Greetings from Delightful Delhi!!
Probably not a term you have heard Delhi described as before ... but it really is!! I (Marty) are playing tour-guide this holiday seeing as India is one of my favorite countries and I have been here several times before. So...arriving in Delhi on Sunday...flying the 3 + hr flight from Cochin on one of India's budget airlines - Spicejet - I headed to my old haunt called from my "budget backpacker from hell" days - Pahar Ganj. It is basically a long strip of budget hostels and hotels, interspersed with Kashmiri craft shops, cafes, clothing shops, cows, dogs, touts and noise galore! Nicole has really taken a liking to Dehi - despite having to work most of the days we've been here...I drag her out in the early evening to explore what we can..but she definitely wants to come back!
Yesterday we did a 13 hour return journey to the Taj Mahal on some of the slowest "super fast" trains known to mankind! This was my 4th visit to the Taj, Nicole's 1st however Delhi Belly had definitely gripped Nicole as the day progressed and we will now always remember this great monument of love (a Masouleum for Mumtaz Mahal) for the offering Nicole made on one of the side mosques - the contents of her stomach!! No respect for the dead!!
Nicole "recovering"!
We saw the beginnings of the sun setting before making a mad dash back to the train station and buying ticket/finding train and getting to it all in a blur...arriving back in Delhi about midnight last night!
The trains are always fun and a great way to see India living life right in front of your eyes!
One of the cool things we did one evening was to wonder around in Old Delhi - drinking in the sights, sounds and smells of the most packed out little alleys you can imagine! I was here about 3 years ago for work, and had done the same then with a mission to get some good photos. At one place I stopped and talked to a shop-keeper, Ved, and had taken some great shots of him, and emailed them to him. So...we went back to his shop on Tuesday night and enjoyed saying hello again and watching several women ooh and ahh over buying some very glitzy party Saris. That's me and Ved above!
Nicole's work computer was on it's last legs before we arrived here and whilst in Kerala died. On Tuesday I took a rickshaw to the "computer bazaar" and came home with a new toy for her - enabling her to carry on working (and thus supplying me with the dosh to keep having fun of course!!!). I love trying to understand what life is like for people here and had a great time chatting and joking with Kumar (pictured), the rickshaw driver who took me there. His starting price was 200 Rupees, and I knocked it down to 100, and he further reduced it to 80 Rupees if I would oblige him by visiting a shop along the way. He gets commission in the form of fuel vouchers for customers he can scoop up for the shop! Seeing as I had time I said that I had no intent on buying anything but would play the game! He was like a little child explaining to me how to look interested...stay for a minimum of 7 mins...and then leave. He has been driving rickshaws for 34 years and still was so polite and friendly...despite the huge dirty city he works in. As I drove along I observed all kinds of things along the way: The wide streets of New Delhi with it's manicured gardens, a beggar with trousers pulled down and diarrhea pouring down his backside & legs, flashy cars, 9 kids being picked up from school in one cycle rickshaw. It really is such a mix of poverty and power, the best and worst of humanity all living side by side. I could not help but be reminded of what a privileged position I have in the world...to be able to go home and shower that night and wash the days grime away, to sleep in a bed with a full belly, to have choice. Perhaps Delhi to me is delightful as I am a king here? Lots to think about!
We take the 17 hour train to Kolkata this afternoon and we are both looking forward to being there and getting to know a new city and new people...and introducing them to you too!
Til then
Marty & Nicole
PS A little more on Kerala...if ever you come to India make sure this is one of the states you viist!
Since our first India blog we moved on to Cochin for several days and also to Vypeen Island (Cherai Beach).We attended an ear-splitting Kathakali Dance one evening - including watching the one hour it took to apply the make up!
We also spent an evening in Allepy where we went out for a few hours on the "Backwaters" - a 900km series of canals that serves as one of the main transport routes for the region. Luckily we were there in the off season as there are literally hundreds of house-boats plying these waters usually.
Towards the end of our stay in Varkala we also took a quick Indian cooking lesson...making samosa, dosa, butter chicken masala, biryani and a pineapple desert..best bit was getting to eat it at the end!
