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We were both a bit nervous about heading to India. We'd heard so many stories about Delhi being awful and not to spend much time there, so we'd planned to only spend 2 nights and then head to Agra. The trip to the airport gave us a clear indication of how bad the fuel situation was, with miles upon miles of queues of taxis, busses and cars; all waiting to try and get some fuel….Hopefully our flight was still going to be leaving (some of the international flights were cancelled/asked to bring enough fuel for the return journey)…we should be ok.
Arrived at Kathmandu airport super early for our flight so had to hang around for a bit, but it meant that we were one of the first ones through check-in, securing ourselves some 'mountain view' seats in the process. I (Podge), finally managed to pick up some prayer flags (little ones!) and we found a nice little oasis of calm in the restaurant on the top floor - where there also happened to be a little cat hiding out! As we were leaving, it had settled itself on top of one of the tvs! We very quickly noticed how few women travellers there were, especially as men and women queue in separate lines to basically go anywhere it seems - I was quite pleased to sail through security checks quickly, however as I was then having to wait for James at the other end, it didn't really make too much of a difference. Signage for different airlines were sparse, so we hung around with a few other tourists looking a bit lost for a while until the flight was called. It took some time to get through and when we did, we had to wait for a bus to drive us the couple of hundred yards to the plane - for a country that's on the verge of a major fuel crisis, we'd have thought they'd want to conserve every last drop…? Anyway, after yet another security check (can't accuse them of not being thorough), we were onboard.
The mountain side seats are exactly what they say on the tin - we were above the clouds and flying alongside some of the tallest mountain peaks in the world - amazing. Although we weren't sure which one it was, we very definitely saw Mt Everest!
We arrived in Delhi, picked up our bags and braced ourselves for the onslaught. It wasn't too bad on first impressions and we managed to pick up a super cheap cab into town. Turns out though that a) he didn't have a clue where he was going (not entirely convinced that he had a cab license) and b) about halfway through the journey, right about the time we were directing him, he starts talking about us giving him almost double (even though we'd firmly agreed on the price before hand). We were having none of this and once we found our hostel, we tried to get out of the taxi as quickly as possible, but the auto-lock function had not switched off, so we couldn't get out! Once I pointed this out, the driver unlocked the doors and we got our bags out of the boot quick smart - although James did open the boot a little too vigorously and almost smash the back windscreen…oops!
Safely in our hostel (Zostel next to New Delhi railway station), we decamped in our 'suite'(!) and worked ourselves up to go out and book our train tickets to Agra and then onto Jaipur. There is an International Ticket Bureau on the first floor of New Delhi railway station that is an absolute dream - fill in a form, and the nice men will find your trains and print out your tickets. I don't know if you can book for the whole of India here, but certainly the Northern section of the railways. Feeling a bit more positive and armed with a way out of the city the day after next, we headed back to the hostel to work out what we were going to do for dinner…we were directed to a hotel just down the road from us as our place didn't actually cook any food, they ordered in! It was quite noisy in our room from the street below, but we both managed to sleep through it, must be getting used to being in noisy places!
The next morning, after breakfast, we took some time to work out what we wanted to do. I think we both had a little bit of 'the fear' and probably procrastinated a little too much. Also, it was a lot hotter here than in Nepal, so we were keen to take it easy and not over-do ourselves as we had an early start the next morning.
We picked up a tuk tuk (James's first!) and headed in the direction of Connaught Place, which wasn't far from us, however the traffic around the station was horrendous! So the first 20 minutes were spent sitting in traffic, behind a bus that was chucking hot exhaust fumes at us. Our wait in traffic gave another gentleman a chance to hop in as well, he spoke great English and didn't take too much time getting round to showing us his Government of India ID card (complete with picture). He was very insistent that we go straight to the 'Government of India Tourist Bureau' - not far from Connaught Place, and they would give us a free city map (very handy) and also maybe some pointers on the best bits to see in a day - especially being Ghandi's birthday (and a public holiday), we didn't really know what was going to be open. Ok, we decided probably a good idea to get a map. Just as well we'd reached this conclusion though as the guy had already redirected our tuk tuk there. Hmm.
Long story short - it was not just a case of picking up some tips and a free map and being on our merry way. The guy in the buearu was very insistent that we should cancel the trains we'd already booked (he'd manage to get us a full refund) and then change our plans, using one of their approved tour operators. When we eventually managed to remind him that we only wanted some advice on what was open that day, he then tried to get us to buy a private car hire tour for an extortionate amount of money. We asked again for our free map and left pretty quickly, determined to find our own way.
Well,it was very quickly clear that Connaught Place was not 'open' on Ghandi's birthday…in fact it was really strangely eerily quiet! We avoided the park in the centre that looked quite full of people and not very nice (also photography was prohibited) and walked around the ring roads a few times, in the process getting a bit disorientated. Ok, let's go to the Red Fort. So we hop in another tuk tuk (the wrong way down a one way street) and are taken to the tuk tuk stand where we are reliably informed that the Fort was shut today (something that both 'Government' men had failed to tell us). Feeling a bit fed up, we headed back in the direction of our hostel area, the Paharganj district was more 'touristy' so bound to have more open. We opted to walk as we hadn't really been doing much of this recently and it was nice. We stopped at the main bazaar road and wandered down it, finally seeing a few foreign faces in the crowd - so this was where everyone was hanging out! We stopped for lunch and chai on a terrace which gave us a chance to just sit and people watch for a while. Eventually, we got going again and had a look in a few shops - it was definitely time to get some more trousers….even James got a pair! Wallets a little lighter, we went back to our hostel to chill and sort our stuff out for our early train to Agra the next day.
After a bit of a nightmare trying to top up the International number (bank card got blocked, so had to then top up my UK number to unblock that with the bank (as it's done by text now)), I eventually managed to call my Grandma as promised…7 minutes on the phone (to a landline) cost just over £17…I'm not sure this International sim is working out any cheaper, but I think it's too late to stop using it now as it's the number I've put on everything! Ah well, it's not often we're actually calling anyone on the phone (skype/whatsapp is working just fine). We even managed a quick skype session with Karsten in Germany and Ken, happy days. Ordered take away dhal (why not?) and counted the incredible number of light switches in the room - 32. It took us so long to find one of them to turn off a light that we'd wondered whether we would need to call someone in!!
Early night - Agra tomorrow on the 6am train.
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