Drive-by Delhi - Blogabond

The sleeper from Varanasi to Delhi was surprisingly cold, even without the air-conditioning of the more expensive classes, then at 5am I was woken by a group of people sitting opposite and talking loudly. They had not been there during the night, so they weren't in their own seats, but they didn't seem to care or care that people who did have tickets for that part of the carriage were still trying to sleep. Getting sleep in India is a challenge, especially on transport.

Delhi was just a daytime stop-off on the way further north. But we did have to submit our passports in application for our Chinese visas before catching another sleeper to Kalka that night, then the “toy train” to Shimla in the morning. We planned to get up to the mountainous northern part of India just to see what it was like. By this time Joanne had more or less decided that she did not like India and hoped that it would be more like Nepal or Tibet in the mountains. I had decided that India needs a lot longer than we had allowed for it and I just wanted to see a couple more places before we left.

I had remembered Delhi as being more civilised than the bits of India we had so far visited on this trip and it was certainly cleaner, and the metro was a joy to use: very modern and efficient, unlike most of our India experiences. There was also a lot less hassle.

We found our way to the Le Méridien Hotel where the Chinese Visa Service is located and came up against a predictable mix of Indian and Chinese bureaucracy. First we were searched and our bags X-rayed before entering the building, then I wasn't allowed into the CVS office because of the laptop in my bag. Then, when Joanne handed over the forms and passports she was informed that we each also had to submit a letter to the Chinese Embassy, stating that we wished to apply for a visa, and telling them exactly all the same information requested on the application forms. What is the point of the application form if everything has to be repeated in a letter? The letter was not mentioned on their website or on any of the “what you need” information on the walls outside the office. Fed up, we tried the hotel, which was just round the corner, hoping for a business centre to type up the letters. We were in luck but they told us it would be Rs200 per page, compared to about Rs10 usually charged in an internet cafe. Joanne quickly typed up the letters then when she asked which printer to send it to, the guy at the desk said “oh – you want to print them out to?” . What on earth was the Rs200 charge supposed to be for? When we were done he told us that the charge is just for typing them up, maybe to save on a memory stick, and there should be another charge for printing them out! He saw how shocked we were and must have felt sorry for us because he only charged us Rs200 instead of the Rs800 or so we should have been charged. Delhi is much more civilised!

Nice Doric columns around Connaught Place

Passports submitted, we went to Connaught Place, the centre of New Delhi, to look for a cheap place to eat. With the help of the Lonely Planet we managed to find an affordable place among all the very expensive posh places. The waiter put a jug of water on the table and assured us it was OK for us to drink because it was filtered. I wasn't sure that filtering is enough to make Indian water safe; surely it should be UV and reverse osmosis treated as well? After a couple of sips I decided it didn't taste very nice and left it. However the food was nice and I really enjoyed the atmosphere: there were no tourists and something about the people seemed really nice. Delhi seemed to me totally different from the rest of India, but Joanne's opinion was not going to be changed, although she did say that she preferred Delhi.

Expensive Connaught Place

We wanted to go online to look for accommodation in Shimla. The nearest internet place was in Paharganj, which was ideal because it's near to the train station and it's also the backpacker bit of Delhi, where we were likely to be staying when we returned, so I wanted to see what it was like. It was like everywhere else in India outside of Delhi: dirty and lots of hassle, although there were more tourists than anywhere else we had been. When we finished online, without booking any accommodation, we went into a Nepalese restaurant next door, only to find Dominik sitting there. He had managed to get a bus to Varanasi after we left him in Gorakhpur and, having spent one day in Delhi, was now waiting until his train for Dharamsala, one of the mountainous places we intended to visit. We spent the rest of our wait chatting to Dominik and eating momos. He hadn't really been enjoying his time in India and had the same idea as Joanne as far as hoping the mountainous placed would be more like Nepal. He just kept saying that he can't believe how different it is from Nepal and how unfriendly Indians are. “They never smile” he complained.

Another sleeper train, another night with almost no sleep and we were in Kalka.

written by

The Happy Couple on June 19, 2009 from Delhi, India

from the travel blog: Michael's Round-the-World honeymoon

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