Jamie and Naomi’s Adventure

We have now been in India for a week and I have to admit that nothing could have prepared us for what awaited us here. We arrived at the airport and were taken into Delhi. Our taxi driver stopped in what we now know to be the Main Bazaar, but at the time it looked like an overcrowded back alley……. like the ones in big trouble in little China. So to be blunt we were bricking it!!! We walked through the crowds,beggars and traffic for what seemed like an eternity and then turned down an even darker, alley that smelt like a dingy toilet. (We didn’t notice until the second day that, the smell is due to two urinals at the entrance of the alley :-O). That was when reality hit home, we had no idea where we were, if we were safe and we were on our own!!! We got shown into the hostel and taken up to our room, which for what we had paid was quite respectable although a little small it is clean and tidy and has everything we need. We both looked at each other and I think the panic in our faces was obvious to the other, so for the first day we bottled it, we got into bed and slept, then phoned our parents. We both said it was to let them know we were safe but I think we could both now admit it was for our own benefit more than theirs!!

The following day feeling slightly more optomistic we opted for a tour of Delhi so that we could get our bearings and see some of the sights. We were surprised to find that going just five minutes out of Delhi made such a difference. It was quieter (not quiet) and much more beautiful. Some of the buildings here are absolutely amazing but, admitedly after half a day of sightseeing we were both tired and a little bored of looking at old buildings and much prefered to have something to eat and go back to the hostel. So we stopped for our first authentic Indian meal. We were both starving so enjoyed this immensely both aware that we may regret it in the morning……….regret it we did!!! I think you get the idea.

We started on our journey to do the Golden Triangle as planned. First stop Agra. We had been told by many locals desperate to practice their English on us that Agra and Jaipur were much more beautiful than Delhi and showed much more Indian Culture. Fellow travellers beware …… they are almost all identical in the fact that they are over crowded and in reality not that different at all, do not be misled like us!! We found a hotel, had a rest after the five hour journey. Then made our way to the Taj Mahal. It is a very beautiful building and has a very interesting story behind it. If you are coming to India on a budget please be aware that it costs 100Rupees to get to the Taj as you can only get there by electric car as they do not allow cars or buses that produce pollutants within 1 kilometre of the building, and it is the 750Rupees pp (which is about 10 GBP each)to get in, so go with your pockets full.

On our way to Jaipur we stopped at Bharatpur National Park. It was a much needed break from the hussle and bussle of the city centres and the National Park was beautiful. We even got to see a Python in its nest!!! It was the best nights sleep that we had had in the few days that we had been here but we both woke up bitten to shreds!! Jamie had a massive 17 bites….it must be a record?

Jaipur we were told we would need 2 days for so we planned for two days sightseeing etc. We visited all the Forts, Palaces, Monuments and Buildings you could possibly want to visit and often ended up finding ourselves in “handicraft” shops, basically they want to show you how something is made, but what they really want is for you to buy it!!!

We arrived back in Delhi exhausted, but, never thought we would say this, glad to be back. We went for a walk to get some food and found a little cafe on a side street that serves good cheap food, so good you can ignore the 100’s of flies that are buzzing round you when you eat. We were just glad to see some vegetables as after a week of curries we have started to crave them. We leave for Singapore in couple of days so we will be spending them relaxing and investigating the side alleys that we are no longer afraid of.

Tips for Travelling in India:
Although we have only been here over a week we have learnt this much,
1. Tipping: Is a massive thing out here and is almost obligatory. Be careful how much you tip especially if you are on a tight budget like ourselves. When, you have given them the tip you can almost guarantee they will want more and prompt this by saying “Are you happy” or the braver ones say “this is no good”(This does not happen in restaurants as there is a standard 10% charge). Tipping is not obligatory and only give what you think they deserve we can survive here on just 250Rupees each a day and we like our luxuries. Imagine what they can survive on.
2. Guides: Everywhere you go such as monuments, forts etc. you will be approached by guides. Say “No, Thank You” you do not need them there are boards all around the attractions telling you exactly what happened and/or what it is all about.
3. Beggers and Sellers: Especially in the busier towns and cities you will be constantly harassed, we have found with beggers the trick is to point blank ignore them and with sellers when they approach you, make no eye contact, do not look at what they are selling and purposely shake your head and say “no thank you” 9 times out of 10 they will just walk off but occassionally you will find a persistant one that will chase you down the street. Just be hard!!!
4. Sight seeing: If you are not interested don’t do it for the sake of it we found ourselves wasting money on things that we didn’t really want to see. If you want to do the mains they are as follows: Taj Mahal (of course) Agra, One of the national parks, Amber Fort (Jaipur), and the Observatory (Jaipur) this would be most interesting if you can get there to be in it for 12 noon as this is when it shows all of the correct readings. Other than that if you see one Fort and one Tomb you have seen them all. They are all intertwinned somehow so you get the same story each time.
5. First Timer?: As first timers ourselves our biggest mistake was bottling it the first day, arrive, rest if you need to and then get out there. We have found that things are much more bearable now that we have gone out an explored. Do it straight away.

We will add photos when we get to Singapore, they do not have the facilities here!!!

Tags: India, Tipping, Travel

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