People! Dirty, filthy, grimy people, starving people, begging people, lying and cheating people, crippled people, urinating-and-defecating-in-public people, hassling and touting people, hopelessly impoverished people. The first thing you notice in India is the hoards and hoards and hoards of people everywhere and they are, without exception, staring. With so many millions in Delhi, a white person with a backpack stands out, so I suppose it is natural to stare. Maren and I quickly felt as though we had taken a trip to the zoo, only we were the attraction to be viewed. Fortunately we got somewhat used to this during our India travels, and we learned to just smile and ignore it.
Getting around in Delhi almost always involves an autorickshaw. These are simply glorified tricycles with a roof and a lawnmower engine that tops out at about 50 km/h. They tell tourists they can only take 2 people, but we saw some with as many as 7 or 8 Indians crammed in. There are an unbelievable number of yellow and green autorickshaws all across Delhi (and most Indian cities). They mass in certain areas, but it is always easy to find one. Negotiating the price can actually be rather fun. The oversupply of rickshaws means you can make them compete with each other to match the price you want. The first price you are told for a destination is usually about 250% of what you should pay. When going to a hotel or guesthouse, we never told them the name, even though they ask repeatedly. If you tell them, they will try and con you into going to a ‘better’ place where they will get a fat commission. I have never in my life felt as harassed as I did by the touts, guides, and rickshaw drivers of Delhi. It is very difficult to ask for directions to anywhere, not because of the language barrier, but because everyone lies. People everywhere try to direct you to the wrong place so they can earn a commission. They claim you must make train reservations in a certain office, which of course is some travel agent jacking the price up. The fact that we were travelling in India during the low season didn’t help. May is the hottest month of the year in most of India, and the monsoon season doesn’t start until June. Yet the number of touts is the same year round, so the fewer tourists get harassed even more. It can be truly infuriating that people simply don’t take ‘no’ for an answer. The only way to get rid of some touts is to be incredibly rude, but after a couple of days we didn’t feel bad at all about being rude. Ignoring them doesn’t help much either. They follow you everywhere asking ‘Where you go?’ and just don’t give up.
Maren and I decided to stay in a popular backpackers area of New Delhi on a street called the Main Bazaar. The street is in an unbelievable state of disrepair, which I think is somewhat temporary. I’m sure it always looks pretty rough, but it appeared as though they were currently attempting to widen the street; there was construction work happening on both sides of the road. Bricks were falling from rooftops, we had to duck under cables and tiptoe around puddles of dirty water, all while trying to avoid honking motorbikes and rickshaws.
Our first task once we got settled in our place was to shop for some Indian outfits. We both knew that we stood out way too much with Western clothing. We easily found a shop and both picked out a pair of pants while Maren also got a shirt, the price was about 9 euros total. Despite the temperature hovering in the mid-40s, not a single Indian person was wearing shorts and we wanted to attempt to fit in at least a little bit. We both noticed that Maren got slightly fewer stares once she wore her new outfit. Now only 90% of the people were gawking;) Indian people feel absolutely no shame in staring at someone, which is baffling to me. Everywhere we went we were stared at, and even when I ‘caught’ someone staring, they rarely looked away. People would stare as they rode by on a bike and twist their head all the way around as they passed to keep staring. There were even times cars or motorbikes stopped on the street so all the passengers could stare at us for about 5 seconds before they drove off. That might explain some of the horrible traffic jams. There were times people were staring for so long they seemed to be in a trance. A few times I finally waved at them and said ‘Hello, can I help you?’ and that sometimes broke the trance. People never attempted to be discrete when they were talking about us either. There would be a group of guys or girls or a family all staring, then one of them would say something to the others, they would all talk more or laugh or whatever, then kept staring and kept talking about us, all while I am staring right back at them, just shaking my head.
Another interesting cultural difference we noticed is that Indian people do not understand the concept of ‘single-file line,’ or ‘wait your turn.’ And the Western notion of privacy does not seem to apply in public places. Whether it was a line going into a tourist site or a line to buy a train ticket, many people were ruder than I could have possibly imagined. Everyone crowds and pushes their way to the front. When I got to the window they would crowd around to my left and right shoving their arms and ticket and money all in front of me. I made some rude comments to people several times and I even forcibly pushed someone back in line a couple of times. When I did, they said ‘OK,OK’ like they know what a line is, but just couldn’t help themselves. I think the sheer number of people in India has created this aspect of their culture, because if you aren’t pushy and aggressive you will end up waiting forever!
After changing into our new outfits, we headed to Humayun’s Tomb, which is the most impressive sight in Delhi. We took the Metro to get close enough to take a cheap rickshaw. Delhi’s Metro feels like a different world, a little slice of London right in the middle of India. It is modern, efficient, and (shockingly) clean. The tomb is actually a very large complex of several tombs and various buildings of Mughal architecture. This means primarily red sandstone along with some white marble. These two materials were used by the Mughals and other groups all across central India. The beautiful buildings and the spacious gardens were a welcome relief from the chaos of the city. In the evening, we walked to Connaught Place, which is the heart of New Delhi. We ate at a crowded self-service restaurant and got a variety of snacks. We were hoping we could find some that weren’t that spicy, as Maren is not used to eating spicy food. Unfortunately, nearly everything we ordered was very spicy, despite the staff insisting that it wasn’t. We learned that night that when an Indian person tells you the food is not spicy, that does not give you even the slightest clue as to the actual spiciness of the food. Another note about the food in India is that it is nearly always vegetarian, at least in the areas we travelled. India has more vegetarians than the rest of the world combined, and with the Muslims not allowed to eat pork, and the Hindus not allowed to eat beef, all that is left is chicken, mutton, and fish which you can find primarily at tourist restaurants. In certain religious cities, the entire city follows a strict vegetarian diet, and it is impossible to find either meat or eggs on any menu.
Our second day in Delhi, we applied for our Chinese visas. This was an annoying and time consuming process. We first went to the distant Chinese Embassy, which told us we had to go to the visa office somewhere entirely different. Then we had to get more paperwork which we hadn’t brought with us. In addition to copies of our flights in and out of China, we had to give them our complete trip itinerary including a place we would stay, and show them a copy of our flight from Kolkata to Bangkok, and explain how we would get to Singapore. It was really a bunch of nonsense, but we finally got out of there as the office was closing and were told to come back in 4 business days. We decided to use the time to explore Rajasthan, the state to the west of Delhi that is home to some of the most interesting areas of India and one of the most well travelled areas of the tourist trail. We took an overnight train all the way to the south of Rajasthan to Udaipur, known as the most beautiful city in India. The ride was 14 hours, but not terribly uncomfortable. We rode in an air conditioned sleeper car that slept 6 people in kind of an open room. We got sheets and pillows, but we brought our own food because we were uncertain about the onboard meal.
Udaipur felt like a breath of fresh air compared to Delhi. It is a small town (400,000 people feels like a small town in India!) with far fewer rickshaws, touts, and hassles. The main draw of the town is the lake with two beautiful island palaces, which are now incredibly expensive resort hotels. The more impressive one was featured in the James Bond movie ‘Octopussy’ which meant every backpacker oriented restaurant in town screened the movie every single night. We stayed in an amazing guest house on the opposite side of the lake from the main town. I think we got the most expensive room in the place, though it was (by our standards) still incredibly cheap. It was a huge room on the top floor overlooking the lake, the palaces, and the main town. We had to mostly imagine the beauty of the lake; as it was the end of the hot season, the water level was at its lowest point of the year. This meant half the lake was completely dried up and had kids playing cricket and cows bathing in small muddy ponds.
After getting settled, we walked into the main town to the city palace. Neither of the two island palaces are open to non-guests, so the city palace is the main sight to see. The huge complex is perched high on a hill and is filled with interesting Indian art and architecture. We ate dinner at a restaurant overlooking a big and colorful Hindu temple in the center town, and decided to check it out afterwards. We walked all the way up the steps and found a group of people all sitting on a carpet with some of them playing music. We stood in the back at first, but after the second old man motioned for us to join, we decided to sit down. We clapped along to the music for much longer than we had planned. People left and other people joined, after kissing the Hindu statues in the front. Some children spoke to us as well, with the very few English words they knew. On our way out, we talked to a local guy about the temple and the traditions. Maren and I both felt this was our first real contact with Indian people and culture, and it was quite a relief to find out not just that they didn’t want our money, but how welcoming and friendly they were.
The following day we walked through a tiny village to another nearby lake. We had noticed on a map that this lake had an island park in the center, but were a bit confused that there were no bridges to get to it. We understood as soon as we caught our first glimpse of the lake: it was nearly completely dried up as well. We didn’t see any obvious path, so we just left the road and climbed down to the dry lake bed and walked across. The lake bed felt like a desert wasteland with hot winds pummeling us and whipping up dust. The park had a white wall around it and was filled with pink flowers and lots of greenery despite the dry weather and temperature in the low to mid 40s. Later in the afternoon, we walked to a hotel in town with a pool. For a very small fee, they let us use the pool and even provided towels. This was the first time we had been swimming since the Dead Sea and was very refreshing in the Indian heat. At this point, we began to realize just how much water we were drinking. Bottled water was a constant source of concern during our trip in India. It was easy to find and always fairly cheap, but we had to think about it every time we went walking somewhere, were about to get on a train, or even when we went to our room at night to sleep. We were drinking up to 6 liters of water per day each!
We ate dinner at a restaurant right on the lake and very close to the island palace. The food in India was overall very tasty, and quite a bit different than Indian food I had tried at home. Most of the dishes are vegetarian, though they make a lot of meat dishes as well for tourists. The prices for meat dishes are usually about double that of a vegetarian dish! I couldn’t believe how cheap the food was everywhere we went. Even at a nice restaurant, we never spent more than 5 euros each for the whole meal, drinks and appetizer included. At most places we ate at, the meal with a drink was between 1 and 2 euros each. At the cheapest places, like the train station cafeteria, we were eating a full meal for not much more than 50 cents. Eating the street food is even cheaper, though you have to be more careful. Most of it was spicy Indian snacks made in a less-than-hygienic environment, so we didn’t eat it very often because we were worried about how our stomachs would react. One of the times I did, I chose 4 different spiced vegetable filled pastry-like things, which was more than enough to completely fill me up. The guy told me 10 rupees (about 20 cents) and I started to get 40 rupees out, thinking he meant 10 each. Then he told me 10 rupees total and started laughing after seeing the shocked look on my face.
Our next Rajasthan destination was Pushkar, back in the direction of Delhi. We woke up very, very early to try to catch the 7 o’clock train. Despite everything we had seen in town and in our guide book telling us the train left at 7, we showed up at 6:30 and they told us we had just missed it. Fortunately for us, there was another train leaving a few hours later, so we didn’t panic. I say fortunately, because for most of the other trains we took in India, if we missed them, we were stuck for 24 hours. We had a very cool experience on the 6 hour train ride to Pushkar. Not long after we left, a huge Indian family got on and sat next to us. Next to us, around us, above us, there must have been 15 or 20 of them, and only 4 were adults! There were about 6 girls in their teens and twenties that took an immediate liking to Maren. They all had Henna tattoos on their hands, arms, and feet. One of the girls asked Maren if she wanted one, and soon enough two girls were both working on her hands and arms while about 12 other kids watched and giggled. They spent literally hours working and totally covered both sides of both hands and arms. The designs were really amazing and were even more impressive considering they did them aboard a bumpy and shaky old train! The Henna lasted the rest of our trip in India, though all of Maren’s sweating from the heat made them fade quicker than they otherwise would have;)
Pushkar was another great small town to relax in. Unlike Udaipur, however, Pushkar is popular as a pilgrimage site. Hindus come for the holy water of the main lake which the town is built around. Apparently Brahma himself bathed in the water. There is also a Brahman temple in town, one of the only ones in the world (every other Hindu temple is dedicated to one of the other gods). One of the first things we noticed is there wasn’t a single rickshaw! They aren’t allowed in town. Also, because of the religious nature of the town, every restaurant is strictly vegetarian, which means not just meat is banned, but eggs and alcohol as well.
We began our full day in Pushkar by hiking a small mountain on the edge of town. There was a temple on top which was closed, but the views over the town and the lake were worth the climb. Afterwards, we began a slow walk around the entire lake, stopping along several ghats. A ghat is a wide set of stairs leading down into the water. Most are for bathers, but some have other purposes. The lake was mostly dried up, but there were some pools of water that were filled with people. We also went to the Brahman temple, which was the largest temple we had seen thus far and was filled with lots of cool sculptures, religious relics, and a troop of monkeys. We were approached twice while walking around the lake by ‘priests.’ We talked to the first guy for a minute who took us to his private ‘temple,’ then realized his scam and gave him a tiny amount of money to leave us alone. The second guy was more persistent in trying to get us to drop some ‘special flowers’ into the lake for good luck. We had to be pretty rude to make him stop following us. We found a beautiful, massive, brand new temple on the far side of the lake. The view from outside was all we got, however, because the inside was still completely empty.
In the evening, after dinner and relaxing at what had become our favorite cheap rooftop restaurant, we got on a midnight train back to Delhi. This short trip to Delhi was relatively painless. We went straight to the Chinese embassy office, paid the incredibly exorbitant visa fee ($150 for Americans, $40 for everyone else!), got our passports back, and hopped on the next train leaving for Agra, home of the Taj Mahal.
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