Thursday morning marks a week in Delhi, and we're beginning to go with the flow a little more. We take breakfast at 8:00, a busy morning agenda will take us to Model Town, way up north by the University, then to the University to drop off the official looking paper the Embassy staff notarized for us, I need to get my phone working or purchase a new one to go with the Aircel SIM card I've purchased. We have to arrange train travel to Udaipur (pronounced OO da purrr, I have been saying YOU Diaper) where we've been invited to visit a Rotary contact Monica, and finally to get back to the market at Lajpat Nagar I need a good head rag and a sleep sheet for the overnight train. Julie needs some baggy legging loose cotton pants and another kurta or two wouldn't be bad.
For whatever reason the autorickshaws nearest our hotel don't ever take us anywhere, just shake their heads? So we walk a couple blocks to the intersection in the center of East of Kailash, were the traffic is brisk and one soon pulls over. 100 to Central Secretariat? Head wobble means get in, this old driver takes a slow meandering way, more shaded, less traffic, took an extra 10-15 minutes too, so we're going to be late for our 11:00 appointment that's clear. We get to the metro OK, it is near the center of the capital government offices, like the area north of the national mall in Washington DC. Lots of government workers getting to work about 9:30-10:00... must not be worries about job security here!
The metro is a crush after the first 2 stops, most of the way up the yelo line to Model Town, Julie is on the phone with Suresh our agent. Meet at McDonalds... we find it after a hot walk of a few hundred meters, a big sign "NO BEEF OR BEEF PRODUCTS SERVED HERE" I check the menu, righyoh...only chicken on the non-veg side, and veg on the other. We have a couple "large" cokes, with ice, and wait for Suresh to call or show up. A busy intersection outside the windows, I count about 75 people a minute criss cross the intersection one way or another, no lanes or traffic signal so they all weave around one another adjusting speed and location so no one has to slow down too much, once in a while a car or bus or truck will bull there way through in front of others but that's how it works here, most are respectful as long as you don't hinder them!
Suresh shows us 3 apartments, 30 to 45 thousand rupees a month... nice, fairly new, all marble floors, counters, bathrooms with tile walls. 2 3 bedrooms and a 2 bedroom, they are spacious and the one on the 2nd fl, they call it the 1st here... has 2 nice balconies front and back, spacious rooms, it's perfect.. except there's no furniture, no frig or ac, and Julie isn't yet sure whether she's going to get housing in the hostel or not (she still hasn't been admitted to the university, maybe next Tuesday, 2 days before schools starts they tell us!?)
We thank Suresh and before heading back to the metro stop in the McDonalds (next to he and his fathers office) for another cold one and a bit of food....which is no better an idea there than here... the veg patty is smothered in a spicy yelo goo that's just about unedible, Julies veg pizza puff is about the same inside... the coke is good and cold, Julie has a strawberry shake. We recap our housing strategy as I fiddle with my phone and voila the thing unlocks like majic... I've tried about 10 different things and spent hours on the phone with ATT customer service and on the web site trying to figure it out and the instructions are all wrong... there's a simple code to enter that unlocks it!
That done, we're on to the metro to the Vishawavdavalya or something close stop, for the University. I pull out the addresss card and soon have 5 rickshaw wallas jostling and fighting over who is going to take us and what the fare will be. 20-50... we settle on a guy for 20 who says he knows exactly where it is, he is the most foreceful, and we find this is great, he powers the rickshaw with the same vigor up the hill in the hot sun, passing every other rickshaw on the road easily... within minutes we pull up in front of the building and Julie is off to the line... GEOFF! this is so strange to hear, it's Omprakash, the Mathematics student from Nepal, and also Ashita, the local girl that's befriended Julie in the line, Julie's here?! she squeals... yes in the line... and off she goes to find her.. Omprakash says "it was meant to be! How could you be in Model Town and not call me?" we visit and Julie is not in line for hours this, our third time to the line... Mrs Deepa takes her papers, gives a head wobble, and we say our goodbyes and head back to the metro. Next stop Rajiv Chowk, the center of New Delhi, nearby to the train station... but after another forgettable veggie burger at Nirulas and pineapple soda we realize we are too gassed for another outing. Let's ride the metro out to the end of the blue line and cool off, then see how we feel... it's only 4 stops, and we see the slum shantytown, back of the electric power plant, water treatment plant, and cross the river to see the water buffaloes before circling back the same route. No we are done, we get an autorickshaw to the room, we'll try to make reserves on line... After a shower and a nap it is impossible to make reserves on line, no matter what they say it doesn't work. When I finally get to the page after about 20 pages, I see our train is sold out with 29 waitlisted! And like same for next 2 days! We must go to the station to see if this is real (this is more than 30 mins away by autorickshaw, which of course are not ac). But the heat has broken by now and people are out everywhere in the cool evening, all the parks are full, people are out front and on top their buildings, the kites are flying everywhere. We get to the station and run the gamut of seriously agressive touts in your face every few paces... doesn't help we're the only white people in sight, dressed in Indian clothing (they mostly wear plain western clothing, and most people look as though they own on the set they have on). The International Tourist Bureau never looked so good as the 2nd time, the white painted board with the numbers and the pale xerox copy of reservation form. We get our train number and sit on the sofa which is where the line starts. A few minutes later it's all done! Miracle of miracles, they have set asides for International Tourists only the office can print the ticket. He's on an amber monitor typing in the information we put on the form, and a few seconds later 2174 rupees (about $40) for both of us to go 600 kilometers overnight, the dot matrix printer is scrinching out our ticket. Car 1 berth 13 and 14 and upper and a lower. Back through the throng to the pre-paid autorickshaw booth, where we find how much we've been overpaying... 55 to Lajpat Nagar...we've been paying 100 or 150 to get from East of Kailash to the metro or central Delhi... of well...
The market is crowded as always in the last hour, but we bargain and get a few things before dropping into our final autorickshaw of the day. The first driver who is too proud to ask for directions when he gets lost he stops about a 1/2 mile from our hotel and turns the motor off... East Kailash! 50 he says.... No... F-Block, you stop here I'll give you 20! 50! F-block... finally... he starts up and within a couple minutes we are here.
Just time to have shower #3, a quick skype call to home, and blog a bit before lights out, tomorrow is a travel day, check out and get to the train station by 6.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Taj - Agra day trip
6am wake up call, the driver was downstairs waiting, we were off by 6:20, the roads were very crowded already. Faridabad is the first crush we hit leaving the south of Delhi, Palwal the next. So we're on the National Hiway #2, and your thinking like an interstate (at least I was) we'll fly down the 200 km's in an hour and a half or two... but in India things are different. First, while it is a 2 (marked) lane highway each direction, divided in most places, with a wide shoulder, there are no speed signs, and cars share the road with... trucks, buses, tractors, motorcycles, auto-rickshaws, bicycles, pedestrians, bike rickshaws, oxcarts, camels, cows, horses, goats, children on their way to school... you name it.
As we get out of the big city and into the villages, each one a crossroads.. there are lines of people waiting to cross, in a few of the places there were police directing traffic, a couple had traffic signals, and then the rest of them were the most confusing choreography you ever saw. A group of motorcycles & bicycles, followed by cars, buses, pedestrians, and what have you (50-500 people in all) will inch out until they have pretty much blocked both lanes, then they get to the center and inch into the other side and have the whole road blocked... traffic on the thoroughfare honk wildly and press forward as close as possible, motorcycles take advantage and go around every other thing to get at the front of the pack... then, the hiway traffic breaks through and resumes again. This happens a few dozen times on the way down.
At Mathura there's a big Krishna festival going on, maybe 50 or 100 thousand people are lining both sides of the road for miles, tent/tarp shelters are pitched, apparently it's a multi-day festival... here the local police of whoever rolls some portable metal walls out onto the highway and the festival goers criss cross a while, then the walls are removed and we're rolling aqain... most times you are stopped there are beggar children and street vendors tapping on your window doing whatever they can to get your attention and give them money. We handed out some food to a one-legged beggar kid at one stop, he had been pointing to his mouth so vigorously and Kuldeep said no don't give them money that will go to someone else... well, the kid shows it to his two sisters and they through it on the ground like it was a snake! So much for that theory.
About 4 hours later we roll into Agra and pick up the tour guide Kuldeep has arranged for our tours of the Taj Mahal, Red Fort, lunch, and the market.
The Taj does not dissapoint, despite the 750 rupee charge for foreigners to get in, the tickets say 500 but you can't question the authorities selling the tickets... india residents pay 20 rupees, with discounts for children, elderly, disabled, etc.
We take a bicycle rickshaw down the hill, to get past the gauntlet of hawkers, beggers, touts, and others that come at you what seems like 2 per second... we get to the bottom and the rickshaw drivers are trying to get more than the 20 rupees you agreed to, for a short ride downhill, and no they don't have or make any change if you only have 50's or 100's. We finally get in, but then the picture takers are hawking you... and we did purchase a few pics.
Having been to Humayuns tomb in Delhi a few days ago we're struck by the similarity between the outer gates, east, west, north, aligned with the points of the calendar, and the gardens and fountains laid out symmetrically along the ew and ns axises(?). Of course here there are only the three, as the south is bordered by the river Yamuna. The fountains are not on today, the reflecting pools reflect the white marble and sky behind it beautifully. We snap a few shots midway, where there is a raised platform, everything in the site is balanced in 2 parts. 12 architects from Iran Then we are walking up, and there is an optical illusion of the 2 small domes along the front, the one on the right appears to be closer, way closer, but as we get closer, we see they are perfectly even. The little white wall, the plynth the monument sits on, is about 35 feet high. All is white marble, the craftsman, 20,000 of them, imported from Iran, worked for 20 years carving, detailing, inlaying semi-precious stones. We go up the stairs, the details astound. Arabic writing framing the main archway, is larger at the top than the bottom, so from the bottom it all appears to be exactly the same size.
We are given white covers for our shoes, you don't have to take them off anymore, though there is a shoe check...
Up the stairs to the level of the main floor, it's unbelievable as you get closer how much detailing there is... the inlay's of lapis lazuli, garnet, jade, onyx, carved marble flowers, screens in every opening, door entries, running all around at the base the flower panels, edged with cirles, the corners with inlaid onyx v's to give an illusion of the marble itself having a v shape... until you are directly below it and see it is perfectly flat.
All perfectly proportioned, each of the 4 minarets equal distance apart, same exact height, as are the two domes, and each of the 4 arched doorways. The structure is an octagon, 4 sides, 4 corners, all precisely the same, oriented to the compass. The front entry faces north, along the north/south axis, as do the fountains centered in the reflecting pools, in the center of the gardens. At the entry, we stop to see how the stones glow under a flashlight, how the marble is translucent when backlit. It's India marble, very hard, 20,000 Iranian workers spent 20 years building it, and today their families are still there plying the trade. When they finished the work, they were given an option of returning to Iran, without hands, or staying in India with. They all chose to stay. They were imported because they were the most skilled stone workers in the world at that time.
We go inside, and the tomb chamber is centered under the dome, which reaches a height of exactly twice that of the arched entryways. The gold spire on top the dome had been solid gold, before the british claimed it, and other precious stones from the site. The main floor is a replica tomb, the real burial chamber is directly below, the architect did this so that the floor above the resting place would never be walked upon. All is screened with white marble, each section carved from a single block of marble. Mumtaz is exactly centered, on the north south axis, her head pointing north, slightly turned to the west, toward Mecca. Shah Jahan lies to the side, he was added to the site by his son Aurengzeb, who deposed, then imprisoned him, in a tower looking to the Taj Mahal, until his death.
We go out the south exit , a large plaza of white marble, overlooking the sacred Yamuna river. It will join the holiest Ganges a few hundred kilometers to the southeast. Today it is very hot and hazy, and the river is filled with water buffalo. Directly across the river, centered on the Taj north/south axis , is a marker, and some foundation work, where Shah Jahan intended his tomb, a mirror image of the Taj, in black marble, to be. The site work sits as it had been started…. Never to be finished.
We slowly make our way back toward the front, stopping to sit on one of the ledges in each of the corner pieces, on the cool white marble in the shade. It is a sweltering day under a strong Indian sun, well past 100 in temperature. We linger, running our fingers over the flowered screens, feeling the curves and edges of the leaves, hard to imagine they’ve survived 350 years in such excellent condition.
Finally, slowly, we make our way down the stairs, and down the long east promenade through the garden, thankful for the cooling shade and greenery all around. A monument to love, and a structure of such perfection, it can never be surpassed.
We go to the marble artisans workplace and see them working as their forebearers did, creating items of incredible lasting beauty by painstaking, difficult physical labor, turning the stone grinders by hand, carving the marble with hand chisels, grinding the semi-precious stones to the exact size of the scribes in the stone.
After a spicy vegetarian lunch in a long established, cool restaurant, we drive slowly past the Red Fort on the way out of town… it’s too hot an afternoon for the several hours it will take to see the Fort properly, but we see the massive structure in red sandstone with white detailing. Aurengzeb’s huge bed chambers high atop the fort, near to the white marble tower where Shah Jahan was imprisoned and died, overlooking the Taj from a mile away. The Yamuna was diverted to fill a double moat in the days of the fort, one to keep out the lions and tigers that prowled the area, the other filled with river crocodiles, to keep out anyone else. I align myself with the tower and face the Taj and snap a picture, and think of Shah Jahan looking there, to the monument of love he made for Mumtaz.
The ride back was much as the way there, differing that now the children and their buses and the oxcarts and camels and Krishna worshippers and cyclists were heading back the other way. We saw great grey clouds that promised rain, but contained only dust and wind. A huge duststorm came up, as it does before the monsoons start, bring sand from the Thar desert to the west. We saw great drops of rain tease for about 2 minutes, but not enough the dampen the dusty roadsides. No rain for at least another 10 days, the paper says. We are again back into the crush at Faridibad, it takes over an hour to get the rest of the way to our hotel in south Delhi’s East of Kailash sector. We had quite a day, and the heat and sunburn and long time in the little Tata subcompact made a body feel good and tired. After a shower and laying down to rest, the memory of the feel of the cool white marble of the Taj somehow made the tiredness seem a fit ending to a perfect day.
As we get out of the big city and into the villages, each one a crossroads.. there are lines of people waiting to cross, in a few of the places there were police directing traffic, a couple had traffic signals, and then the rest of them were the most confusing choreography you ever saw. A group of motorcycles & bicycles, followed by cars, buses, pedestrians, and what have you (50-500 people in all) will inch out until they have pretty much blocked both lanes, then they get to the center and inch into the other side and have the whole road blocked... traffic on the thoroughfare honk wildly and press forward as close as possible, motorcycles take advantage and go around every other thing to get at the front of the pack... then, the hiway traffic breaks through and resumes again. This happens a few dozen times on the way down.
At Mathura there's a big Krishna festival going on, maybe 50 or 100 thousand people are lining both sides of the road for miles, tent/tarp shelters are pitched, apparently it's a multi-day festival... here the local police of whoever rolls some portable metal walls out onto the highway and the festival goers criss cross a while, then the walls are removed and we're rolling aqain... most times you are stopped there are beggar children and street vendors tapping on your window doing whatever they can to get your attention and give them money. We handed out some food to a one-legged beggar kid at one stop, he had been pointing to his mouth so vigorously and Kuldeep said no don't give them money that will go to someone else... well, the kid shows it to his two sisters and they through it on the ground like it was a snake! So much for that theory.
About 4 hours later we roll into Agra and pick up the tour guide Kuldeep has arranged for our tours of the Taj Mahal, Red Fort, lunch, and the market.
The Taj does not dissapoint, despite the 750 rupee charge for foreigners to get in, the tickets say 500 but you can't question the authorities selling the tickets... india residents pay 20 rupees, with discounts for children, elderly, disabled, etc.
We take a bicycle rickshaw down the hill, to get past the gauntlet of hawkers, beggers, touts, and others that come at you what seems like 2 per second... we get to the bottom and the rickshaw drivers are trying to get more than the 20 rupees you agreed to, for a short ride downhill, and no they don't have or make any change if you only have 50's or 100's. We finally get in, but then the picture takers are hawking you... and we did purchase a few pics.
Having been to Humayuns tomb in Delhi a few days ago we're struck by the similarity between the outer gates, east, west, north, aligned with the points of the calendar, and the gardens and fountains laid out symmetrically along the ew and ns axises(?). Of course here there are only the three, as the south is bordered by the river Yamuna. The fountains are not on today, the reflecting pools reflect the white marble and sky behind it beautifully. We snap a few shots midway, where there is a raised platform, everything in the site is balanced in 2 parts. 12 architects from Iran Then we are walking up, and there is an optical illusion of the 2 small domes along the front, the one on the right appears to be closer, way closer, but as we get closer, we see they are perfectly even. The little white wall, the plynth the monument sits on, is about 35 feet high. All is white marble, the craftsman, 20,000 of them, imported from Iran, worked for 20 years carving, detailing, inlaying semi-precious stones. We go up the stairs, the details astound. Arabic writing framing the main archway, is larger at the top than the bottom, so from the bottom it all appears to be exactly the same size.
We are given white covers for our shoes, you don't have to take them off anymore, though there is a shoe check...
Up the stairs to the level of the main floor, it's unbelievable as you get closer how much detailing there is... the inlay's of lapis lazuli, garnet, jade, onyx, carved marble flowers, screens in every opening, door entries, running all around at the base the flower panels, edged with cirles, the corners with inlaid onyx v's to give an illusion of the marble itself having a v shape... until you are directly below it and see it is perfectly flat.
All perfectly proportioned, each of the 4 minarets equal distance apart, same exact height, as are the two domes, and each of the 4 arched doorways. The structure is an octagon, 4 sides, 4 corners, all precisely the same, oriented to the compass. The front entry faces north, along the north/south axis, as do the fountains centered in the reflecting pools, in the center of the gardens. At the entry, we stop to see how the stones glow under a flashlight, how the marble is translucent when backlit. It's India marble, very hard, 20,000 Iranian workers spent 20 years building it, and today their families are still there plying the trade. When they finished the work, they were given an option of returning to Iran, without hands, or staying in India with. They all chose to stay. They were imported because they were the most skilled stone workers in the world at that time.
We go inside, and the tomb chamber is centered under the dome, which reaches a height of exactly twice that of the arched entryways. The gold spire on top the dome had been solid gold, before the british claimed it, and other precious stones from the site. The main floor is a replica tomb, the real burial chamber is directly below, the architect did this so that the floor above the resting place would never be walked upon. All is screened with white marble, each section carved from a single block of marble. Mumtaz is exactly centered, on the north south axis, her head pointing north, slightly turned to the west, toward Mecca. Shah Jahan lies to the side, he was added to the site by his son Aurengzeb, who deposed, then imprisoned him, in a tower looking to the Taj Mahal, until his death.
We go out the south exit , a large plaza of white marble, overlooking the sacred Yamuna river. It will join the holiest Ganges a few hundred kilometers to the southeast. Today it is very hot and hazy, and the river is filled with water buffalo. Directly across the river, centered on the Taj north/south axis , is a marker, and some foundation work, where Shah Jahan intended his tomb, a mirror image of the Taj, in black marble, to be. The site work sits as it had been started…. Never to be finished.
We slowly make our way back toward the front, stopping to sit on one of the ledges in each of the corner pieces, on the cool white marble in the shade. It is a sweltering day under a strong Indian sun, well past 100 in temperature. We linger, running our fingers over the flowered screens, feeling the curves and edges of the leaves, hard to imagine they’ve survived 350 years in such excellent condition.
Finally, slowly, we make our way down the stairs, and down the long east promenade through the garden, thankful for the cooling shade and greenery all around. A monument to love, and a structure of such perfection, it can never be surpassed.
We go to the marble artisans workplace and see them working as their forebearers did, creating items of incredible lasting beauty by painstaking, difficult physical labor, turning the stone grinders by hand, carving the marble with hand chisels, grinding the semi-precious stones to the exact size of the scribes in the stone.
After a spicy vegetarian lunch in a long established, cool restaurant, we drive slowly past the Red Fort on the way out of town… it’s too hot an afternoon for the several hours it will take to see the Fort properly, but we see the massive structure in red sandstone with white detailing. Aurengzeb’s huge bed chambers high atop the fort, near to the white marble tower where Shah Jahan was imprisoned and died, overlooking the Taj from a mile away. The Yamuna was diverted to fill a double moat in the days of the fort, one to keep out the lions and tigers that prowled the area, the other filled with river crocodiles, to keep out anyone else. I align myself with the tower and face the Taj and snap a picture, and think of Shah Jahan looking there, to the monument of love he made for Mumtaz.
The ride back was much as the way there, differing that now the children and their buses and the oxcarts and camels and Krishna worshippers and cyclists were heading back the other way. We saw great grey clouds that promised rain, but contained only dust and wind. A huge duststorm came up, as it does before the monsoons start, bring sand from the Thar desert to the west. We saw great drops of rain tease for about 2 minutes, but not enough the dampen the dusty roadsides. No rain for at least another 10 days, the paper says. We are again back into the crush at Faridibad, it takes over an hour to get the rest of the way to our hotel in south Delhi’s East of Kailash sector. We had quite a day, and the heat and sunburn and long time in the little Tata subcompact made a body feel good and tired. After a shower and laying down to rest, the memory of the feel of the cool white marble of the Taj somehow made the tiredness seem a fit ending to a perfect day.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
I've dreamed of AGRA
Who hasn't, as a child finding out there was such a place, and tomorrow, I will be there to stand in front of the Taj Mahal and get my picture took. I wish I had a few days more to look forward to it, but our apartment hunting appointment for tomorrow cancelled and that's all we had, and after seeing the Delhi train station today there's no way we're making a day trip on the train down there and back, we called Kuldeep he's doing nothing tomorrow 630am pickup and we'll be home by dark. I have just got my indian wardrobe complete tonight, and it's laid out, white kurta (long sleeved, long long shirt, embroidered in white), white pyjamas (loose cotton pants with a drawstring) and 2 large cotton handkerchiefs I've learned to put on my head just so to keep the sun off and sweat from dripping in my eyes, watch for pics.
Today we feeling pretty low energy after the heat and excitment of the chowk yesterday, so after breakfast we called Kuldeep he's open and can be around to pick us up by 10:00, and he is right on time. As we head down to the U.S.A. Embassy (Julie needs to register) I ask Kuldeep what about the budget the finance minister unveiled last night? More money for poor people for food sounds like a great idea, eh? It's to give the poorest couple hundred million people a guarantee of 25kilos of rice per month at 3 rupees per kilo... so about $1.25 per month will get them 50 lbs of rice. That will help them stay alive, anyway. Yeah, but, says Kuldeep, sounds good on paper but if there is 100 rupees in the budget to feed the poor, 99 rupees will go for the minister or this, the commissioner of that, and 1 rupee will end up going for food to the poor, that's just the way it is, sounds good, but the budgets are for the rich people, the ones with money and positions will get it all, for people like me there will be no change. Wow do we have it sooooooooooooo good. This is a smart, hardworking, honest person who earns about what we pay for tv, internet, and phone service a month (maybe less).
Anyway, on to the embassy, where once our driver is banished to the far parking lot, we walk past the machine guns and guards and join the line to find Julie has her camera! You must now go down to gate 5 and leave the camera, then come back says the guard, in not too bad english. So we bake a few minutes down and back, of course trees or any foliage to create shade would also introduce a haven for people to hide, so it's hot sun on hard pavement. Back to the cue, then we're sent into a waiting room (outdoor, no fans, but in the shade), it's only about 100 so far, it looks like the DMV line on a Saturday morning, pitiful as you wait for number 385 to come up now serving number 12... we meek up to the head of the line and get a nice surprise American Citizens? Yes, you don't need to wait, go around the corner there first door on the left. Wahooo! We're there, in the AC room with no line! We do our stuff, and they offer a notarized letter to Julie to help her get into school for only $30... yes back in the good ole usa for a minute, we're paying our driver $20 for the whole day. Can you help us with housing and medical recommendations? No sorry, we don't have any information on anything like that, we have everything we need for the state dept employees right here on the compound... you are on your own, check the internet!
So we are done and back on the pavement to collect the camera and find the driver, which happens before we are too lathered. Now to the Delhi train station, which as it's connected to the new, modern, air conditioned metro at Connaught Place I figure it will be a spectacular marvel like those in Paris... oh.. boy... was I wrong. The parking lot is gravel and dirt and dust, cars parked an inch apart but nobody has cars anyway. People everywhere, it's open air, no ac, not even any fans I saw. The 2nd class cue is like the racetrack betting windows before a big race... packed! Kuldeep leads us past the sleeping people laying around everywhere, dogs, what have you, up stairs to the Foreigners office, where we will get preferential treatment. It is air conditioned! No, no timetable, says the greeter at the door, now this place is a 50 year old office room with scoop type plastic chairs maybe purple brown or some such, yello dingy ceiling tiles and lights, and maybe a dozen people sitting around the perimeter at like folding tables and maybe a desk or two, a couple 20 year old computers I guess they actually print your ticket out, though the reservation form you fill out is a bad faded copy off the copy machine, and the clerks actually are using carbon paper to make receipt copies, by hand! No, no timetables, she goes on... they're going to be changing the schedule. OK, so when will you have schedule books, I ask? She shrugs... and points to a huge white board (that's like board, not whiteboard like we know, it's a board, painted white, with the trains out of Delhi painted on in black (express is painted in red), like with a paint by number paint brush. OH wow... but it works, we decipher the board and get a couple reservation sheets, and Kuldeep points out the boss, so I start over that way to ask "should I reserve on the internet" or not, because on the internet, from the USA it looks like it would work, but here..... I get intercepted by a trio of next in lines, 3 gents working together, and they combine to let me know yes I can book online, and maybe pay online, but maybe not I should fill out a form by hand and come in to the office to confirm my reservation and payment have been properly posted anyway! Ok I am so glad we came here... no way are we taking the train to Agra anytime soon, could you imagine a day trip starting at that train station, hours on the train, a hassle in the heat to get to see the Taj and Fort and Masjid, and then back to that train station to hassle in the heat and dust to get a tuk tuk home? uh uhhhh.
So next we go to a nice restaurant and invite Kuldeep to eat with us, spicy indian food authentic veg great cheap cricket on the tv all is great. Julie buys a soapstone carved elephant from the hawkers outside and I buy a couple post card books, we're on to get a sim card for my phone so to avoid 250 a minute ATT ripoff... but that doesn't go so well either the phones locked no they don't know how to unlock go see samsung or go online thank you bye!
Driving down to the Qtub Minar we stop at the Lodhi Gardens and tomb on the way, it's a beautiful spot but so ungodly hot you move as slow as possible from one shade to another too hot to take the path to the lilly or lotus pond, actually enveying the dogs laying in the puddle the workman is making with the watering hose to keep the trees from dying. Cold water vendor doing a good business we get 3 bottles a litre each and join the traffic heading out of town to the Qtub.
It is so hot there every single person has a cap, hat, hankerchief, washtowel, newspaper, or something on their head... ok not everyone, many indian people have thick black hair... they are doing OK. I love this place it is a fantastic ancient ruin from around 1200 or so it was started, the iron post still without rust the oldest around with this metal technology... anyway, it's tooooo hot for Julie they are restoring the whole mosque that was here, rebuilding it stone by stone, by hand, just the way it was built, tens of workers, hand tools, chiseling, mortaring, heat notwithstanding the work must go on!
And so almost ends our day. A stop for postaqe stamps we're back in the 30's again, the post office hidden back behind a wall off the road Kuldeep drops me off at the gate I walk up it's outdoor, the counter, no ac, a dark little room maybe 10x15... no one there just papers on a desk yellow light, yellowing peeling paint, oho! anyone in there... some guy comes out of the back room I must have woke him up... it takes a few minutes but I get my 20 stamps at 12 rupees each I only have a 500 he uses his desk calculator to figure 240, then the 500..... he only has 2 100's, so the other 60 I get 12 5 rupee stamps... thank you!
Now we are back at the room Kuldeep on his way home but I have to go to Lajpat Nagar to exchange 2 Kurtas I got that are too small for my growing belly... Julie doesn't want to go she'll nap so I put on the one Kurta long yellow with a brown headband and head out, this kurta is below my knees keeps getting wrapped up in my legs as I walk... the tuk tuk boys won't give me a ride give me a dirty look "no, uh!" whatever that mean, OK boy... I'll hoof it a while, up a few block to the main road here's a guy don't know what's up with the others... he get's me to Lajpat Nagar straightaway, Central Market, yes... the market is half dark and shops are closing up it's almost 9 by now and they close about 930 anyway but with the power out to most of the market... now the market goes on for like 10 blocks one way and about 3 the other, and it's not square, it's a big place of stalls and alleys and shops and tents... so it takes me a while to find my place I am sure they re going to be closed but finally I find them I have a good sweat...Kuldeep doesn't think they'll exchange 160 rupee kurtas but I say I have to try they won't fit, too tight. The see the old man, he must be the boss, and the young smily face fellow who sold me the 6 pieces Sunday night (they're closed on Monday). I just love this kurta, I say... smiling, you have great stuff.. yes, yes he nods, as I bring up the bag to the counter and take out the other 2... these 2, are too tight, I motion and say... need the next bigger size and I'm sure I'll love them just as much! Har a hay a yalla yalla tay he says to the boy.. one white, one green I think he says cause next thing you know there they are just perfect the smily guy has them out of the bag holding them up to my back, thees will be OK, he says... smiles all around and he looks at my pants, how you like? Oh I love them too, do you have a pair in navy blue? No no blue, but we have gray, dark brown, kakhi, white, yellow, green, as he tosses a half dozen pairs on the counter in front of me... no blue... one size fits all, he says... these are nice (the grey) nahh... but these greens will go great with this kurta... how much? 160... deal.
I find a cold bottle of soda and have to walk out to the road to get a tuk tuk, everyone is leaving the market now all the tuk tuks are full, rickshaws won't help I have too far to go. Finally get one and I'm home. Marian called to say the plumber has fixed the broken water line to the frig only $100... but a big hassle. Hmmmmmm, well, it's only money and can't be helped... and tomorrow, we'll spend about the same, to see the Taj Majal!
Today we feeling pretty low energy after the heat and excitment of the chowk yesterday, so after breakfast we called Kuldeep he's open and can be around to pick us up by 10:00, and he is right on time. As we head down to the U.S.A. Embassy (Julie needs to register) I ask Kuldeep what about the budget the finance minister unveiled last night? More money for poor people for food sounds like a great idea, eh? It's to give the poorest couple hundred million people a guarantee of 25kilos of rice per month at 3 rupees per kilo... so about $1.25 per month will get them 50 lbs of rice. That will help them stay alive, anyway. Yeah, but, says Kuldeep, sounds good on paper but if there is 100 rupees in the budget to feed the poor, 99 rupees will go for the minister or this, the commissioner of that, and 1 rupee will end up going for food to the poor, that's just the way it is, sounds good, but the budgets are for the rich people, the ones with money and positions will get it all, for people like me there will be no change. Wow do we have it sooooooooooooo good. This is a smart, hardworking, honest person who earns about what we pay for tv, internet, and phone service a month (maybe less).
Anyway, on to the embassy, where once our driver is banished to the far parking lot, we walk past the machine guns and guards and join the line to find Julie has her camera! You must now go down to gate 5 and leave the camera, then come back says the guard, in not too bad english. So we bake a few minutes down and back, of course trees or any foliage to create shade would also introduce a haven for people to hide, so it's hot sun on hard pavement. Back to the cue, then we're sent into a waiting room (outdoor, no fans, but in the shade), it's only about 100 so far, it looks like the DMV line on a Saturday morning, pitiful as you wait for number 385 to come up now serving number 12... we meek up to the head of the line and get a nice surprise American Citizens? Yes, you don't need to wait, go around the corner there first door on the left. Wahooo! We're there, in the AC room with no line! We do our stuff, and they offer a notarized letter to Julie to help her get into school for only $30... yes back in the good ole usa for a minute, we're paying our driver $20 for the whole day. Can you help us with housing and medical recommendations? No sorry, we don't have any information on anything like that, we have everything we need for the state dept employees right here on the compound... you are on your own, check the internet!
So we are done and back on the pavement to collect the camera and find the driver, which happens before we are too lathered. Now to the Delhi train station, which as it's connected to the new, modern, air conditioned metro at Connaught Place I figure it will be a spectacular marvel like those in Paris... oh.. boy... was I wrong. The parking lot is gravel and dirt and dust, cars parked an inch apart but nobody has cars anyway. People everywhere, it's open air, no ac, not even any fans I saw. The 2nd class cue is like the racetrack betting windows before a big race... packed! Kuldeep leads us past the sleeping people laying around everywhere, dogs, what have you, up stairs to the Foreigners office, where we will get preferential treatment. It is air conditioned! No, no timetable, says the greeter at the door, now this place is a 50 year old office room with scoop type plastic chairs maybe purple brown or some such, yello dingy ceiling tiles and lights, and maybe a dozen people sitting around the perimeter at like folding tables and maybe a desk or two, a couple 20 year old computers I guess they actually print your ticket out, though the reservation form you fill out is a bad faded copy off the copy machine, and the clerks actually are using carbon paper to make receipt copies, by hand! No, no timetables, she goes on... they're going to be changing the schedule. OK, so when will you have schedule books, I ask? She shrugs... and points to a huge white board (that's like board, not whiteboard like we know, it's a board, painted white, with the trains out of Delhi painted on in black (express is painted in red), like with a paint by number paint brush. OH wow... but it works, we decipher the board and get a couple reservation sheets, and Kuldeep points out the boss, so I start over that way to ask "should I reserve on the internet" or not, because on the internet, from the USA it looks like it would work, but here..... I get intercepted by a trio of next in lines, 3 gents working together, and they combine to let me know yes I can book online, and maybe pay online, but maybe not I should fill out a form by hand and come in to the office to confirm my reservation and payment have been properly posted anyway! Ok I am so glad we came here... no way are we taking the train to Agra anytime soon, could you imagine a day trip starting at that train station, hours on the train, a hassle in the heat to get to see the Taj and Fort and Masjid, and then back to that train station to hassle in the heat and dust to get a tuk tuk home? uh uhhhh.
So next we go to a nice restaurant and invite Kuldeep to eat with us, spicy indian food authentic veg great cheap cricket on the tv all is great. Julie buys a soapstone carved elephant from the hawkers outside and I buy a couple post card books, we're on to get a sim card for my phone so to avoid 250 a minute ATT ripoff... but that doesn't go so well either the phones locked no they don't know how to unlock go see samsung or go online thank you bye!
Driving down to the Qtub Minar we stop at the Lodhi Gardens and tomb on the way, it's a beautiful spot but so ungodly hot you move as slow as possible from one shade to another too hot to take the path to the lilly or lotus pond, actually enveying the dogs laying in the puddle the workman is making with the watering hose to keep the trees from dying. Cold water vendor doing a good business we get 3 bottles a litre each and join the traffic heading out of town to the Qtub.
It is so hot there every single person has a cap, hat, hankerchief, washtowel, newspaper, or something on their head... ok not everyone, many indian people have thick black hair... they are doing OK. I love this place it is a fantastic ancient ruin from around 1200 or so it was started, the iron post still without rust the oldest around with this metal technology... anyway, it's tooooo hot for Julie they are restoring the whole mosque that was here, rebuilding it stone by stone, by hand, just the way it was built, tens of workers, hand tools, chiseling, mortaring, heat notwithstanding the work must go on!
And so almost ends our day. A stop for postaqe stamps we're back in the 30's again, the post office hidden back behind a wall off the road Kuldeep drops me off at the gate I walk up it's outdoor, the counter, no ac, a dark little room maybe 10x15... no one there just papers on a desk yellow light, yellowing peeling paint, oho! anyone in there... some guy comes out of the back room I must have woke him up... it takes a few minutes but I get my 20 stamps at 12 rupees each I only have a 500 he uses his desk calculator to figure 240, then the 500..... he only has 2 100's, so the other 60 I get 12 5 rupee stamps... thank you!
Now we are back at the room Kuldeep on his way home but I have to go to Lajpat Nagar to exchange 2 Kurtas I got that are too small for my growing belly... Julie doesn't want to go she'll nap so I put on the one Kurta long yellow with a brown headband and head out, this kurta is below my knees keeps getting wrapped up in my legs as I walk... the tuk tuk boys won't give me a ride give me a dirty look "no, uh!" whatever that mean, OK boy... I'll hoof it a while, up a few block to the main road here's a guy don't know what's up with the others... he get's me to Lajpat Nagar straightaway, Central Market, yes... the market is half dark and shops are closing up it's almost 9 by now and they close about 930 anyway but with the power out to most of the market... now the market goes on for like 10 blocks one way and about 3 the other, and it's not square, it's a big place of stalls and alleys and shops and tents... so it takes me a while to find my place I am sure they re going to be closed but finally I find them I have a good sweat...Kuldeep doesn't think they'll exchange 160 rupee kurtas but I say I have to try they won't fit, too tight. The see the old man, he must be the boss, and the young smily face fellow who sold me the 6 pieces Sunday night (they're closed on Monday). I just love this kurta, I say... smiling, you have great stuff.. yes, yes he nods, as I bring up the bag to the counter and take out the other 2... these 2, are too tight, I motion and say... need the next bigger size and I'm sure I'll love them just as much! Har a hay a yalla yalla tay he says to the boy.. one white, one green I think he says cause next thing you know there they are just perfect the smily guy has them out of the bag holding them up to my back, thees will be OK, he says... smiles all around and he looks at my pants, how you like? Oh I love them too, do you have a pair in navy blue? No no blue, but we have gray, dark brown, kakhi, white, yellow, green, as he tosses a half dozen pairs on the counter in front of me... no blue... one size fits all, he says... these are nice (the grey) nahh... but these greens will go great with this kurta... how much? 160... deal.
I find a cold bottle of soda and have to walk out to the road to get a tuk tuk, everyone is leaving the market now all the tuk tuks are full, rickshaws won't help I have too far to go. Finally get one and I'm home. Marian called to say the plumber has fixed the broken water line to the frig only $100... but a big hassle. Hmmmmmm, well, it's only money and can't be helped... and tomorrow, we'll spend about the same, to see the Taj Majal!
Slowing down a little
So two days this time... Monday we rode the Metro around... first had to get a tuk-tuk from here in East of Kailash, F block, up to the Central Secretariat, in central Delhi. The first 2 said "no"... abruptly and looked the other way like I had the plague. Try #3 he says no, and I say 150? Come-on man... 150 OK? and he gives the Delhi head wobble they do here... back and forth like no but a little up and down the same time, with a shake to the back seat, means "get in". We soon found out why, chock a block the whole way, Monday morning rush hour headed to the center of town in the Capital of the country, the day the minister of finance is to unveil the budget for next fiscal yeaer. So we inhaled some fumes (luckily most vehicles run on compressed natural gas, but still. 35 mins later we're dropped off at the Central Secretariat metro, which is the southern terminus of the yello line at this time(they're building out a whole heck of a lot they have to have ready for the commonwealth games next October, and if you saw the crews doing almost everything by hand you would bet they will never be ready).
We ride up the first stop or two in the nice, clean, air conditioned efficiency of new Japanese (Mitsubishi) rail cars, before we hit a crossing of two lines stop, and next thing you know it is packed like rush hour in most big cities, close enough to tell what scent your neighbors are wearing and feel their body heat. Naturally Julie was sitting and I gave mine to a women under the sign marked "reserved for women"... and read the sign out loud to the other few guys sitting there that didn't...
Long Hindi name is the stop for Delhi U, sorry I'll have to look it up later. We get a bike rickshaw, our first time, oh he's thrilled to take us to Delhi U for 20 rupees, to the office name I write out on the yelo index card, til he gets up the hill to the main gate and drops us off there, he had no gas left to go any further. We get directions, oh it's a long walk over that way. Walking walking, all of a sudden Julie kicks a pipe sticking out of the ground with her big toe, of course she's wearing open toe sandals no socks... ouch! Long way to go.. here's another rickshaw driver... I show the card, no problem! he says... and we are home free, finding out its a long downhill the other side now, life is good for the rickshaw walla, but when of course hills that go down must go back up, so by the time he pants up to the front of the office of management studies building he's gassed too... and arguing the 20 should be 30! Yeah Ok... I don't like it I think you were putting on a bit of a show but I'll give you the extra 10.
In the sweltering hallway (read Julies blog for more detail) probably a little less than an hour this time, I only had to go out for a cold bottle of water once. Saw Omprakash again, he's from up by Katmandu in Nepal, lots of Nepalese kids here in the Foreign Student registry, a few Chinese, one from Afghanistan says to Julie "so do you think you'll be visiting Afganistan any time soon, I could show you around"!
I am chatting with a young man from Iran, he's a Ph.D candidate in medical genetics.
Out of there and I tell Julie I'd rather take Tuk-tuks, these rickshaw drivers are a hassle. But the tuk-tuks turn up their nose at a fare to the metro, it's too close, so father time comes along the oldest rickshaw walla we've seen yet, bet steady he is, standing the whole time to the metro in 100+ heat, so I figure he deserves an extra 10 more than the last guy and he gives a big smile for that!
We metro down to Civil lines, where we are to look at a share apartment, long and short of that it's a flat w a shared kitchen/dining room w a tv in it, 2 bedrooms with 2 cot like beds in each, and an add-on porch room with 2 more cots in it! 6 girls will share this for $110 a month each, meal plan extra. Mrs Gupta, the houseowner has strict rules, in by 8, no boys upstairs, no smoking, you must call if you will be late. Real nice terrace and balcony, too, but no deal, yeah, we'll be thinking about it for a few days, yeah, by next Monday for sure we'll let you know.
Tuk-Tuk comes by and swiftly we're back on the metro, down a couple stops to the Chandni Chowk, maybe lunch will perk us up. Hawkers in your face maybe 10 or 15 a minute, no I don't need shoes, eat first! Go to Haldirams, he says, the exact place we're looking for. After lunch we shop a while and Julie tells my embarrasing hat story in detail followmetodelhi.wordpress.com, then I learn about the geography of the chowk when you get way down in there, where the walls are about 4 feet apart, goats, people sleeping, people living on dirt, cooking on dirt, sleeping on dirt, there are dead ends... and you have to walk all the way back out the same way, once you find someone who speaks english to tell you that and point the way. Luckily when we get to where the alley is about 6 feet wide there's a rickshaw walla, hallelujah brother, how much you want to get us to the Chandni Chowk Metro stop! He's cooking along past the meat butchers (lots of flies there), goats laying around everywhere, guys smoking there little beedies, and of course a stall every 6 or 7 feet on each side of the alley, when here comes some guys walking motioning "get over, get over" and behind them a group of muslim men carrying a platform for a funeral, yes a body on there under the fabric, a crowd of 15 people and 3 or 4 rickshaws complete the procession, we're not knowing how to act with this at all, very awkward you don't know to look, make eye contact, or if it's disrespectful to have your head down or look away? So many strange new things in Delhi.
We get to the metro, and down to Rajiv Chowk again at Connaught Place and Center Park, ground zero of Delhi. At the metro station there's a Nirula's, modern ice cream and food joint blaring 1980's music like spice girls and such, Julie loves it, we have a butterscotch ice cream and coke and cool off, then go find the bookstore and get a new guide book, while Julie finds the shoulder bag she's been looking for at the stall next door. That done, heck w the metro let's get a tuk-tuk back to East of Kailash... which we negotiate a 120 fare and a little long, gritty, fume filled ride back through rush hour to the south part of town, but that pretty well ends our day. We walk down to the modern food place w a Subway, Pino's Pizza, and Food city or something like that all in one and Julie eats, I have a large orange soda and pineapple cake. We get back to the room my feet are on fire oh one last thing as we walk the couple blocks back, it's cooled down to about 102 by now after the sun is going down, so I stop in the chemist downstairs to see what they have. 5 guys work in there (they have so many people everywhere, there were 4 people helping when we recharged our metro cards) and 1 of them spoke enough english to understand I want I SO PROPYL ALCOHOL! Huh... I've been walking all day, my feet are on fire, I pantomime, you must have something, don't you have rubbing alcohol!? Huh.... what? Then finally one guy to the others, he needs something to wash his feet. OH! right over here... and he pulls out a bottle of........ Isopropyl Alcohol... I SO PROPYL ALCOHOL... I read slowly as I take the bottle from him, yes... that's a great idea, how much? It was blue in color and an absolute joy following the cold shower.
We ride up the first stop or two in the nice, clean, air conditioned efficiency of new Japanese (Mitsubishi) rail cars, before we hit a crossing of two lines stop, and next thing you know it is packed like rush hour in most big cities, close enough to tell what scent your neighbors are wearing and feel their body heat. Naturally Julie was sitting and I gave mine to a women under the sign marked "reserved for women"... and read the sign out loud to the other few guys sitting there that didn't...
Long Hindi name is the stop for Delhi U, sorry I'll have to look it up later. We get a bike rickshaw, our first time, oh he's thrilled to take us to Delhi U for 20 rupees, to the office name I write out on the yelo index card, til he gets up the hill to the main gate and drops us off there, he had no gas left to go any further. We get directions, oh it's a long walk over that way. Walking walking, all of a sudden Julie kicks a pipe sticking out of the ground with her big toe, of course she's wearing open toe sandals no socks... ouch! Long way to go.. here's another rickshaw driver... I show the card, no problem! he says... and we are home free, finding out its a long downhill the other side now, life is good for the rickshaw walla, but when of course hills that go down must go back up, so by the time he pants up to the front of the office of management studies building he's gassed too... and arguing the 20 should be 30! Yeah Ok... I don't like it I think you were putting on a bit of a show but I'll give you the extra 10.
In the sweltering hallway (read Julies blog for more detail) probably a little less than an hour this time, I only had to go out for a cold bottle of water once. Saw Omprakash again, he's from up by Katmandu in Nepal, lots of Nepalese kids here in the Foreign Student registry, a few Chinese, one from Afghanistan says to Julie "so do you think you'll be visiting Afganistan any time soon, I could show you around"!
I am chatting with a young man from Iran, he's a Ph.D candidate in medical genetics.
Out of there and I tell Julie I'd rather take Tuk-tuks, these rickshaw drivers are a hassle. But the tuk-tuks turn up their nose at a fare to the metro, it's too close, so father time comes along the oldest rickshaw walla we've seen yet, bet steady he is, standing the whole time to the metro in 100+ heat, so I figure he deserves an extra 10 more than the last guy and he gives a big smile for that!
We metro down to Civil lines, where we are to look at a share apartment, long and short of that it's a flat w a shared kitchen/dining room w a tv in it, 2 bedrooms with 2 cot like beds in each, and an add-on porch room with 2 more cots in it! 6 girls will share this for $110 a month each, meal plan extra. Mrs Gupta, the houseowner has strict rules, in by 8, no boys upstairs, no smoking, you must call if you will be late. Real nice terrace and balcony, too, but no deal, yeah, we'll be thinking about it for a few days, yeah, by next Monday for sure we'll let you know.
Tuk-Tuk comes by and swiftly we're back on the metro, down a couple stops to the Chandni Chowk, maybe lunch will perk us up. Hawkers in your face maybe 10 or 15 a minute, no I don't need shoes, eat first! Go to Haldirams, he says, the exact place we're looking for. After lunch we shop a while and Julie tells my embarrasing hat story in detail followmetodelhi.wordpress.com, then I learn about the geography of the chowk when you get way down in there, where the walls are about 4 feet apart, goats, people sleeping, people living on dirt, cooking on dirt, sleeping on dirt, there are dead ends... and you have to walk all the way back out the same way, once you find someone who speaks english to tell you that and point the way. Luckily when we get to where the alley is about 6 feet wide there's a rickshaw walla, hallelujah brother, how much you want to get us to the Chandni Chowk Metro stop! He's cooking along past the meat butchers (lots of flies there), goats laying around everywhere, guys smoking there little beedies, and of course a stall every 6 or 7 feet on each side of the alley, when here comes some guys walking motioning "get over, get over" and behind them a group of muslim men carrying a platform for a funeral, yes a body on there under the fabric, a crowd of 15 people and 3 or 4 rickshaws complete the procession, we're not knowing how to act with this at all, very awkward you don't know to look, make eye contact, or if it's disrespectful to have your head down or look away? So many strange new things in Delhi.
We get to the metro, and down to Rajiv Chowk again at Connaught Place and Center Park, ground zero of Delhi. At the metro station there's a Nirula's, modern ice cream and food joint blaring 1980's music like spice girls and such, Julie loves it, we have a butterscotch ice cream and coke and cool off, then go find the bookstore and get a new guide book, while Julie finds the shoulder bag she's been looking for at the stall next door. That done, heck w the metro let's get a tuk-tuk back to East of Kailash... which we negotiate a 120 fare and a little long, gritty, fume filled ride back through rush hour to the south part of town, but that pretty well ends our day. We walk down to the modern food place w a Subway, Pino's Pizza, and Food city or something like that all in one and Julie eats, I have a large orange soda and pineapple cake. We get back to the room my feet are on fire oh one last thing as we walk the couple blocks back, it's cooled down to about 102 by now after the sun is going down, so I stop in the chemist downstairs to see what they have. 5 guys work in there (they have so many people everywhere, there were 4 people helping when we recharged our metro cards) and 1 of them spoke enough english to understand I want I SO PROPYL ALCOHOL! Huh... I've been walking all day, my feet are on fire, I pantomime, you must have something, don't you have rubbing alcohol!? Huh.... what? Then finally one guy to the others, he needs something to wash his feet. OH! right over here... and he pulls out a bottle of........ Isopropyl Alcohol... I SO PROPYL ALCOHOL... I read slowly as I take the bottle from him, yes... that's a great idea, how much? It was blue in color and an absolute joy following the cold shower.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Still no Delhi belly
We keep expecting something to happen but so far so good... Kuldeep our driver offered us chai from a street vendor yesterday and we took it, it was great! Then he said try some red beans and rice we did and it was great too! Then we ate at a restaurant in the Chandni Chowk... iced drinks... all good!
We saw monuments and tombs yesterday, the Lotus Temple of the Bahai faith, Humayuns Tomb including Isah Khan tomb and an old mosque, we drove by the red fort but didn't go up to it too hot by then, or the Jamah Masjid it will be there for a while... the Gandhi museum was uplifting and you could really feel how much he is revered and loved by so many (though there are detractors too due to the separation he grudgingly gave in to)... anyway, a thought provoking and inspiring place. What a huge difference a principled person can make if they devote themselves to it.
Today Sunday the 5th Julie hung out and worked on blogs while I went up and bummed around central Delhi, connaught place was not my cup of tea, though the metro ride up to model town, the walk back to the next metro stop, and ride back to central secretariat was cool and relaxing... people taking great pride in having a shiny new metro to ride, and it's below ground so it's cool!
After a cool shower (one of the joys of being in Delhi in this heat) and a little nap we took a tuk-tuk up to the Habitat Centre and International Center, to find there were 2 plays tonight, one sold out the other not starting for a few hours. We agreed to go back another time, but stopped in for dinner at their eating emporium which was great for veg food of all types, highlighted by fresh squeezed lime or watermelon juice, and butterscotch ice cream for dessert!
Another tuk-tuk ride took us to Lajpat Nagar market, we weren't sure it would be open on a Sunday night but it happens to be the biggest day of the week! It was jam packed bumper to bumper down the main street all night, and the side avenues and market blocks were shoulder to shoulder much of the way. We discovered mushki's (I hope i've remembered it right)... which are like snow cones, but the guy has a block of ice he hand shaves into your cup, then it's pressed in and a stick put in, your choice of sauce, and there you are! Icy sweet and cooling for 15 cents!
Julie picked up 3 more salwars, a pair of camel hide shoes, a henna design on her left hand and arm, and I picked up my first kurta and pyjama outfit, and a couple other light cotton pants and 2 more long shirts, but they're a little tight I'll have to go back when they reopen Tues and haggle some more... also got 12 large handkerchiefs which will serve as head covers for me.
We had a great time haggling over prices and jostling with the crowd... as it's been most of our time here we see tens of thousands a day but all today only 3 "white like us" people...but we haven't felt out of place at all, the people are so respectful and well mannered, wish it was like this at home!
We saw monuments and tombs yesterday, the Lotus Temple of the Bahai faith, Humayuns Tomb including Isah Khan tomb and an old mosque, we drove by the red fort but didn't go up to it too hot by then, or the Jamah Masjid it will be there for a while... the Gandhi museum was uplifting and you could really feel how much he is revered and loved by so many (though there are detractors too due to the separation he grudgingly gave in to)... anyway, a thought provoking and inspiring place. What a huge difference a principled person can make if they devote themselves to it.
Today Sunday the 5th Julie hung out and worked on blogs while I went up and bummed around central Delhi, connaught place was not my cup of tea, though the metro ride up to model town, the walk back to the next metro stop, and ride back to central secretariat was cool and relaxing... people taking great pride in having a shiny new metro to ride, and it's below ground so it's cool!
After a cool shower (one of the joys of being in Delhi in this heat) and a little nap we took a tuk-tuk up to the Habitat Centre and International Center, to find there were 2 plays tonight, one sold out the other not starting for a few hours. We agreed to go back another time, but stopped in for dinner at their eating emporium which was great for veg food of all types, highlighted by fresh squeezed lime or watermelon juice, and butterscotch ice cream for dessert!
Another tuk-tuk ride took us to Lajpat Nagar market, we weren't sure it would be open on a Sunday night but it happens to be the biggest day of the week! It was jam packed bumper to bumper down the main street all night, and the side avenues and market blocks were shoulder to shoulder much of the way. We discovered mushki's (I hope i've remembered it right)... which are like snow cones, but the guy has a block of ice he hand shaves into your cup, then it's pressed in and a stick put in, your choice of sauce, and there you are! Icy sweet and cooling for 15 cents!
Julie picked up 3 more salwars, a pair of camel hide shoes, a henna design on her left hand and arm, and I picked up my first kurta and pyjama outfit, and a couple other light cotton pants and 2 more long shirts, but they're a little tight I'll have to go back when they reopen Tues and haggle some more... also got 12 large handkerchiefs which will serve as head covers for me.
We had a great time haggling over prices and jostling with the crowd... as it's been most of our time here we see tens of thousands a day but all today only 3 "white like us" people...but we haven't felt out of place at all, the people are so respectful and well mannered, wish it was like this at home!
Friday, July 3, 2009
2nd day in Delhi
We are not up so early today, I'm up at 7:30 and Julie 8:15, breakfast is 8:30. We go down, by now everyone knows we are leaving after breakfast so it is a little odd... but we sit down to a wonderful breakfast of granola, milk, juice, fresh cut papaya, bananas, eggs, toast, some type of paan fried bread, coffee or tea, a dish called boha? rice, vermicelli, greenpeas, and the fried potatoes with spices. Fortunately a couple from Kazakstan comes in and we have conversation over breakfast and it eases the situation. They are up from her training for NCSB bank customer service training in Hyderabad, and are leaving on a 5 night tour of the Golden Triangle, Agra, Jaipur, and Rajasthan. We talk about the weather it is so cold there, and the horsemeat is so good you would love it if you tried! The man Iliya scoffs at the small tea cup, don't you have a bigger cup!?, he asks (she translates)... the cookman brings another glass... no, get more hot water! he says, and he takes a bowl and pours his tea into it, soon he has the bowl full of hot water with just the one tea bag but he is happy as he drinks it down... different people everywhere, eh? We finish up and get packed, I settle the bill (there was no extra charge for early cancellation discussed), and they hand us a thank you gift of 4 embroidered cushion covers in a color that will match perfectly with the new slip cover my wife has bought for the love seat. Then precisely at 10:00 a car is out front and 2 guys are trying to stuff our bags, their tools and cooler into the back of the car. We arrive in East Kailash about 30 mins later, and are immediately welcomed upstair into a nice B&B, maybe a little bit nicer than the one we were in, but not in a home, this is like a hotel. There were 3 men to take care of us and our bags, we could not touch anything. We were met by the owner, Mr Sial, and he advised us Desraj the manager was onsite 24x7 and would take care of anything we need.
The leave and we start to settle in a little, but there is only one bed in the room... so I go out to talk to Desraj about this, we prefer 2 beds, as we are father and daughter... no problem! Tea bags! Yes we have tea bags.... no, no two beds, two beds, we need a room with two beds! ... Finally with the help of the 2 other men we figure out "separate beds".... and they dash in to strip the covers and under the bedding and pads discover the bed is 2 mattresses pushed together, and in a short short we have 2 separate beds made up separated by a foot.
Next we need a sim card for the phone, and a power adapter to plug in the laptop. No problem! Simran Sial has shown up now, the owners son, and he has been educated in the states, so he understands perfectly and sets us up. Desraj takes us next door to the airtel office, where we find we have to fill out the forms, which include a passport size photo? Don't you have one? I turn the application over to Julie, she needs the sim card, and she has a picture... we take it back... but, didn't realize we have to have a sponsor sign, someone who knows and vouches for us, with a permanent address.. so Simran takes care of this for us, we round up the photo, and head back, to find out the phone won't unlock, she has to purchase a new phone now too. Anyway, after 1.5 hours we exit with a new phone and account in Julies name, with a pre-paid sim card and her choice of Delhi phone number, which will receive calls from the USA at no cost.
Simran has provided an adapter for the laptop, so we are good to go onto our other 2 ojectives for the day, see Lady Sri Ram College for women (a short walk up the road), and Miranda College for Women at Delhi U (we are about 15 kms away, on the south side of town and Delhi U is way north). We first have lunch at a new 3 store fast food shop on the way and have a delicious wheat flour pizza with all veg toppings, then to Lady Sri Ram. You may want to read Julies blog followmetodelhi.wordpress.com for more details and her take, mine is that Lady Sri Ram was quite spartan and reform school looking, and the beaurocracy is stifling. No you cannot go down that corridor, we are informed by one of the wardens, so we make our way to the dorms and no we can't see them... why not? can't we see a room? About this time an older gentleman, apparently very proud of his status showed up... young lady... he explained.... do you have your admission certificate? First, you must have your certificate of admission to the university... then, you may apply for admission to the college, and then, IF you are admitted, you may apply to stay in the student housing. "So are you saying we will not be allowed to even look at a room? I ask? Yes we understand the process this, then that, then the other must happen, we just want to see a room. Oh, well, then, if that's it the, yes, and he motions to the 3 lackeys... yes show them a room then. And we see it, ... appalling is the best description I can offer. No fan, No ac, 2 wood plank beds, 2 small desks, maybe a shelf. white walls. Nothing else. We push down to see the library on the way out, lo and behold it's the corridor we cannot go down... we did get to see it and appalling may be a little strong, but not too. We stop for a cool soda in the cafe, and yes there are stray cats lounging around looking for food.
We come out and get a tuk-tuk(auto rickshaw) all the way across town, a sensory overload adventure of some 40 minutes in the crazy traffic... 3 lanes clearly marked... 5 streams of traffic, moving like tall grass in the breeze, together, coming close but never touching. Nonnstop people on the roadsides, sleeping on the ground, cooking, living under tarps, walking, bicycling, waiting for buses, peeing, buses packed full, cars, cycles, tuk-tuks, trucks, we took some video hope to post in a day or two.
We find Miranda college and have an adventure getting the run around, looking for the dorms we are sent into a gate with apartments so stark, down and out, and scary looking Julies first words are "Nooo waaaaaay"! this cannot be it! Luckily it wasn't, and when we got to the guard shack and got in by saying we needed to see the warden, got into the office and made use of Ashoks card, he sent us to see the person in charge and we want to see a dorm... Have you your certificate of admission to the university? we go through this again, but eventually see the rooms, which while not the waldorf, are better than lady sri ram by a country mile. We then try to the the principal, get sent to an office to see a mr Agrawal, who asks, have you your certificate of admission to the university? And lets us know nothing can be done until that threshold has been surpassed. Thank you and good day, we are out of there, but need water by now. We go up the wrong street past a stinking drain and bunches of dirty filthy food stalls and motorcycle/bicycle repairs, all sorts, but find our water, 13 rupies for a litre bottle of cold nestle. Flag down a tuk-tuk, show the card of our hotel, and haggle the rate, the 3rd driver agrees and gets us to our room. After a 3 hour name we have an hour to shop in the market at Lajpat Nagar, where Julie gets 4 things and I get my haggling skills and price ranges down... steel will... not buying, but came close to getting some dress shirts 3-9 dollars and pants 10-20... handkerchiefs by the dozen first price 150, down to 90 by the time of my last no... think I can get 3 dozen for 200 tomorrow, if not better.
We're back for more veg pizza though Julie opts for veg roll and choc pie/cake delicacy... then late to the room and up til 2:00 blogging and planning our day tomorrow. We ordered a driver for a Delhi Blast tour... 7-8 hours seeing some of the monuments and sights and we'll take his shopping to the famous Chandni Chowk, the old market of Delhi... he will help us get good prices!
The leave and we start to settle in a little, but there is only one bed in the room... so I go out to talk to Desraj about this, we prefer 2 beds, as we are father and daughter... no problem! Tea bags! Yes we have tea bags.... no, no two beds, two beds, we need a room with two beds! ... Finally with the help of the 2 other men we figure out "separate beds".... and they dash in to strip the covers and under the bedding and pads discover the bed is 2 mattresses pushed together, and in a short short we have 2 separate beds made up separated by a foot.
Next we need a sim card for the phone, and a power adapter to plug in the laptop. No problem! Simran Sial has shown up now, the owners son, and he has been educated in the states, so he understands perfectly and sets us up. Desraj takes us next door to the airtel office, where we find we have to fill out the forms, which include a passport size photo? Don't you have one? I turn the application over to Julie, she needs the sim card, and she has a picture... we take it back... but, didn't realize we have to have a sponsor sign, someone who knows and vouches for us, with a permanent address.. so Simran takes care of this for us, we round up the photo, and head back, to find out the phone won't unlock, she has to purchase a new phone now too. Anyway, after 1.5 hours we exit with a new phone and account in Julies name, with a pre-paid sim card and her choice of Delhi phone number, which will receive calls from the USA at no cost.
Simran has provided an adapter for the laptop, so we are good to go onto our other 2 ojectives for the day, see Lady Sri Ram College for women (a short walk up the road), and Miranda College for Women at Delhi U (we are about 15 kms away, on the south side of town and Delhi U is way north). We first have lunch at a new 3 store fast food shop on the way and have a delicious wheat flour pizza with all veg toppings, then to Lady Sri Ram. You may want to read Julies blog followmetodelhi.wordpress.com for more details and her take, mine is that Lady Sri Ram was quite spartan and reform school looking, and the beaurocracy is stifling. No you cannot go down that corridor, we are informed by one of the wardens, so we make our way to the dorms and no we can't see them... why not? can't we see a room? About this time an older gentleman, apparently very proud of his status showed up... young lady... he explained.... do you have your admission certificate? First, you must have your certificate of admission to the university... then, you may apply for admission to the college, and then, IF you are admitted, you may apply to stay in the student housing. "So are you saying we will not be allowed to even look at a room? I ask? Yes we understand the process this, then that, then the other must happen, we just want to see a room. Oh, well, then, if that's it the, yes, and he motions to the 3 lackeys... yes show them a room then. And we see it, ... appalling is the best description I can offer. No fan, No ac, 2 wood plank beds, 2 small desks, maybe a shelf. white walls. Nothing else. We push down to see the library on the way out, lo and behold it's the corridor we cannot go down... we did get to see it and appalling may be a little strong, but not too. We stop for a cool soda in the cafe, and yes there are stray cats lounging around looking for food.
We come out and get a tuk-tuk(auto rickshaw) all the way across town, a sensory overload adventure of some 40 minutes in the crazy traffic... 3 lanes clearly marked... 5 streams of traffic, moving like tall grass in the breeze, together, coming close but never touching. Nonnstop people on the roadsides, sleeping on the ground, cooking, living under tarps, walking, bicycling, waiting for buses, peeing, buses packed full, cars, cycles, tuk-tuks, trucks, we took some video hope to post in a day or two.
We find Miranda college and have an adventure getting the run around, looking for the dorms we are sent into a gate with apartments so stark, down and out, and scary looking Julies first words are "Nooo waaaaaay"! this cannot be it! Luckily it wasn't, and when we got to the guard shack and got in by saying we needed to see the warden, got into the office and made use of Ashoks card, he sent us to see the person in charge and we want to see a dorm... Have you your certificate of admission to the university? we go through this again, but eventually see the rooms, which while not the waldorf, are better than lady sri ram by a country mile. We then try to the the principal, get sent to an office to see a mr Agrawal, who asks, have you your certificate of admission to the university? And lets us know nothing can be done until that threshold has been surpassed. Thank you and good day, we are out of there, but need water by now. We go up the wrong street past a stinking drain and bunches of dirty filthy food stalls and motorcycle/bicycle repairs, all sorts, but find our water, 13 rupies for a litre bottle of cold nestle. Flag down a tuk-tuk, show the card of our hotel, and haggle the rate, the 3rd driver agrees and gets us to our room. After a 3 hour name we have an hour to shop in the market at Lajpat Nagar, where Julie gets 4 things and I get my haggling skills and price ranges down... steel will... not buying, but came close to getting some dress shirts 3-9 dollars and pants 10-20... handkerchiefs by the dozen first price 150, down to 90 by the time of my last no... think I can get 3 dozen for 200 tomorrow, if not better.
We're back for more veg pizza though Julie opts for veg roll and choc pie/cake delicacy... then late to the room and up til 2:00 blogging and planning our day tomorrow. We ordered a driver for a Delhi Blast tour... 7-8 hours seeing some of the monuments and sights and we'll take his shopping to the famous Chandni Chowk, the old market of Delhi... he will help us get good prices!
First day in Delhi
Yesterday we woke early due to messed up body clocks we were up at 5:00a Delhi time, after tea and breakfast, we hired a driver for the day and he took us up to Delhi U, where Julie had to turn in her admission papers. Now we find out about the famous Indian beaurocracy! You don't just turn in your papers, first, you work your way up through the line of oh 25 or other students waiting there, to put your name on the list, then you wait. About an hour and a half, a good time to make friends and become acquainted with the other foreign students in line, although, in the 90 plus heat, without ac of course, and a little fan over by the guard, it was quite sweltering in the hallway everyone is dripping sweat but you cannot leave for what if they call your name? Finally they do, and they take her papers. So these must now go to the admission council, and they will be in contact with you. Uh, in a day, 2 days, a week? How long might it be? Shrug... who knows?! They will be in contact with you by email, or mail.
Next we make contact with Julies Rotary host Ashok, yes we should come by his office in Karol Bagh, the driver gets instructions on the phone in Hindi and off we start, around India gate, and by now since it's almost 2:00pm, we stop for lunch. Nice good if very spicy veg food, about $13 total for both. Continuing on to Ashoks office, which is upstairs in a very busy market area, his "peon" comes down to meet our car, we sit until a guy taps on the car, then we follow. We're led down the muddy alley, watch a minivan back into a motorcycle and knock it back into the truck parked behind it in the alley, and upstairs in an open stairway past business of sorts you cannot figure, with people just sitting waiting. At the 2nd fl we're led through an office of 5 or 6 guys in tiny cubicles, no ac of course, working with papers, phones, and maybe a computer or two... definitely looks like 1960's office, cramped, papers everywhere. In Ashoks office, which is air conditioned, the peon brings in glasses of cool water, "it's good" Ashok assures us as we look at each other... Delhi water is not drinkable for westerners, you will get bad "Delhi Belly" diarea for days if you do... but I digress... Ashok asks what is going on with Julies admittance to the U, and shakes his head knowingly as we describe the ordeal. Show me your papers, he says... Julie shows him what she didn't give to admissions. Always keep at least 2 copies with you of all papers at all times, he says, and he copies them on a little desktop fax/copier. He looks them over carefully, then tells us we must go back and ask to see the proctor of a particular college, and say that he has sent us. (This will have to be tomorrow, it's nearly 4:00 by now). Then about where are you staying? I describe the B&B I found after months of search and correspondence, and he says, you'll have to move, I know someone who owns a B&B in a better place, and he get's on the phone, what are you paying? I tell him and the next thing he is hanging up and it is all arranged, we must tell our host, where we've been for 1 night, we're checking out in the morning, not staying the 8 nights I have booked. A car will come for us at 10:00 am in the morning to take us where we don't know. The peon brings green tea and we have a cup and talk more about Julies school and living options, then his wife arrives and after a short visit it's time to leave. They walk us out and we find our driver and head back to the B&B.
Nap time 5-7, before dinner at 8:00... how was your day? asked our host... so I tell her we are needing to move out in the morning it was quite awkward. After naps, we go for dinner and explain what we can to them, dinner was fabulous by the way, veg dal, paan, jasmine rice, eggplant, and some things we didn't know but were delicious! We talked a lot about the american economy, politics, and the effects of the financial crisis on "average" americans, then retire to pack for our morning departure. By now it's close to 11:00 and we have no trouble getting to sleep quickly.
Next we make contact with Julies Rotary host Ashok, yes we should come by his office in Karol Bagh, the driver gets instructions on the phone in Hindi and off we start, around India gate, and by now since it's almost 2:00pm, we stop for lunch. Nice good if very spicy veg food, about $13 total for both. Continuing on to Ashoks office, which is upstairs in a very busy market area, his "peon" comes down to meet our car, we sit until a guy taps on the car, then we follow. We're led down the muddy alley, watch a minivan back into a motorcycle and knock it back into the truck parked behind it in the alley, and upstairs in an open stairway past business of sorts you cannot figure, with people just sitting waiting. At the 2nd fl we're led through an office of 5 or 6 guys in tiny cubicles, no ac of course, working with papers, phones, and maybe a computer or two... definitely looks like 1960's office, cramped, papers everywhere. In Ashoks office, which is air conditioned, the peon brings in glasses of cool water, "it's good" Ashok assures us as we look at each other... Delhi water is not drinkable for westerners, you will get bad "Delhi Belly" diarea for days if you do... but I digress... Ashok asks what is going on with Julies admittance to the U, and shakes his head knowingly as we describe the ordeal. Show me your papers, he says... Julie shows him what she didn't give to admissions. Always keep at least 2 copies with you of all papers at all times, he says, and he copies them on a little desktop fax/copier. He looks them over carefully, then tells us we must go back and ask to see the proctor of a particular college, and say that he has sent us. (This will have to be tomorrow, it's nearly 4:00 by now). Then about where are you staying? I describe the B&B I found after months of search and correspondence, and he says, you'll have to move, I know someone who owns a B&B in a better place, and he get's on the phone, what are you paying? I tell him and the next thing he is hanging up and it is all arranged, we must tell our host, where we've been for 1 night, we're checking out in the morning, not staying the 8 nights I have booked. A car will come for us at 10:00 am in the morning to take us where we don't know. The peon brings green tea and we have a cup and talk more about Julies school and living options, then his wife arrives and after a short visit it's time to leave. They walk us out and we find our driver and head back to the B&B.
Nap time 5-7, before dinner at 8:00... how was your day? asked our host... so I tell her we are needing to move out in the morning it was quite awkward. After naps, we go for dinner and explain what we can to them, dinner was fabulous by the way, veg dal, paan, jasmine rice, eggplant, and some things we didn't know but were delicious! We talked a lot about the american economy, politics, and the effects of the financial crisis on "average" americans, then retire to pack for our morning departure. By now it's close to 11:00 and we have no trouble getting to sleep quickly.
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