I've had a very varied and mad day.
Four main episodes which I'll try and cover in more depth later, but I want to go on the rooftop terrace to see the sunset and have a coffee now.
I think Dean thought I would want to go and see lots of museums while I was here, but there's no need. Almost everything I see is captivating in its own right. We sat and had a coffee while we were waiting for 20 minutes for some photos to get developed this morning and I was transfixed by what I could see out of the window. In England it's very obvious when people are at work, and when people are not, but here work and life seem to blend together. Shops are houses and houses are shops. Some people's shops are just blankets in the street, and that's probably where they live too, so they never close as such. And there's rubble everywhere, but that doesn't stop people sweeping and cleaning their little bit of street. They just part the rubble, wash the street and carry on.
There's so much paperwork here. Took us about an hour for Dean to buy an Indian sim card today. He needed passport photos, his passport, proof of where he's staying, a certificate signed by all four grandparents, and a full body search. If that's buying a sim card, I'd hate to try and buy a train ticket. And yesterday when I checked in to the hotel I had to fill about 4 different forms in by hand, even though I'd already filled everything in online from home. The hotel is great, and the staff couldn't be more helpful but after 8 hours on a plane, 3 hours trying to get out of the airport and an hour in a taxi I wasn't in the right frame of mind to fill several forms in.
After looking at things out of the window we went on a Tuk tuk ride. Absolutely hilarious. Like a theme park ride but better. we were in lane 6 out of 6 and we needed to be in lane 1 so he just cut across the traffic at 90 degrees. Like trampolining and ceilidh dancing. You can't help but laugh. And a lovely man too. Not pushy but friendly and smiley. Ruth says I have no lane discipline on roundabouts but I went on a roundabout today that I couldn't even tell was one. There were vehicles everywhere. I can't decide if Indians are the world's worst drivers or the world's most brilliant drivers, they have amazing spatial awareness, and they use every inch of road. I was assured before I left that they don't have road rage here, but I saw two episodes or it today, the second of which nearly ended in a physical fight, so I think they do after all.
The tuk tuk driver dropped us at the Gandhi Memorial Garden, but it was shut so we went to the Gandhi Museum instead. I cried. Really. I just felt incredibly emotional in there. There's a sign in the doorway that says 'Violence is Suicide', and lots of other Gandhi quotes and it just broke me up. But in a good way. As if the stress of deciding to go, and then going started to fall away.
Then we sat on the steps of a mosque in the sun in Old Delhi and I started to feel really relaxed. It was lovely and warm and there was a nice atmosphere and we ate some of Kat's flapjack. We tried to go in the mosque but we didn't want to pay so the young lad on the door told us to go away. He wanted to charge us for camera use, but we didn't want to use a camera, and it was supposed to be free entry, but he just sent us packing. Then I tried to go to the toilets near the Mosque. Not only did you have to crouch for a Number Two you had to kneel for a Number One and this totally threw me and I had to walk out and hold it till later. I sent Dean in for a look and a kindly Sikh man persuaded him to do a kneely down pee but it wasn't for me.
Then we went on a cycle rickshaw ride round Old Delhi. This took claustrophobia to entirely new levels. Tiny streets smaller than the Shambles in York with heavy traffic on them, and I was naive and didn't fix a price with the driver and it ended up being quite expensive, and I was just relieved to get back to the hotel in the end. He was showing off a bit and riding on the wrong side of the road and aiming for stuff, but it was possibly the most cramped i've ever felt in my life. Dean and I have had a lengthy discussion about this guy, and we can't decide if he was an Oscar winning actor doing a virtuoso performance on two naive tourists or if he was a proud native showing off his native area, and wanting us to genuinely have a good experience. He did lay it on a bit thick, like stopping at a kiosk to buy energy gel, and showing us how much he'd been sweating, but the streets were bloody awful in places and he did have to get off and push. And we did make him take us back to the hotel which was miles away.
Having reflected on the rickshaw ride over dinner I've realised that part of the reason I didn't enjoy it is that the guy wanted to take us down lots of streets looking at shops. A lot of the streets are themed, so far example there's a spice district, there seems to be an entire district selling wheel trims, and there was an entire shop unit selling ball bearings. And I hate shopping. For example, I hate going to the Metro Centre. And Old Delhi is like the Metro Centre but made of dark matter. Imagine shopping at the Metro Centre if it was shrunk to a tenth of its size and if it was full of trucks, and taxis and people on trikes, and people trying to reverse cars at you. And imagine if all the shoppers lived in the shops. And the streets were full of people wanting to show you round.
I wonder if I'll be any more confident in social situations after I get back. I can't imagine being worried about knowing the system in an English pub after trying to get round Old Delhi by cycle rickshaw.
I'm going to try and stay here at this hotel another night tomorrow as I'm still settling in. They will store my bike bag here for me until the end of my trip for virtually no pence. We are probably going to go to Rishikesh before we go to Agra. It's supposed to be at the start of lots of spiritual trails and it has good views of the mountains and the Ganges. And I could do with more of the peace and relaxation that I've had today, but less of the claustrophobia.
But tomorrow we're just planning to go see a Sikh temple and maybe go to Lodi Gardens.
Four main episodes which I'll try and cover in more depth later, but I want to go on the rooftop terrace to see the sunset and have a coffee now.
I think Dean thought I would want to go and see lots of museums while I was here, but there's no need. Almost everything I see is captivating in its own right. We sat and had a coffee while we were waiting for 20 minutes for some photos to get developed this morning and I was transfixed by what I could see out of the window. In England it's very obvious when people are at work, and when people are not, but here work and life seem to blend together. Shops are houses and houses are shops. Some people's shops are just blankets in the street, and that's probably where they live too, so they never close as such. And there's rubble everywhere, but that doesn't stop people sweeping and cleaning their little bit of street. They just part the rubble, wash the street and carry on.
There's so much paperwork here. Took us about an hour for Dean to buy an Indian sim card today. He needed passport photos, his passport, proof of where he's staying, a certificate signed by all four grandparents, and a full body search. If that's buying a sim card, I'd hate to try and buy a train ticket. And yesterday when I checked in to the hotel I had to fill about 4 different forms in by hand, even though I'd already filled everything in online from home. The hotel is great, and the staff couldn't be more helpful but after 8 hours on a plane, 3 hours trying to get out of the airport and an hour in a taxi I wasn't in the right frame of mind to fill several forms in.
After looking at things out of the window we went on a Tuk tuk ride. Absolutely hilarious. Like a theme park ride but better. we were in lane 6 out of 6 and we needed to be in lane 1 so he just cut across the traffic at 90 degrees. Like trampolining and ceilidh dancing. You can't help but laugh. And a lovely man too. Not pushy but friendly and smiley. Ruth says I have no lane discipline on roundabouts but I went on a roundabout today that I couldn't even tell was one. There were vehicles everywhere. I can't decide if Indians are the world's worst drivers or the world's most brilliant drivers, they have amazing spatial awareness, and they use every inch of road. I was assured before I left that they don't have road rage here, but I saw two episodes or it today, the second of which nearly ended in a physical fight, so I think they do after all.
The tuk tuk driver dropped us at the Gandhi Memorial Garden, but it was shut so we went to the Gandhi Museum instead. I cried. Really. I just felt incredibly emotional in there. There's a sign in the doorway that says 'Violence is Suicide', and lots of other Gandhi quotes and it just broke me up. But in a good way. As if the stress of deciding to go, and then going started to fall away.
Then we sat on the steps of a mosque in the sun in Old Delhi and I started to feel really relaxed. It was lovely and warm and there was a nice atmosphere and we ate some of Kat's flapjack. We tried to go in the mosque but we didn't want to pay so the young lad on the door told us to go away. He wanted to charge us for camera use, but we didn't want to use a camera, and it was supposed to be free entry, but he just sent us packing. Then I tried to go to the toilets near the Mosque. Not only did you have to crouch for a Number Two you had to kneel for a Number One and this totally threw me and I had to walk out and hold it till later. I sent Dean in for a look and a kindly Sikh man persuaded him to do a kneely down pee but it wasn't for me.
Then we went on a cycle rickshaw ride round Old Delhi. This took claustrophobia to entirely new levels. Tiny streets smaller than the Shambles in York with heavy traffic on them, and I was naive and didn't fix a price with the driver and it ended up being quite expensive, and I was just relieved to get back to the hotel in the end. He was showing off a bit and riding on the wrong side of the road and aiming for stuff, but it was possibly the most cramped i've ever felt in my life. Dean and I have had a lengthy discussion about this guy, and we can't decide if he was an Oscar winning actor doing a virtuoso performance on two naive tourists or if he was a proud native showing off his native area, and wanting us to genuinely have a good experience. He did lay it on a bit thick, like stopping at a kiosk to buy energy gel, and showing us how much he'd been sweating, but the streets were bloody awful in places and he did have to get off and push. And we did make him take us back to the hotel which was miles away.
Having reflected on the rickshaw ride over dinner I've realised that part of the reason I didn't enjoy it is that the guy wanted to take us down lots of streets looking at shops. A lot of the streets are themed, so far example there's a spice district, there seems to be an entire district selling wheel trims, and there was an entire shop unit selling ball bearings. And I hate shopping. For example, I hate going to the Metro Centre. And Old Delhi is like the Metro Centre but made of dark matter. Imagine shopping at the Metro Centre if it was shrunk to a tenth of its size and if it was full of trucks, and taxis and people on trikes, and people trying to reverse cars at you. And imagine if all the shoppers lived in the shops. And the streets were full of people wanting to show you round.
I wonder if I'll be any more confident in social situations after I get back. I can't imagine being worried about knowing the system in an English pub after trying to get round Old Delhi by cycle rickshaw.
I'm going to try and stay here at this hotel another night tomorrow as I'm still settling in. They will store my bike bag here for me until the end of my trip for virtually no pence. We are probably going to go to Rishikesh before we go to Agra. It's supposed to be at the start of lots of spiritual trails and it has good views of the mountains and the Ganges. And I could do with more of the peace and relaxation that I've had today, but less of the claustrophobia.
But tomorrow we're just planning to go see a Sikh temple and maybe go to Lodi Gardens.
Why the tears? Did Gandhi steal your pie?
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