Was it the pedal rickshaw driving through delhi traffic? Or the hotel with contaminated water? or the angry monkey attacking outside of the Taj Mahal. Honestly, it's a game of clue with us silly tourists here in India.
We arrived in Delhi this weekend and it already feels like we've been traveling for weeks. My first impressions is that India is just difficult to manuver. Duh. With over 150 million people in Delhi alone, to call it 'hectic' would be a gross understatement. And I consider myself to be pretty city-savy. But things seem to be so unruly here. Their aren't really car lanes on the road, traffic lights are most frequently disregarded, the electrical wires hang nearly 15-wires deep. With such and unimaginable number of people operating with such an unpredicatable infrastructure it seems like the whole thing is about to colapse.
It's important to keep in mind though that this country is rapidly developing into a modern nation. And you can see the seedlings of that. There are billboards around that remind people to drive within the car lanes and to avoid littering. There are even baby trees planted around the city with signs that say "Delhi- Go Green". I can imagine that in 10 years, the city will be by far more managable
But of course it doesn't just like any country, this place survives off of its particular rhythm - i just don't vibe with it yet. BUT I WILL!
We ended up staying in Old Delhi which ironically turned out to be the seedier part of town. Seedy in the sense that there are just homeless people and garbage everywhere. And not the kind that you see in New York, or any other place that I have been. This garbage seems to be 3rd or 4th generation. And the people. My god, it's just so incredibly sad the way they make their home on the dirtiest streets I have ever seen. Truly, the street dogs have more dignity by human standards. And what makes me feel most horrible about it is that when someone comes up to you begging for money (and you can be sure that they will follow you for hours even without the promise of getting anything) you really can't give them anything because it would be totally dangerous to whip out any money. You would have an army of homeless people following you. It really puts you in a tragic situation no matter what you do.
For the most part, I didn't feel like people were hassling us too much. Or shouting out to us because we are white. Although at the Red Fort in Old Delhi we were surrounded by about 30 Indians at one point fulfilling requests to take pictures with their kids. Mel and I now will now be seen in a number of home videos across the country. sweet. My only requirement is that you have a child with you - all the men who wanted pics of us on their mobiles got staunch NO's.
We also had the pleasure of going to our first Hindi film. People here are crazy about Bollywood. And the scene is secure, we actually had to walk through metal detectors to get in. Granted, the detectors were actually made of wood, but the intention was there. We didn't understand a word of it, but could kind of tell what was going on. What was most amusing about it was how vocal the audience members are. They literally laugh out loud and holler at the screen. We only left because some guy came and sat near us just to stare - creepy.
As interesting as Delhi was, it was clear that this was the kind of place we would be trying to leave ASAP. Way too hazardous. And that point was driven home when we decided to take a pedal rickshaw to dinner at 7:30 pm. In India, there are auto-rickshaws (or tuk-tuks in Hindi) which are like carriage mopeds and then there are pedal-rickshaws which are carriages attached to bicycles driven by sadly thin men. These are the two modes of transportation that would be comparable to a taxi in the US. This was a bad decision - and I know that in retrospect. As soon as we negotiated the price and got on the thing, it's as if the spiteful travel gods turned off the lights and suddenly it was dark out. And we were two stupid white chicks driving in the middle of Delhi traffic - on a BICYCLE. We were just stopped in the traffic jam waiting for some one to snatch our bags. We almost got hit by buses too many times! I was boderline paniking, but really there was nothing we could do. To get out on the side of the road would have been more dangerous than to just sit tight. In those kinds of situations where you know you made the wrong decision, sometimes you have to just see it through and pray for the best. The restaurant was not worth the worry.
But the food here is phenomenal. Masala, Aloo, Paneer, Lassis, Nan, Poori, Chapati! Soo good. I don't want to speak too soon - but I haven't been sick yet. Of course we aren't eating from any of the street stands, which is a bummer because I just want to try everything! But the restaurants definitely aren't just for tourists and a good meal usually costs about 50-100 rupees (or $1-$2). Saving money in India, nice!
In all, leaving Delhi for Agra and teh Taj Mahal was a relief. Being there was so incredibly overwhelming. I did come to India to decompress - right?
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