Contributed by: filbert Friday, March 21 2008 @ 08:01 PM CST
BROKEN LINKS!!!
Part Ten is here.
October 13 (Saturday, Day 12, Delhi, continued) –
Filbert was wearing the Indian pajama set (called a kurta) that Judy sent him and every Indian man he saw commented on it. He does look very handsome in it and the Indians all wanted to know if he bought it in Delhi or what.
Jama Masjid was built in 1656 by the emperor who built the Taj Mahal and is the largest and most splendid mosque in India and can seat 20,000 people. As we were taking our shoes off, an Indian came up to us and started telling us about the mosque. His tour was actually very interesting until the very end when he said that we owed him 500 rupees ($12.50). To put this in perspective, our charge to Sushil for 8 hours of driving is 900 rupees ($22.50)! Oh well, it was a good tour but now we know to not just blindly allow someone to start talking to us.
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| Monkey |
We could see the Red Fort in the distance but since we’re going to see one near the Taj Mahal that is identical to the one in Delhi since the same architect built both, we’ll just wait to tour that one.
While driving around, we saw another elephant, two camels, cows and horses on the streets. The cows were untethered and Sushil said that they are allowed to wander since they are smart and end up at home at night. We also saw “wild” monkeys several times and one mongoose in the grass.
We told Sushil that we wanted to go to Pansath Market so he took us there. According to the guide books, it is a market area for bargains. That could be true, but what we saw was an open air market that catered to Indians selling shoes and jeans and stuff. We walked around for awhile and then found a place for lunch. It appeared to be a chain restaurant since it had a nice plastic sign and it sold wraps (you know, sandwiches made with tortillas instead of bread). It wasn’t very Indian, but the other open air market stalls didn’t look too sanitary. We bought a paneer wrap and a chicken wrap and took them upstairs to an unmanned area with tables and chairs (okay – one table with 4 chairs and 10 chairs at a counter). They were pretty tasty and we managed to kill two cockroaches on the floor while we were eating. They were 35 rupees each which is almost $1 so they weren’t that cheap. I think you can buy hot dishes at the other stands for about 20 rupees. But, this seemed like the safer thing to eat.
October 14 (Sunday, Day 13, Delhi) –
We got picked up at 10:30 and went to Qutab Minar which was built around the year 1200 and is a Muslim tower and a landmark in Delhi. We followed the people and then found out that you had to buy tickets across the street so we opted to not go through the gates. There seems to be no logic for how India has their tourist attractions set up. The place you buy tickets is often very far from the place you give the tickets. And they sometimes have separate entry lines for men and women since they search everyone due to the bombings that have happened in the recent past. They always seem to charge you if you have a camera, too, regardless of whether you take pictures or not. So, we’ve learned to leave the camera in the car and to just take pictures from outside the walls/gates.
Then we had Sushil take us to an upscale shopping area since we were really disappointed with the markets that we had seen so far. The upscale one sure wasn’t upscale. We don’t even like to shop but we just wanted to see if Delhi had any “normal” shops (from a U.S. perspective) and we really didn’t see any. Filbert found a book shop and did buy 3 paperback books that were 50% of the cost in the U.S. He had read that India publishes a lot of books for the U.S. and England and that they are cheaper here and that proved accurate.
After window shopping for a few minutes, we walked the neighborhood for 1.5 hours or so. We walked around parked cars, avoided potholes in the road, walked around standing cows (and avoided some that seemed to be walking towards us) and walked around poles in the road.
When you are walking in India, you have to always be on the lookout on the ground for obstacles (including dog and cow manure) as well as for cars/bikes/scooters coming at you. There aren’t any sidewalks so you just be careful. We happened upon a pick-up cricket game being played by college men.
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| Qutab Minar |
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| “Upscale” shopping center |
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| A friendly cow |
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| Cricket game |
One thing you notice right away is that there are very few women out and about but lots of men. The men are doing the shopping and they are in the tea shops enjoying a cup of tea. They are also urinating on the side of the streets. You do see women, but they are always walking somewhere and you don’t see them in the tea shops or snack shops at all. There are also very few public toilets and we have no idea where women go to the bathroom.
After we walked around for about 1.5 hours we went back to our driver and had him take us to Palika Bazaar near Connaught Place. This is an underground market and all of the stalls were selling sarees or DVDs or leather jackets or children’s clothing or jewelry. But, it was amazing how it was just this underground maze (like a subway station) that had right turns and left turns and more turns. We counted at least 7 entrances. I bargained for some silk scarves, but that was it. The stall owners yell out to you as you pass by which I find very annoying so we just walked along and didn’t make eye contact with anyone or any item.
After we surfaced from the underground market, we crossed the street to a park-like setting and we were walking around and for some reason I stopped for 10 or 20 seconds. There weren’t many people around and I don’t even know why I stopped. The next thing I know there is a man next to me pointing at my shoe saying “Your shoe is dirty. Let me clean it.” I looked down and sure enough on my white, all leather (thank goodness) tennis shoes was a huge pile of SHIT on the toe area. He kept wanting to clean it and we said “no” and Filbert literally shoved him away. We had our own portable pack of 20 Wet Ones (you want to have these with you at all times) so I used 5 to clean my shoe. Then I threw the ones on the ground since that’s what you do in India!!! We found out from our driver that the man was the one that put the dung on my shoe (and it was a large amount and kind of runny/mushy — possibly dog dung) and his scam was to then clean my shoe and not tell us up front the charge and then when he was done he would have demanded $10 or $20 (in US dollars which we don’t even carry!). We thought something was up which was why we said “no”. So, the lesson is — do NOT say “yes” to anything before understanding the price and the services provided. Also, don’t stop when you are in kind of an open place or you might get “dunged” too!!! I’m still laughing about it, but only because none of it got on the shoelaces and since my shoes were all leather, it cleaned up very nicely. As Filbert said, “Welcome to the festering shithole!”
We decided this was enough of Delhi and had our driver take us back to the Hyatt. When we got there we changed rooms and got one of the newly renovated ones. (We had electrical outlet problems in the old room. Several lights were on the master switch and they could NOT be turned off individually. So, the room was either totally lit up or totally dark – no sense in one person reading in bed while the other slept.) It was MUCH nicer than our original one and rather than looking at the Hyatt’s swimming pool (which was nice, but was just a garden area with a swimming pool) we got a view of a city street. (In the opinion of the Hyatt, our swimming pool view is better than the street view. But not in our opinion.) We sat in front of our 6th floor floor-to-ceiling window and watched camels and horses and elephants and other things pass by.
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| Evening rush hour: Delhi |
We also watched a vendor that had two insulated thermoses set up shop and sell some hot beverage. He obviously was a regular seller since many Hyatt workers would go and sit on the curb and drink his beverage. Then they would throw their paper cups on the ground. India is filthy (or, maybe, “festering”)!
October 15 (Monday, Day 14, Delhi) –
Sushil had told us that Delhi to Agra (to see the Taj Mahal) was a 2.5 hour trip so we arranged for a private car and driver to take us. It was really a 4.5 hour trip (one way) on a crappy national highway. (Once again, don’t believe anything that an Indian tells you.) The drive to Agra, according to Filbert, was one of the most depressing experiences of his life.
Going to Agra:
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We got out of the car around 12:30 and told the driver we would be back at 2. We bought our tickets and then Filbert had to stand in the men’s line for about 45 minutes. The women’s line had no one in it since women don’t really leave the house.
(A cliff-hanger! Yes! Will Filbert get into the Taj Mahal? Will the poop-flinger return? Tune in again next time for Round The World In 37 Days!)
The trip continues in Part Twelve, here.
Part Ten is here.
Our Round The World Trip home page is here.