Delhi…. and I thought the traffic couldn’t get worse than in Egypt…
Well, after spending 3 hours in the LUXURIOUS airport in Dubai, we made our way to India. The flight was uneventful and we landed in Delhi yesterday at about 10am (Dehli time). Turns out that the number of the contact that John got was wrong (or she didn’t understand us when she called and told us that we got the wrong number) so we ended up just catching a cab to some random part of town.
Now, how would I describe the process of catching the cab from the airport…. hmmm… well, in Edmonton, there is usually a line where the cabs line up and you catch the next one in the line…. here, they all jam into a lane (the definition of a lane here is a road that goes one direction and you can cram as many cars into that road so it can be anywhere between 2-8 lanes of traffic). You then pay the person at the counter for where you want to go and he gives you a paid slip with a number on it. This number is actually a licence plate number, so you have to weave your way between these taxis (some of which are moving) in order to match the number on your paper with the number on the car……. not exactly easy considering this place is jam packed with taxis! Regardless, we managed to catch a cab to this random part of town. I had written down the name of a hostel I found online but apparently nobody knew where it was so it was a big circus getting us a place to stay. However, we managed…. as usual to find a place to crash.
Along the way, we bumped into a little tourist travel place and we kind of planned our next 3 weeks here. I’m sure we paid entirely too much because our bartering skills SUCK but we were able to get some planning done. So, for those of you who are interested, we will be going to Amritsar – to see the Golden Temple, Agra – to see the Taj Mahal, Jaipur, Pushkar, Vernasi, Mumbai, Goa, Chennai, and then Colombo.
Today, we explored Delhi… I’m not entirely sure the names of the places we went but we went to a very tall historical tower thing (Qutab Minar – built in 1193), Lotus Temple AKA Bahai House of Worship, red fort…. Unfortunately, many of the monuments, shops, etc. are closed because tomorrow is a big national holiday (Republic Day). There is a big parade tomorrow where thousands of people are supposed to cram the streets….. I’m still on the fence whether I want to be one of those crammed people. Oh we also drove by Jama Masjid… a giant Mosque that was built by Emperor Shah Jahan (the same guy that built the Taj Mahal).
I’ve also developed quite a hatred for car horns. Traffic here is crazy… I think there is more honking than silence at all times. It’s times like this that I really miss Canada and it’s quiet, open space. Siiigghhh.
Ummm, not much else to tell for now… we had some amazing Indian food today… mmmm. Not too spicy. I’m sure we’ll be having a lot more but so far so good.
Maybe we’ll even try to ride on a rickshaw or one of those little 3-wheeled taxi things… maybe… I don’t know how brave we are feeling yet though. We’re still adjusting to the country. We are leaving Dehli tomorrow at sometime to make our way to Amritsar… I’ll let y’all know how that goes and how the Golden Temple is…
Tags: India
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