Delhi
Laura: The train from Hyderabad to Delhi left in the morning and arrived the following day. We arrived at a station a few stops away from the area we were due to stay at and took an overland train to New Delhi station. These trains are great, very cheap and everyone hangs out of the doors! We arrived in the Paharganj area and tried to find our hotel, the New King. Paharganj is a chaotic area consisting of bazaars where locals sell everything from pashminas and harem trousers to dodgy rolex watches and flutes! The streets are essentially dust and rickshaws, bicycles and cows rule the roost. After a five minute walk (and about a million people trying to sell us shit) we arrived at the hotel which was located in a hidden backstreet alley (where you could buy incredible chai) which smelt pretty bad if I’m honest.
The authenticity of the community made up for this though and I’m glad we stayed there. We checked into our hotel (adequate but a steal at 400 rupees) and explored the local area. Paharganj is very touristy – the lonely planet even describes it as being too much for some – and looks pretty disorganised and messy but it was quite charming nevertheless. The first day we ate at a restaurant called Sonu’s Chaathouse and had some incredible dhal makhani and roti. We were feeling pretty pleased with ourselves because food and accommodation in Delhi were turning out to be super cheap for a capital city!
The next day we went to see the Red Fort in Old Delhi. Old Delhi is even more chaotic and dirty than Paharganj and you also get hassled a lot more as a tourist. After arriving in Delhi I am glad we flew into Mumbai initially. I think people who go to Delhi first deserve a medal! I would have hated it and assumed that India was an insane place! I honestly don’t think we will ever go to a city as crazy as Delhi again, I just don’t think it exists. The rickshaw drivers in Delhi were pretty harsh and blatantly refused to use the meter on most occasions so we got ripped off a few times – Ahmad being fluent in Hindi was brilliant most of the time but think about it like this: an argument can only go so far when the locals speak basic English, open up into Hindi and the argument will go on all day! Needless to say, Ahmad found it very tiring to constantly argue with people who tried to rip us off, not just rickshaws but also anywhere else that didn’t have fixed prices. It became a battle not to get ripped off for a banana!
The first night we found a bar called Gem and got pretty drunk (old monk again!) for the first time in a while. We really haven’t drank that much since leaving home – it’s the smoking that has increased dramatically!
On Sunday we saw Humayun’s Tomb which was very impressive. The tomb is enclosed in a beautiful building built in the same style as the Taj Mahal and surrounded by beautiful gardens. After looking around for a few hours we left and tried to get a rickshaw back to the nearest subway station. The first guy quoted us 150 rupees (it should have been max 20) at which point I laughed in his face and told him to go rip off somebody else. He then offered to take us for 20 but the damage had been done and we decided we’d rather walk than give him our money. This sounds pretty pathetic because we’re talking about 35p but when you have had to put up with everyone treating you like an ATM for months on end, eventually you snap. I started to take every rip off personally which I know is ridiculous but it gets very tiring. That night we went to a roof top restaurant for some Tandoori chicken and headed to bed so we could be up early to go to the Chinese embassy.
The next morning I woke up to find out that Ahmad had been vomiting all night and had severe diarrhoea. He was very weak but insisted on coming to the embassy with me. We caught a rickshaw and waited in line to hand our application in (consisting of bank statements, itinerary, flight tickets and covering letter – no other country asks for this). Ahmad sat down and looked like he was about to keel over so I stood at the front and waited for our number to be called. I met two British girls and chatted to them about Nepal for a bit and after about 45 minutes I was seen and the application was sorted. We headed back to the hotel and Ahmad got back into bed.
The next day Ahmad was still feeling really bad so we went out to buy some antibiotics – it was obvious that the chicken had given him food poisoning. He went back to bed and I decided to take the laptop out to an upmarket shopping area to find a cafe with free wifi – turns out after 2 hours wandering around there aren’t any (Delhi is nowhere near as cosmopolitan as Mumbai – about a million years behind!) and I headed back with some plain rice and bananas for Ahmad.
That night I vomited about 4 times during the night. The next day I had severe diarrhoea so clearly we both had food poisoning. My stomach had obviously taken a little longer to reject the bacteria but when it decided it didn’t like Mr Tandoori Chicken, it rejected it with a vengeance. I had food poisoning about 5 years ago from a mansouris pizza (Kimberley folk will know) which was horrible but this was about 20 times worse. I couldn’t walk or even stand up without panting and running out of breath. I felt dizzy and resembled an old lady when I hobbled around because standing up straight hurt too much. I started taking the antibiotics as well but nothing seemed to improve. We spent about 4 days trying to go out, feeling like dying and then admitting defeat and going back to bed. The smelly alley, at first endearing, was now a battle field for us to walk through. The owner of the hotel offered to take me to a doctor and was really sympathetic about the whole thing. We had to keep extending our stay and although the manager was having a hard time re-arranging his other bookings around us, he refused to ask us to move in the state we were in.
I am absolutely certain that Delhi is pretty much the worst place to get food poisoning. Curry is the only option and the western food was always a strange interpretation of western food. I started having fantasies about Heinz tomato soup and cheese sandwiches which didn’t help. After 5 days of this I decided to go to a hospital. I still couldn’t walk without sitting down every 5 minutes and I honestly thought I would never feel well again – it was so horrible. We took a cycle rickshaw to the nearest hospital and tried to figure out what’s what. We went into the wrong room at first, the nurses kept asking me if I was pregnant and I couldn’t understand why in my state of delirium! Turns out it was the maternity ward! We finally found the A+E dept which looked like a factory with beds in it. Seeing an Indian hospital was certainly an eye opener. It was dirty, there was no privacy, no cleaning equipment anywhere, no sheets, people were sharing beds and there was a man who had his hands bound together to stop him from hurting other people (and perhaps himself). Having said all this, the staff were absolutely amazing. They spoke perfect English and even made us laugh a few times! They gave me an IV and an injection (fast working antibiotic) and within 2 hours I felt so much better. Ahmad was still feeling ill but decided that he didn’t want any treatment (he soon came to regret this decision due to being ill for the next two months). I asked the nurse where we should pay at which point she said it was a government hospital and therefore free for everybody. I cried like a baby when she said this – I was dreading the bill and honestly would have seen a doctor earlier if had known this – and all the Indians looked at me like I was crazy!
We decided to rest for another 2 days before heading to Agra. All in all, we stayed in Delhi for much longer than we planned but I guess it was unavoidable. It did mean that we had to miss McLeod Ganj (Dalai Lama’s place of residence) due to time but it just means we have a reason to come back!
Agra
Feeling a bit more human we headed to New Delhi station to get tickets to Agra to see the famous Taj Mahal. Everwhere else in India you go to the main ticket office and ask for two tickets second class, no problem. I tried to do this in Delhi and came up against a brick wall. The guy behind the counter didn’t want to sell me second class tickets and just kept looking at me in a vague manner. I met three Swedish girls there who were having exactly the same problem, they had just arrived into India and were clearly very confused (as I have mentioned before, I’m glad we didn’t do Delhi first). Eventually I managed to get 2 tickets on sleeper class for about 500 rupees but when I returned to Ahmad it became clear that I had fucked up quite a lot! Turns out that I was asking for the wrong ticket to begin with and I then forgot to pick up the change! A two hour train ended up costing us about 15 quid : (
This was our first time on sleeper class (without AC) and it was absolutely roasting hot! After about 3 hours we arrived in Agra and got a rickshaw to take us to the main town, near the Taj Mahal. We stayed in the same hotel as Karl Pilkington on ‘An Idiot Abroad’ believe it or not! I don’t know why the ‘honeymoon suite’ was such a shithole, we stayed in a small double downstairs which was lovely!
The town of Agra is an absolute shit tip and smells pretty bad too. It was quite funny to see the top of the Taj in all its glory surrounded by filth! I’m writing this in China and I can’t help but think that if the Taj was in China, the surrounding areas would have been completely gutted and made beautiful but hey, it’s India and I guess its all part of the experience. The day we arrived the Taj was closed so we just wandered around, bought some postcards and relaxed in many of the rooftop bars – all of whom boast the best view.
The next morning we got up at 5.30am and headed to see the sight that most people think of when they go to India. I forgot to take my precious photo of Bryan and could have kicked myself for it! We thought that it would be pretty empty inside the grounds but clearly everybody else in Agra had thought the same so it was rammed at 6am! The Taj Mahal was absolutely beautiful. It’s one of those things that you see in pictures all the time so you know exactly what to expect but it’s still amazing to see it yourself. We took lots of photos and wandered around for a few hours before heading back to the hotel for a nap.
After a fleeting visit we left for Amritsar (the best place in India!) in the Punjab, back to Ahmad’s roots!