes. The mosque was truely stunning and seeing it in use was blessed. I was able to climb to the top of a minaret and catch a little overview of Delhi, insane even from a hundred feet up. I left just at sunset and made my way through the local bazaars looking for an electrical adaptor and a sim card for my phone. I found the adaptor at a crazy electronics street market that carried everything from laptops to lighting to adaptors (which surprisingly works just fine) but I didn't have any luck with the phone card. I grabbed another auto-rickshaw home.
I wolfed down some vegetable chow mein as if I hadn't eaten in days... which come to think of it I hadn't. Then I went up to my room and sat down to write the events of the day in my journal and read a little. I noticed as soon as I turned on the lights that there seemed to be a certain frozen panic... as if small creatures stopped in their tracks where moments before they had been happily cruising around the floor, bed, walls, etc. and then I caught a few small cockroaches scurrying for cover... Oh well, I suppose I should get used to it, so I took a shower, laid down on the bed after carefully checking for roaches, and turned on the TV. At first I was watching the discovery India channel just in the background, but then I found LOST!!! Ah, the comforts of home. I fell asleep for just a short while but then was awake again from 1 until about 3am thinking about the roaches. I could have set up my tent but whatever... they're just as scared of me as I am of them. Yesterday morning I slept until 10:30am and got up to take my malaria medicine, which made me nauceous for another hour so I laid back down.
I finally got out of the hotel at 12:30pm after arranging for a car at 5am tomorrow morning to go to the New Delhi Railway Station where I'll catch the 5:55am Himalayan Queen express to Shimla. I also called a hotel so I have a place to stay when I get there... hooray! I was a bit worried with the non-pre-plan. I'm feeling much more confident and comfortable now that I've got my first day under my belt. This place is really crazy and right now I really don't know what to think. I'm just so busy taking all the noise and color and smells in and trying to avoid getting run over at the same time.
2 comments:
Congratulations on your introduction to international travel! I'm sure you'll settle in soon, and those cockroaches will soon become your friends. Or your dinner.
take the malaria with food!!! oy vey, d. take it just after dinner before you go to bed... you will sleep through the nausia. (i can't stand the thought of self-induced nausia.)
cockroaches are extraordinary creatures. listen to their wisdom. they have surpassed millions of years of geologic evolution. in fact, YOU are living in their world, man. shhhhh... just listen.
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