We're on a turbo prop plane back to Delhi on Jet Airways, it's pretty uneventful once we clear security at Udaipur. A beautiful brand spanking new airport, clean as a whistle, 3 gates, only 2 flights happening anytime soon, ours to Delhi at 6:20 and one to Mumbai at 7:40. Security is extremely tight.. you drive up to a police checkpoint (they give Arunesh a good long lecture for rolling the police stop sign... yes sir, yes sir, I know... sorry sir... then there are two more checking passports and tickets to get into the airport.
When you check in, every bag gets a new bag tag, so they can rubber stamp it when you go through security. The first security guys check your id, ticket, and that you have a bag tag, then through the scanners and metal detectors, a thorough pat down, then they go through your bags and stamp stamp, your boarding pass is stamped twice. We wait to go out and board the plane (it's a small airport the airplane is parked on the tarmac you just walk out there and up the steps into the plane). But not so fast... your boarding pass is checked and you walk outside, another security checkpoint, this will make 3... and this one is the most thorough, inside your bag, body frisk, metal detector, and a screened area where women get a more thorough body frisk by a women officer... only then do you get the final rubber stamp on your bag tag. Monica is travelling with us and she questions the officers about why they are taking so long to look through Julie's bag.. and the next thing you know there are 4 officers in the conversation as they start boarding the plane! Finally the situation mellows out and we board. They pass out cool Limca to drink, the salty lime drink, then we are airborne. One thing about india i like, when it comes time to food, the options are always "veg or non-veg"? And the veg meal... now get this, comes with real silverware, including a metal knife! We're getting our bags checked for things like paper clips and ink pens then they give us knifes and forks on the plane! Crazy, after dinner read for a while we cruise at 21,000 feet for 1:20 and we are in Delhi. No security to get out with your bags, though the machine gun guys are everywhere... and there's Kuldeep waiting on the rail waving us over. We drop off Monica and arrange for Kuldeep to drive us all day Tuesday, when we will again attempt to get the elusive "Admission Certificate".
We're back in our old room at F4 East of Kailash by 10:00, and we laugh when we try to use the lift and for whatever reason it doesn't work and we hump the bags up to the 3rd (they call it 2nd) floor. While the guys put our bags back in the room and change the single bed into two doubles again we head down to fast food city for a pineapple cake and orange soda, and walk down to see the around the clock spectacle
of the elevated Metro section collapse... people galore watching, 6 cranes trying to pick up the 4 cranes that went down trying to lift up the concrete and steel girder that went down due to the cracked concrete cantilever.
Tuesday 14th: Breakfast at 8:00, 8:30 Kuldeep picks us up and we're across town to Delhi U and the foreign student registry office by 9:15, except, they don't open until 10:15 and probably won't see anyone til 11:00. We debate and Julie decides to wait it out, she was supposed to get an email today or yesterday but no nothing yet. While she waits I send Kuldeep for a couple bottles of water and wait outside, noticing through the iron fence the sewer is backed up and filling the courtyard to the left of the building with a bad smelling liquid. Kuldeep comes back and I run the water up to Julie, she's ready to leave it's so frustrating... the office workers start trickling in between 9:30 and 10:00, there is already a line of kids waiting, Julie and a Chinese fellow at the front. This is going to take a while so I have Kuldeep take me to look for some sandals but the shops are not open yet so we come back and I figure I'll go wait with Julie, as I get to the stairs Julie calls she needs a copy of her passport and visa, so I go back down the stairs and in the wall across the road from the Office there is a hole in the wall I see a sign copy? Yes, believe it or not... 1 rupee for each then I'm back with Julie... and we wait...
it's hot in the hallway, this is so exasperating! We first applied July 1, it's now July 14th, this is our fourth trip to this particular office... all we hear is "first you must obtain the certificate of admission, before you can apply to the college, or sign up for courses, or buy books, or apply to a hostel" 2 days still school starts. Finally, a little after 11 Julie comes out with a paper in her hand...
Nooooooo, it's not the certificate of admission, but it's a letter stating she will be admitted once she meets the following 3 conditions, among which are a student visa, which you can't get until you've been admitted... but this letter should help get that from the US Embassy... and the letter has a rubber stamp! even though it's dated July 10 they didn't email us or lett us know... so Kuldeep navigates the Delhi traffic from north Delhi to southwest Delhi... 35 mins of so, to the American embassy, we go through security yes we are american citizens so get the short line and the clerk happily gives us a sheet with the 2 addresses we need to go to, no they do not do anything with visas here... so we are off to the India Foreign Registry R something office, FRRO for short, where we enter a packed room of foreigners speaking all sort of languages and jostle up to the reception counter where we are told we first have to go to the other office and get a brown envelope with a stamp on in, before we can come back to this one and apply for the student visa. Unfortunately the other office closes at 12:30 and it's now 1:15, so we will have to go there tomorrow morning, then back to the FRRO (they are in the same area of Delhi, but not close together), then we will have maybe the right papers to take back to the University to get the Admission certificate. Remember, school starts Thursday! So my plans to have Julie in housing and all set for the first day of school so I could make my journey to Bodh Gaya and Patna and Kerala... may not be happening, the letters also tell her she may have to go to her home country to get her student visa processed?! And also to plan on making her own living arrangements changes are negligible she will be able to get into on-campus hostels.
We have Kuldeep drive us out to "Gurgaon" the new city, where Microsoft and Oracle and all the american companies are building the new office buildings and shopping malls and bowling alleys and liquor stores and stand here drink beer on the side of the road shops... we drive about 1/2 of it and we've seen enough, this place is sick get us out of here... we head to Lajpat Nagar, one of the best market area's in town, and at Sai Sarovar I have a great coconut rice dish with Panatte and Raisa's, with the chutney and spicy and cool sauces and a lime soda... great lunch then we shop and Julie gets shoes and earrings and a shirt and i finally find a decent pair of sandals that fit me in a style i can live with... genuine camel hide... 595 he says, ha ha ha, come on... do I look that stupid?... he misses the joke, after a few back and forths we settle at 400 i won't go a penny higher i start to put on my socks and old shoes and get up to leave and OK OK we're done and they're in the bag.
We're back to our room after an ice cream stop Kuldeep sees a vendor sleeping on his pushcart so we wake him up and he sleepily gives us two butterscotch cones (kindof like a nutty buddy), collects the 32 and goes back to sleep on top his cart. Monica is expecting us for dinner at 7:30 she's at D20 Pam Posh Place just time for a nap and we'll have more great adventure tomorrow. Kuldeep is driving someone to Agra to see the Taj so Raj will be driving us tomorrow, 9:00 pickup and we go insearch of the stamped envelope, student visa application, and admission certificate!
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Monday, July 13, 2009
Udaipur - Rajasthan
Udaipur July 11 & 12
Udaipur is a really cool place! Yesterday we went up into the hills to the Monsoon
Palace up on top the mountain, it is surrounded for miles by wildlife and nature
preserve so the views are unspoiled and it's very cool. They are in the process of
restoring the Monsoon palace but we saw a little of it and on the outside and entry
chamber it was really cool with fountains in both entry hall room bordered with 4"
high marble ledges. We enjoyed the views and cool breeze we are laughing to remember
how sweltering it was in Delhi now.. although we'll be back there in a few days! We
watched a huge storm dropping rain in sheets coming towards us as we sat on the
outside patio overlooking the valleys all around, til we felt the first drops then
scampered down the hill to the car just as the big drops started. We saw huge monkeys bounding across the road... Leugans or some such they were plentifl, also lots of goats, cows, water buffalos, donkeys, an elephant, some camels, as we drove around the lakes and hills.
Following a late authentic lunch prepared by Monica and her cook, we took a nap and
chilled out with the window open and hearing the silence and birds chirping. Dinner is quite late at Monica's as Arunesh is having some friends over and they will drink for a while before having theirs. We are there at 9 and it's decided to wait awhile and meet Arunesh's friends, which we do. Deepak owns the hotel we are in and also a
restaurant and has a contract with the concrete plant for materials. Sundeep and
Krupaj were not real talkative in English, most of the conversation was in Hindi so
after a few minutes we ate and they went outside to drink. We finished up by 10:30 and headed in for an early night of long rest... delightful! See you about 10 for
breakfast!
July 12
It's Sunday, and we enjoy an indian breakfast of tea, cheela's, which are kind of like pancakes made from chick-pea flour with thin slices of onions, coriander, green
peppers, and chilli peppers mixed in... you put a chutney of some sort on them and
they are fantastic! You eat 3 or 4 of those with fresh fruit pears, apples, bananas,
pomegranate and you are good to go! We have a second cup of tea and chat for a while, breakfast stretches out for about 2 hours! By now we decide to take a ride to old town and see the City Palace. Monica's family has been in Udaipur a long time, and her father in law had been the Maharana's family doctor, so she knows the family members going way back.
It takes about 2 hours to go through the palace at a rapid pace, Julie is not big on old buildings so she leads the way quickly, I am the dawdler reading every card and taking pictures of all the doors and archways... Arunesh is very well versed in
history, and he tells me many of the great stories of the Maharaja's of Udaipur, the
oldest continuous rulers in India, going back to say... 745 or so! In the genealogy
hall there are the photos of all of them, and a big chart of when they ruled, etc...
and he tells me the stories of the famous battles, and how the Rajputs were the only
ones not to submit to Akbar when he conquered all of India... the ruler went and lived in the woods until he would overthrow Akbar but he never did and died in the woods.. there was a famous battle where they were outnumbered and Akbar's army was on elephants so Maharana Prata had elephant trunk like things put on their horses so the elephants would think they were baby elephants and not attack the horses... the
elephants had sword blades attached to their trunks and they nicked Maharana Prata's
horse on the leg... the spirited horse Chetak turned around and bleeding, rescued the Maharana from danger and jumped the stream to safety... but, once reaching safety he expired. There is today in the center of town a big statue of the white horse in the middle of Chetak Circle. I know that name is familiar there is a scooter made by Bajaj, the Chetak, I saw one in the market later. A bunch of stories like these as we travel room to room seeing all the unbelievable architecture of white marble, glass, mirrors, inlays, doors, cupolas, little passageways, hidden courtyards, balcony's, fountains... war armor, swords, maces, you name it it's been saved and since the family still owns and lives in part of the palace, (another part is a 5 star hotel) many family photos and artifacts are on display as well.
We stop for lunch in the main courtyard, by now ac is welcome, and at a cool table
overlooking the front lawn discover it's Mexican day! After some insistent pleading on my part Monica and Arunesh allow me the honor of buying lunch, and a 5 course mexican meal follows, the food and service is perfect, and the chef comes out to make sure everything was OK. Following desert we take the car out of the palace and down a block or so into old town where we jump out to do a little shopping in the touristy area. We've seen many tourists today Arunesh says Udaipur is now one of the top tourist destinations in the world, maybe not in number of total tourists, but in the quality and value of the trip. You can get hostel rooms starting at about $1 a night, on up to $1300 for the top places.
It's pretty touristy so our shopping doesn't last long... we're going to do more
tomorrow but we'll go to the regular town market on Monday prices will be better.
Julie spots some headrags like I've been looking for the whole trip so Arunesh pulls
over and I jump out and walk back to the cart, where the guy sheepishly tells me the
large tie die's are 35 rupees (48 to the dollar), and the smalls are 10! 10! I say... 10! Yes he says, well, give me one of those, no make it two, and give me one of the big ones too. He looks at me? 35? this is 10? Yeah, Yeah, give me all three of them... crazy... american prices for lunch now 55 for 3 headwraps a couple blocks
away!
We're back to our room for a nap until dinner at 9 then tomorrow it's check out time, shopping, and to the airport for our 6:20 flight to Delhi, we should get to our room by 10 before enjoying the press and head of Delhi Tuesday morning, when Julie is supposed to finally get her admittance if she is going to, to Delhi U, then she can plead her case for Miranda house college and the on-campus hostel.
Udaipur is a really cool place! Yesterday we went up into the hills to the Monsoon
Palace up on top the mountain, it is surrounded for miles by wildlife and nature
preserve so the views are unspoiled and it's very cool. They are in the process of
restoring the Monsoon palace but we saw a little of it and on the outside and entry
chamber it was really cool with fountains in both entry hall room bordered with 4"
high marble ledges. We enjoyed the views and cool breeze we are laughing to remember
how sweltering it was in Delhi now.. although we'll be back there in a few days! We
watched a huge storm dropping rain in sheets coming towards us as we sat on the
outside patio overlooking the valleys all around, til we felt the first drops then
scampered down the hill to the car just as the big drops started. We saw huge monkeys bounding across the road... Leugans or some such they were plentifl, also lots of goats, cows, water buffalos, donkeys, an elephant, some camels, as we drove around the lakes and hills.
Following a late authentic lunch prepared by Monica and her cook, we took a nap and
chilled out with the window open and hearing the silence and birds chirping. Dinner is quite late at Monica's as Arunesh is having some friends over and they will drink for a while before having theirs. We are there at 9 and it's decided to wait awhile and meet Arunesh's friends, which we do. Deepak owns the hotel we are in and also a
restaurant and has a contract with the concrete plant for materials. Sundeep and
Krupaj were not real talkative in English, most of the conversation was in Hindi so
after a few minutes we ate and they went outside to drink. We finished up by 10:30 and headed in for an early night of long rest... delightful! See you about 10 for
breakfast!
July 12
It's Sunday, and we enjoy an indian breakfast of tea, cheela's, which are kind of like pancakes made from chick-pea flour with thin slices of onions, coriander, green
peppers, and chilli peppers mixed in... you put a chutney of some sort on them and
they are fantastic! You eat 3 or 4 of those with fresh fruit pears, apples, bananas,
pomegranate and you are good to go! We have a second cup of tea and chat for a while, breakfast stretches out for about 2 hours! By now we decide to take a ride to old town and see the City Palace. Monica's family has been in Udaipur a long time, and her father in law had been the Maharana's family doctor, so she knows the family members going way back.
It takes about 2 hours to go through the palace at a rapid pace, Julie is not big on old buildings so she leads the way quickly, I am the dawdler reading every card and taking pictures of all the doors and archways... Arunesh is very well versed in
history, and he tells me many of the great stories of the Maharaja's of Udaipur, the
oldest continuous rulers in India, going back to say... 745 or so! In the genealogy
hall there are the photos of all of them, and a big chart of when they ruled, etc...
and he tells me the stories of the famous battles, and how the Rajputs were the only
ones not to submit to Akbar when he conquered all of India... the ruler went and lived in the woods until he would overthrow Akbar but he never did and died in the woods.. there was a famous battle where they were outnumbered and Akbar's army was on elephants so Maharana Prata had elephant trunk like things put on their horses so the elephants would think they were baby elephants and not attack the horses... the
elephants had sword blades attached to their trunks and they nicked Maharana Prata's
horse on the leg... the spirited horse Chetak turned around and bleeding, rescued the Maharana from danger and jumped the stream to safety... but, once reaching safety he expired. There is today in the center of town a big statue of the white horse in the middle of Chetak Circle. I know that name is familiar there is a scooter made by Bajaj, the Chetak, I saw one in the market later. A bunch of stories like these as we travel room to room seeing all the unbelievable architecture of white marble, glass, mirrors, inlays, doors, cupolas, little passageways, hidden courtyards, balcony's, fountains... war armor, swords, maces, you name it it's been saved and since the family still owns and lives in part of the palace, (another part is a 5 star hotel) many family photos and artifacts are on display as well.
We stop for lunch in the main courtyard, by now ac is welcome, and at a cool table
overlooking the front lawn discover it's Mexican day! After some insistent pleading on my part Monica and Arunesh allow me the honor of buying lunch, and a 5 course mexican meal follows, the food and service is perfect, and the chef comes out to make sure everything was OK. Following desert we take the car out of the palace and down a block or so into old town where we jump out to do a little shopping in the touristy area. We've seen many tourists today Arunesh says Udaipur is now one of the top tourist destinations in the world, maybe not in number of total tourists, but in the quality and value of the trip. You can get hostel rooms starting at about $1 a night, on up to $1300 for the top places.
It's pretty touristy so our shopping doesn't last long... we're going to do more
tomorrow but we'll go to the regular town market on Monday prices will be better.
Julie spots some headrags like I've been looking for the whole trip so Arunesh pulls
over and I jump out and walk back to the cart, where the guy sheepishly tells me the
large tie die's are 35 rupees (48 to the dollar), and the smalls are 10! 10! I say... 10! Yes he says, well, give me one of those, no make it two, and give me one of the big ones too. He looks at me? 35? this is 10? Yeah, Yeah, give me all three of them... crazy... american prices for lunch now 55 for 3 headwraps a couple blocks
away!
We're back to our room for a nap until dinner at 9 then tomorrow it's check out time, shopping, and to the airport for our 6:20 flight to Delhi, we should get to our room by 10 before enjoying the press and head of Delhi Tuesday morning, when Julie is supposed to finally get her admittance if she is going to, to Delhi U, then she can plead her case for Miranda house college and the on-campus hostel.
Friday, July 10, 2009
It's still 1947
We're convinced we've fallen through a time gap on the plane over, and everything has gone back to 1947. The cabs, the lack of ac anywhere, none of the buildings, sidewalks, or roads have been updated since then. The Brits left it, and it's been straight down ever since. They are trying to do all these new things with the metro and new roads and sidewalks and green city... but just to come to central delhi around connaught place and try to walk down the sidewalk is a major hassle. If there aren't cars or motorcycles parked in the way, there are street vendors cooking or spreading out their wares, or like Julie is rolling her laptop bag along because we're headed for the train in a little bit and all of a sudden you come to an 18 inch concrete wall in the middle of the sidewalk that goes all the way across the parking lot, no way around it... so you jump that and another 10 paces there is a rounded only about 10 inch high concrete dome to navigate... that's not so bad, another 15 paces and the sidwalk turns to dirt, then a muddy puddle, and you have to tiptoe around that... you can see sidewalk, but it's on the other side of the railed off parking lot... aiiiiiii!
We packed up and checked out this morning.. our laundry still damp from the hand wash and press, and thought it would be nice to hang out in a cyber cafe and update our post cards and blogs.... the nearest place is Nehru place, a huge shopping area Kuldeep showed us on the way to the Lotus Temple. As we drove by he commented there was a McDonalds... all new, western shopping area.... so we're thinking AC, relax, post some cards, browse the web.... til the driver drops us off, on the backside away from that side and we could not find it for the longest time. It was so hot, and parking lot was dirt... since we're packed for 3 days on the road by train to Udaipur I have my backpack full, my shoulder bag as well, and Julie has her roller and a backpack. So I'm carrying the bag through the lot til the cars are parked so close together you cannot walk between them, on all sides? Backtrack.... some guy asks if he can help, as the indians will always do... and we said yes we want to find a nice ac place to sit down and eat... he shakes his head, but points over through that gateway, and he walks us to a pathway between the parked cars and a building. Did I mention it's oppressively hot and sticky?
It's cloudy today, which is great to keep the sun off you, but it's still high 90's already by 1:00... and the cloud cover keeps all the pollution down, it is stifling.
We get to the gate, up about a dozen stairs, and into a sweltering hallway of shops... where Julie buys some stationary she needs, and we continue, out into a huge plaza, broken tiles all through it turning to dirt, surrounded on all sides by 6-8 story buildings with all manner of little shops and offices... many eateries, all outdoor, no ac, stand up, and it is not quite wall to wall but throngs and lines and hustle bustle on every side. Julie is getting a little steamed by now, what the heck did we come here for?! Well, Kuldeep said... nice new wester modern... so we press on... see a french boulangerie in the distance, looks like sit down.... but when we get close enough...it's closed for renovation... around another corner, another plaza with a cast of thousands... and did I mention we are the only white people for miles? Everyone stops what they are doing to stare at us, (well not quite everyone, it just seems like it).... around another corner, past a gaggle of beggars laying on the tile screaming at us to give... then getting irate when we don't... and I spot the McDonalds sign. There's a small door leading into a tall office type building, up another 10 stairs or so, inside which is airport security type screening security... I am loaded with 2 bags so is Julie, and the guard is quite thorough... finally we get in, and see a RUBY TUESDAY'S!!! and a SBARRO! Never ever in a million years did I think I would be happy to see them, I avoid them like the plague at home... but AC!!! SIT DOWN SERVICE!!! I maybe can even risk a salad here... I haven't had one since the airport in Chicago 10 days ago.
We have a glorious meal and actually stop sweating... and get full, they had some great little veggie burgers and fries w ketchup, and the salad bar was wierd but some parts like brocolli, lettuce, and green peppers were familiar, the papaya, watermelon, and cucumber salad were hot hot hot spiced... thankfully they brought us a large mineral water at the start, (did I mention you cannot drink the water here?, or use it to brush your teeth, or your toothbrush, or eat anything like fresh fruit or vegetables unless you peel them yourself?) Anyway, it's only been 3 hours and my stomack is rumbling a little, we'll see what happens on the train tonight where another adventure is in store for us... almost time to head for the station... I may drop out for a few days, not likely there will be cyber cafe's in Udaipur, it's hard enough to find in the capital of the country... and Udaipur is not that. It's in Rajasthan, where the guys wear the turbans and grow the huge handlebar mustaches, and I think the women wear saries and salwar kameez...will be nice if the young people actually dress indian not in jeans and stupid looking american tshirts like most do here... anyway, we'll be back to Delhi Monday or Tuesday night, Julie is supposed to find out about her admission on Tuesday... then we'll see what's up with housing before school starts on Thursday and I maybe board another overnight train to Gaya... see how this goes first.
Catching an autorickshaw to Nizammudin station for the 2693 at 7:00...
We packed up and checked out this morning.. our laundry still damp from the hand wash and press, and thought it would be nice to hang out in a cyber cafe and update our post cards and blogs.... the nearest place is Nehru place, a huge shopping area Kuldeep showed us on the way to the Lotus Temple. As we drove by he commented there was a McDonalds... all new, western shopping area.... so we're thinking AC, relax, post some cards, browse the web.... til the driver drops us off, on the backside away from that side and we could not find it for the longest time. It was so hot, and parking lot was dirt... since we're packed for 3 days on the road by train to Udaipur I have my backpack full, my shoulder bag as well, and Julie has her roller and a backpack. So I'm carrying the bag through the lot til the cars are parked so close together you cannot walk between them, on all sides? Backtrack.... some guy asks if he can help, as the indians will always do... and we said yes we want to find a nice ac place to sit down and eat... he shakes his head, but points over through that gateway, and he walks us to a pathway between the parked cars and a building. Did I mention it's oppressively hot and sticky?
It's cloudy today, which is great to keep the sun off you, but it's still high 90's already by 1:00... and the cloud cover keeps all the pollution down, it is stifling.
We get to the gate, up about a dozen stairs, and into a sweltering hallway of shops... where Julie buys some stationary she needs, and we continue, out into a huge plaza, broken tiles all through it turning to dirt, surrounded on all sides by 6-8 story buildings with all manner of little shops and offices... many eateries, all outdoor, no ac, stand up, and it is not quite wall to wall but throngs and lines and hustle bustle on every side. Julie is getting a little steamed by now, what the heck did we come here for?! Well, Kuldeep said... nice new wester modern... so we press on... see a french boulangerie in the distance, looks like sit down.... but when we get close enough...it's closed for renovation... around another corner, another plaza with a cast of thousands... and did I mention we are the only white people for miles? Everyone stops what they are doing to stare at us, (well not quite everyone, it just seems like it).... around another corner, past a gaggle of beggars laying on the tile screaming at us to give... then getting irate when we don't... and I spot the McDonalds sign. There's a small door leading into a tall office type building, up another 10 stairs or so, inside which is airport security type screening security... I am loaded with 2 bags so is Julie, and the guard is quite thorough... finally we get in, and see a RUBY TUESDAY'S!!! and a SBARRO! Never ever in a million years did I think I would be happy to see them, I avoid them like the plague at home... but AC!!! SIT DOWN SERVICE!!! I maybe can even risk a salad here... I haven't had one since the airport in Chicago 10 days ago.
We have a glorious meal and actually stop sweating... and get full, they had some great little veggie burgers and fries w ketchup, and the salad bar was wierd but some parts like brocolli, lettuce, and green peppers were familiar, the papaya, watermelon, and cucumber salad were hot hot hot spiced... thankfully they brought us a large mineral water at the start, (did I mention you cannot drink the water here?, or use it to brush your teeth, or your toothbrush, or eat anything like fresh fruit or vegetables unless you peel them yourself?) Anyway, it's only been 3 hours and my stomack is rumbling a little, we'll see what happens on the train tonight where another adventure is in store for us... almost time to head for the station... I may drop out for a few days, not likely there will be cyber cafe's in Udaipur, it's hard enough to find in the capital of the country... and Udaipur is not that. It's in Rajasthan, where the guys wear the turbans and grow the huge handlebar mustaches, and I think the women wear saries and salwar kameez...will be nice if the young people actually dress indian not in jeans and stupid looking american tshirts like most do here... anyway, we'll be back to Delhi Monday or Tuesday night, Julie is supposed to find out about her admission on Tuesday... then we'll see what's up with housing before school starts on Thursday and I maybe board another overnight train to Gaya... see how this goes first.
Catching an autorickshaw to Nizammudin station for the 2693 at 7:00...
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Has it only been a week?
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.
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.
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.
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