delhi still

so.. where was i? oh yes, delhi. after i had wandered around connaught place awhile and found me some books (woop!) and headed back up the road to paharganj and some food. i went to a bar that served food and beer and sat in the corner on my own reading my new book (i'm reading asimov's foundation series now.. finally!) and as the place filled up i was joined by people from delhi who had just finished work and were looking for beer of their own. i had some really interesting conversations with them and discussed everything from simon jones' injuries to the lack of a welfare state in india. they were all massively proud of their metro system (and rightly so, it puts the tube to shame) but as ever they were reluctant to talk about the poverty and lack of infrastructure in general, giving me the same "yes, it's a problem" before moving on to another topic. i then sat with an english chap and his american friend and we whiled away the hours talking about india and our experiences. i'd been silly enough to have some of the local moonshine earlier with the indian chaps i was sat with and when i got to my room it hit me really hard. my head the next morning was pretty bad... so i reached for the rehydration salts and my party pack of ibuprofen and i was up and about in no time. the agenda that day? old delhi, the jama masjid and the red fort.

i grabbed a rikshaw at the top of paharganj and the driver threw us into the delhi traffic (i took some video footage which i'll show you all when i get back if you make me tasty treats) which is just crazy. old delhi is very crowded, noisy, and really hard work. there is a bazaar at the foot of the mosque which i tried to wander around but couldn't because of the hassle i was getting from beggars, children, stallholders and so on. the hour or so i spent in that area was really hard, there were people lining the steps of the mosque in all kinds of states - lepers, amputees, burn victims, people with severe deformities. some of the howls of anguish they made as they asked for money were chilling. there was one woman at the top of the steps who had no eyes, just sockets and she was rocking back and forth moaning with her hands outstretched. i wasn't allowed into the mosque as i was wearing shorts and that was fine by me. i needed to get away from that place - quickly. i walked along the road which leads to the mosque for maybe a kilometre heading towards the red fort. as i walked i was constantly hassled, kids grabbed my arm, women carrying newborns looked at me with lost eyes and hands outstretched. it was heartbreaking to see and to walk past them. it's such a difficult thing about being in india - how do you deal with this kind of thing? do you give money? do you give food? what can you do? i made the decision very early in the trip to give to one person every day, but it doesn't stop me from feeling like an arse every time i say no to someone.

so i headed to the red fort to have a mill around and take some photos. i don't think i was really in the right frame of mind to be doing the tourist thing and i wasn't that impressed with it. it was in sore need of some love, everything had an aged, decayed look to it - not at all like the hugely impressive mehrangarh fort in jodhpur. i took a few snaps, walked around the gardens and decided that i needed some rest as today had been pretty hard on the senses. i headed back to my hotel, had a cold wash (grr) and went for a beer. i got talking to a french chap who was here with his girlfriend. we exchanged stories on where we had been and what we had seen and solved all of india's problems over a beer or two. feeling a bit better for having talked to someone about the horrors i had seen that day (and the 2 kingfishers i had drunk..) i toddled back to my room feeling a bit better. who knows, maybe the boiler would have been left on for long enough to have heated up some water?

the next day came, my last in delhi and still no shower. i had 2 things that needed sorting - a train ticket to hyderabad, and india gate. i had decided that i really didn't like northern india. it is dirty, smelly, pushy, cold, the people generally aren't very nice and i just wasn't having fun any more. every single second of every single day i was hassled "you want this you want to see my shop you want blah blah" and i was approaching breaking point. i can understand why it is like this - northern india is where the majority of the tourists come, and stay - the golden triangle of agra, rajasthan and the punjab is the main 2 or 3 week itinerary. so tourists = $$ to the people here. it just annoys the hell out of me that you can say no, and they will say "very good price" so you say no again, and they say "but look is free" and i (rather smugly) always reply "my time isn't free though buddy - you pay me 100 rupees to see your shop?" and they finally back off, only to be replaced by the next one "you want see my shop friend?" it normally starts with that or a "where you from friend?" and i have now learnt to just keep on walking, engaging these people just means you have to say no about a hundred times before they get the message. the thing is - how many people who are genuinely interested and want to talk am i missing out on talking to because as soon as someone talks to me now i wave my hand, tell them to go away and keep on walking. so yeah, back to the south where it was hot, the people were nicer and less inclined to hassle you, and the streets didn't smell of wee (in india it's perfectly acceptable for people to just whip it out and take a wazz wherever they chose. well, northern india at least.) i had made plans to meet the girls after their yoga week in rishikesh and do varanasi with them before they went on up to nepal. i think i'm going to meet them in kolkata after i've gotten some of the zing back into my trip and they've done everest base camp. for the first time i was feeling really homesick, i missed my friends, i missed my family, my stuff, being clean. most of all i missed being part of a civilised society. and that's not good - india is a beautiful country, with a long cultural history and beautiful people. i really needed to get out of the north and discover that again.

i headed up to new delhi station, was passed from counter to counter with my reservation slip (each time after queueing for about an hour) without getting a ticket. after about 3 hours i found some chai and sat, defeated, wondering if i could justify getting a flight back to manchester. as i drank my chai and had a quick cig i realised that the lonely planet is always there to either point you in the right direction or tell you fibs. today was a lucky day, the lonely planet was feeling benevolent enough to point me in the direction of the railway tourist booking office. it was like something out of a dream. i walked through the automatic doors into an efficient, air-conditioned ticketing heaven. within 10 minutes i had my ticket and i was ready to get number 2 on the list done. india gate.

i wish i had allowed myself more time to do india gate, the rajpath and the secretariat as it was all very impressive. india gate is huge, and is inscribed with the names of all the indian soldiers who gave their lives in ww1, the northwest frontier operations of around the same time and the 1919 afghan conflict. the rajpath leads from india gate to the rashtrapati bhavan (president's house) which is flanked on either side by the 2 huge secretariat buildings. and it was just lovely. the rajpath is maybe 1 1/2 km long, flanked on either side by grassy areas lined with trees, the view up it from india gate is really impressive. as i walked the secretariat buildings got larger and larger, looming on the horizon. it was a great afternoon and as i walked around the government buildings i experienced a calm silence for the first time since landing in mumbai. it was top. i hopped on the metro back to paharganj, grabbed my rucksack and headed for the train to hyderabad. 26 hours on the andhra pradesh express. this would be an experience....