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After our first good night sleep at Karat Hotel in Karol Bagh area, we woke up early in a smoggy morning, as usual, and finally went out to Delhi for sightseeing.
Much lighter then yesterday, without our backpacks we walked trough a few streets to get the feeling of the city buzz in the early morning.
Many students going to school by foot … market merchants preparing their stuff to sell in the Old Delhi bazaar, and already lots of traffic.
Strangely or not, I felt a lot of freedom walking in these ancient look streets without anyone approaching us with tricks and scams, and started to take a good look at the mystical India that surrounded us.
We took a rickshaw to Old Delhi to visit Lal Qila - the Red Fort. The morning traffic is not so intense as in the afternoon, but you can have an idea from the video we made that morning.Lal Qila - The Red Fort
DAY # 4 – New Delhi (part 1)
DAY # 3 – Namaste New Delhi (part 3)
Late in the morning we checked out from the hostel and adventurous ourselves in the big city of more then 15 million people, 35 thousand cows and 600 thousand rickshaws.
The last night desert street of the market was now full of people and animals, intense colors and smells.
We could see numerous ruined buildings with people living in; it looked like remains of a war zone trying to arise again.
We were heading to Connaught Place were according to our guide was a good place to find a nice hostel. After crossing the market we just stopped for a second to check which street to take and lots of rickshaws approach us.
Our backpacks really work like magnet to them!
While two tuktuk guys were bargain with my brother and my husband another was bargain with me “Ma'am just 5 to Connaught place” – “5 hundred? No, when we came from the airport by taxi was only 3 hundred; you have to do it cheaper for us” (what have I said!) – “Not 5 hundred (he laugh) 5 rupees!”
Seemed too cheap (5 rupees = 0, 08 €!!) but not used to the rates yet, we´ve decided to go with him.
After the same old questions, where are you from my friend? How long are you going to stay in India? What are you looking for? An hotel? There is a tourism office that can help you - and he took us there.
So far so good, we needed a hotel and this guy was helping us out.
In the supposed “official” tourism bureau, very neat and really looking a trustable government bureau, we were directed to a desk to speak with one of the tourism agents. We said to him that we were looking for a hotel for that night, and he repeated the same questions that we were going to hear all along the journey, sometimes by friendly people sometimes by someone that wanted just to sell something specially tours.
He was already planning our entire trip and calling hotels to book and buses and car taxis... the all package tour for our 3 weeks in India. We said we just wanted a hotel; we already have our train tickets and hostels in all the cities we are going to visit. He insist, saying that was not safe to travel by train and the buses are better, etc, etc , really starting to be annoying. At the end we didn’t book any tour with him and he just said if you don’t book with us I don’t get you a hotel – have a good holiday.
That was it, no wonder it was just 5 rupees, the tuktuk was going to get his part from the supposed “official” tourism bureau for catching fresh tourists at the beginning of the travel.
We later that day, after passing trough many “official” tourist agencies, could really understand the scam organization that goes in Delhi behind the tourism. Rickshaws, taxis, even some people (not all) in the street that looks that are going to help you, just want to lead you for buying tours in these agencies. The best you can do to avoid this hassle when walking in the streets of Delhi is to leave your backpack in your hostel/hotel, ´cause backpackers are meat for these sharks.
At least a good thing we experienced, although all this hassle these guys are just trying to put food on their family plates by selling, and sometimes conning tourists too, but in any circumstance we felt insecure of assault or aggression against us.
In overall Indians especially the Hindus are very affable and pacific people, which can be very comforting and could let us relax during the trip when we got used to their way.
Day # 3 – Namaste New Delhi (part 2)
Main Bazaar road at night can look pretty scary!
Very dark with no street lights, all the shops shutters are closed, all you can see is the dust and the waste remains of the day market and at the end of the street some indistinct human figures.
We stopped at the entrance of one of the innumerous narrow alleys (Chandiwalan Street) that the main street has and our driver went to check if it was really there the hostel Smyle Inn.
We didn’t book the hostel previously, so if this one was closed it was a bit intimidating to be left in this empty street in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere…
Our driver came again from the alley and drove us till inside the narrow alley. We could felt the smell of urine and see the open drain gutter in the street – all I could think was “You wanted to come to India, so now you better face it and not be so impressed by this minor things ..”
We get to the entrance of Smyle Inn and woke up the two younger owners; they went to check if there was room available – all occupied, so they indicate us other hostel from their relative just a few meters from there.
They were very nice, considering that we waked him up and they still helped us out finding a place to sleep.
The other hostel had a very spacious reception hall with wide marble staircases, looked very nice at first glimpse if it wasn’t the smell – again urine.
A young guy guide us to the single room (Rs. 500) that was available – a very small room with one double bed with of course filthy sheets – thank god we bring our sleeping bags, they’ve become very handy trough all the trip. It is something to definitely include in your packing list, but make sure to choose a light and compacted one so it won’t become an annoying heavy item to carry also.
Tried to sleep a few hours thinking we needed to find other place to stay tomorrow…
Day # 3 - (26th Nov) - Namaste New Delhi
We arrived at Indira Gandhi International Airport in the early morning, still a very dark and thick fog atmosphere.What I though was just fog was in fact SMOG, a mix of dense smoke and fog ... and it was all over the city.
Still a bit dizzy for the few hours sleep, after passing the customs we went to pick up our backpacks, exchange some Euros to Indian rupees at the airport, and book a cab.
We could have fall in those taxi scams, a middle age Indian guy approach us quickly asking if we needed a taxi and hotel. I´ve read before in a few travel forums about these scams, so we were with a foot step behind with all that friendly interest he showed. He did all that questions about where we were from, how long we going to stay, if we have hotel, and “Is your first time in India?” - No, we have being here before!
Nevertheless we went with him till the entrance of the airport, because we needed to get a cab to the hostel. As we put our step outside we faced the reality, bunch of cab drivers most of them non official asking need taxi, need taxi, come with me my friend. Our guy went to the other side of the parking, to a darker area where other guys were hanging waiting for inexperienced tourists to scam… We stopped and decided not to follow him and go to our hostel by the safer way – booking a cab in the government- run prepaid taxi stands inside the airport. Never trusting - first time in India, arriving in the middle of the night, all that confusing outside the terminal and going with the first guy that appears … I think we decided wisely at the last minute.
The taxi fare till our hostel at the Main Bazaar, Paharganj was 300 rupees. After buying bottled water we went to find our cab, and again the same hassle outside the terminal, but now we had our taxi – a small old green and black van, and the young driver was very trustable, he wasn’t very chatty or inquisitive, just took us to the hostel we said, and didn’t tried to take us to other places.The taxi ride was as crazy as expected in India – Horn please! – must the number one rule to take the driver´s license.
We arrive to the Main Bazaar in about 20 - 30minutes, and we could get our first impressions from the early city life in the streets. Lots of cows, people, rickshaws, cycles, cars, lorries and waste all over the place…and smoke, the all city is inside a huge cloud of smoke.
Continue reading...
Day # 1 & #2 - too many hours flight
The journey begins, and we had many hours on flights ahead of us.
But nothing feels better then put our backpacks knowing that in a few hours we are in other side of the world in touch with a completely different culture and reality.
We took our first flight to London at late afternoon on Monday the 24th November. On London we spend the night at the airport, sleeping in the waiting room - enough comfy chairs for three hours sleep.
Our India flight check-in was at 6:00 am, so we didn't expect to sleep a lot. I was waiting to sleep the most at the plain. Must say Qatar Airways plains are really comfortable and have all that gadgets that we love to use on a long hour flight. Even in economy class they have TV screen for each passenger with a good library of films, music and games.
The flight wasn't direct to Delhi, we made a stop at Doha were we had our first "mini" culture shock. A woman in the smoking room is not something they would see everyday ...
On the flight from Qatar to Delhi we had a very good surprise. The flight crew upgrades us three to the business class! Wow we felt like VIP, big lounge chairs to recline and sleep, all the attentions from the staff... too bad it was just for three hours...
Namaste!
After one day and half we finally arrive at New Delhi at 4.00 am (local hour) of 26th November in the middle of a dense foggy morning...
INDIA 2008 – the itinerary
... a 20 days journey to India
Day # 1 - (24th Nov) - Faro > London (by plain)
Day # 2 - (25th Nov) - London > New Delhi (by plain)
Day # 3 - (26th Nov) - New Delhi
Day # 4 - (27th Nov) - New Delhi > Jaipur (by train)
Day # 5 - (28th Nov) - Jaipur
Day # 6 - (29th Nov) - Jaipur > Jodhpur (by train)
Day # 7 - (30th Nov) - Jodhpur
Day # 8 - (1 st Dec) - Jodhpur > Udaipur (by bus)
Day # 9 - (2nd Dec) - Udaipur
Day # 10 - (3rd Dec) - Udaipur > Kota (by train)
Day # 11 - (4th Dec) - Kota > Agra (by train)
Day # 12 - (5th Dec) - Agra
Day # 13 - (6th Dec) - Agra > Jhansi (by train)
Day # 14 - (7th Dec) - Jhansi > Kahjuraho (by taxi)
Day # 15 - (8th Dec) - Kahjuraho > Satna (by taxi) > Varanasi (by train)
Day # 16 - (9th Dec) - Varanasi
Day # 17 - (10th Dec) - Varanasi > New Delhi (by train)
Day # 18 - (11th Dec) - New Delhi
Day # 19 - (12th Dec) - New Delhi > London (by plain)
Day # 20 - (13th Dec) - London > Faro (by plain)
See INDIA NOV-DEC 2008 in a bigger map
INDIA 2008 – backpacking
The best time to travel to India is from November till mid February during the cooler season. We went to Northwest - Rajasthan and Varanasi - so we didn’t want to catch either the cold of end December-January or either the hot & the wet of monsoon summer. We marked in our calendar for the end of November.
With so much time to plan the trip, as a good Portuguese we left most everything for the last minute.
But if you are thinking travelling to India at least two things you have to do in advance: get your 6-month tourist visa at the Indian Embassy of your country, and take all the vaccines needed (polio, typhoid, tetanus shot updated) and malaria medication.
The packing was pretty fast to do, we like to travel light specially when we are moving from one place to another and carrying out our bag so our list tend to be short. With three backpacks was even easier to divide the stuff that all three were going to share - shampoo, tooth brush, toilet paper (yes you will need to bring it – Indians don’t use it!), mosquito repellent, mosquito net, flashlight, camera, medicines, India guide, and India railway map.
