Indian Insanity

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India... Wow... What can I say? It's nothing that I expected it to be. I have read and heard so much about this place, but none of it has prepared me for what I've now experienced. It's not a bad place, it's just very different from anywhere else I've ever been. The traffic is the maddest I've ever been in, with a real ballroom dance of people, bicycles, rickshaws, auto-rickshaws, cars, buses and cows. I have yet to see an accident here. It just stupifies one as to how so many near misses (we're talking centimeters here, no joke) can occur all the time. These guys REALLY know how to drive, although I wouldn't suggest the rest of the world should copy it!
On arrival, I had to queue for so long to get through passport control, I began to fear my 6 month visa would run out before I got to the counter. By the time I got through to luggage reclaim, the conveyor had long stopped, and I almost thought my rucksack had already been stolen before I spotted it behind a pillar.
At the pre-paid taxi booth, a fellow backpacker approached me, a very friendly German guy named Matthius (or Matt), who asked if we could share a cab. The start of a good friendship it would turn out, as we've been backpacking and sightseeing together for the last 4 days! It does keep the transport costs down on the auto-rickshaws as they're halved! Matt's a Geography student back in Koeln, and also does work for the UN for their Tsunami department. He came out here to India for his 5 week holiday as it fascinated him after the 2005 tsunami.
We arrived at Ajay's Guest House, on the Main Bazaar in Paharganj, a very dirty, narrow alleyway late at night (about 1:30am), and checked in. The Main Bazaar was very silent at this time. Not so the next morning. Paharganj is a throbbing market center in Delhi. The narrow alleyway becomes a computer game of avoiding anything and everything, from cow dung to fruit trolleys, from a man pissing in the street to speeding auto-rickshaws, and I stress again, all with about 2 or 3 centimeters to spare in every direction. And it's true, never trust any person you meet here. Everyone is trying to sell something. There are kids who come up saying 'I'm not selling anything, I just want to practise my English', and they'll follow you persistantly, no matter how much you try to get rid of them, before they finally hit the mark and ask you to visit a shop so they can get 'schoolbooks'. There are also a HUGE number of homeless people here. It's shocking, and you just have to walk past them. It goes against everything I believe, but you just have to walk by and ignore them. If you give to one, you have to give to others. Even if you don't believe that, if another beggar spots you handing out money, you'll soon be surrounded by scores of them. The worst scenario I was in was during a rickshaw ride, when a girl, no more than 4 years old, with the most pretty eyes, but so filthy and skinny, came up to me at a traffic light when it was red, and persistantly bowed her forehead onto my leg, begging and wailing and crying. I almost burst into tears. It's such a sad sight, but it's so, so, common here in Delhi. I've realised one of the first things you will learn in India is a kind of indifferent tolerance, and patience here, with all that goes on.
So anyway, the first day, we both decided to walk over to the Old Fort, via the Jamia Masjid, the largest mosque in Delhi. We got very lost. It was fine though, as I found out that Matt is very similar to me in that he doesn't mind walking and getting lost. He's a perfect travel companion. We ended up going through some real throbbing back alleys, without another foreigner in sight. That's the kind of sightseeing I like, seeing the real Delhi, behind the scenes. Eventually, we came across a Metro station and got our bearings, and headed towards the Jamia Masjid.
The Jamia Masjid is huge. Massive. The photos of the courtyard do not do it justice. It holds 25,000 worshippers. 25,000! It's beautiful, and exudes a sense of peace and awe at the same time. We climbed up the Menaar tower, on the south side of the mosque for some breathtaking views of Delhi, and in particular, the Red Fort.
The Red Fort looms out of the scar of Delhi as a powerful symbol of previous ages. The walls are huge, and go on forever. Within the walls are some beautiful gardens, and some fine Persian architecture, although I do admit I did expect a bit more. The area within the walls that you can explore is pretty small.
After the Red Fort, we decided to take our first form of transport, a cycle rickshaw. These are the lowest of the low. They give way to everything as they are slow. I almost had a heart attack. 10 times. Try going through a red-light, on the other side of the road against traffic on one of these. What an adrenaline rush! I almost kissed the piss and cow dung soaked Main Bazaar alley when we go back to the hotel, but stopped myself short when I came to my senses!
The following day, we visited Humayun's Tomb, one of the great Emperors of old. Had another adrenaline fuelled ride on an auto-rickshaw, a tricycle styled motorbike, as it missed it's turning off a roundabout, and instead of continuing around, the driver made a U-turn in the middle of the traffic, and drove the wrong way round the roundabout with every vehicle blaring it's horn and swerving to avoid a headlong collisions before the moment on impact... Phew!
The tomb is amazing, the gardens surrounding it a peaceful island within the mad city of Delhi. You can barely hear the constantly blaring horns from the streets. The tomb itself is said to be the 'precursor' the the Taj Mahal, and it kind of deserves it. It is a fantastic structure, with Persian, Hindu and Buddhist influences. The keen-eyed might notice the frequent use of what is now known as 'The Star of David', although it's symbolism is quite different in this case (the male and female symbolism).
From Humayun's Tomb, we walked up to the Old Fort, which was unfortunately closed due to the visit of 'His Excellency George W. Bush', or so it said. So we continued to India Gate, a monument dedicated to the Indian soldiers who died in World War I. It sits at the east end of the Rajpath, a wide boulevard that leads west towards a small hill on which is perched the Presidential Palace. We noticed the Indian and US flags dotted around for the visit of President George W. Bush the following day, with warnings to avoid the area. Lucky we went that day! We walked the length of the Rajpath up to the gates of the Palace, before taking another suicidal auto-rickshaw back to the hotel.
The third day, we decided to head down to Nizamuddin train station to book our tickets to Agra. Now I've heard much about the ticket reservation centers in India, but again, it didn't prepare me for it. We ended up queuing for over an hour, at numerous counters, computers going down, forms to fill out, and no real queue to speak of. Just like getting on the trains in General Class (the lowest class), it's really just first come, first serve. Well, we survived, only to find out that we could have bought the tickets back at New Delhi train station, a 5 minute walk from our hotel, and in a special 'foreigners only' queue that's quite fast. Oh well, it's part of the experience I guess.
From there we headed to Ansal Plaza, so that I could buy a new power cable for my iPod (well, my sisters backup one. Mine packed up, and is being fixed in Bangkok under warranty) since my one won't work with the older models. I'm not having a good time with electronic stuff so far on this trip. I've had a memory card pack up on me, my iPod is messed up, and now my digital camera is having problems, sometimes taking weird psychedelic photos. I might have to buy a new one soon if it packs in. That's even more money down the drain. I sometimes think something is conspiring against me and this trip!
So anyway, we ended up checking out at 1am that night, before out train at 7:15am. Why you ask? Well, the hotel charges by 24 hours, not a specific check-out time, so if we had stayed after 1am, we would have been charged an extra night for just 5 hours stay (as we had to get up at 6am to catch the train). So we slept on the roof (they didn't mind). That was interesting. It was freezing. And mozzies were abound. Glad Mel bought me a nice comfy sleeping bag for Xmas! Turns out we should have just stayed the night, as they overcharged us. We stayed for 3 nights, and paid for 3 nights, but forget we had paid one night in advance when we first checked in. It was too late by then as we were long into our train journey to Agra. At least getting on the train was no problem at all. We had reserved seats in Seated Class, not General (even though we had asked for the cheapest fare). It's pretty organised. You arrive on the platform, and there's a huge list of names with your carriage and seat number. Nice. Maybe all the paperwork, computer entry etc. at the booking office was worth it.
So anyhow, here I am in Agra. It's so quiet and nice compared to Delhi. The hotel here is fab, with amazing views of the Taj Mahal. I'll post again with all the photos from here once I get to Jaipur, as we're visiting the Taj Mahal tomorrow (it's closed on Fridays).