Pink Turban and Goggles
For all my worried readers - dont fret. In the end Nele and the love interest stumbled upon the hotel and recovered all our stuff....lesson learnt....
My second day in Delhi was spent in Old Delhi- which was a complete revelation - it was CHAOS, but the sort of chaos I relish - traffic jams of rickshaws, bikes, handcarts, cars, busses, cows and people. Pollution, smoke, street vendors, tangled dangerous overhead electrical supply wires, blue sky and hot hot heat. Dust and extreme noise, honking, shouting, drums being banged, singers, food plates smashing, babies crying. WICKED!
My day started with another revelation - the Delhi underground. Unlike London, this is a slick, very clean and very professional set up. It was peaceful and really simple to deal with. WOW! I didnt even know there was an underground in Delhi. I purchased my small plastic token coin, waltzed through the barrier into the aircon halls leading to the polished platform. Within moments a smart clean new metro train arrived with a scattering of people on board - plenty of seats available. Aircon in the trains too, along with soothing lift music. The other end I cruised out of the gate (which ate my microchipped token) and into the craziness of Old Delhi. How exciting! What a contrast.
Old Delhi is famous for its chaos - and so tourists go there to experience "real" Delhi (like you see on the films). Most of them take a rickshaw around the sights and are strictly onlookers. NOT Abster style as you can guess. I spent several hours walking walking walking through the melee of people, sounds and smells. First on the list was Lal Quila which is the Amber fort of Old Delhi. Its not that remarkable if you have seen the real thing in the pink city Jaipur, but it was a nice beginning. Risked my life to take a photo (that entailed crossing the road...) and then wandered back towards the bazaar areas. These are large areas of tiny alleys running between the main chowk(road) to the Jamma Masjid (the Muslim Mosque) The bazaar is a mind boggling and very very closely knit network of small shops, peoples courtyard houses, workshops and chai shops. All of it is ancient and slightly moorish in feel, as well as being in beautiful decay. Every tiny corner you turned, there was a new picture for the minds eye. People carrying huge bundles of cloth on thier heads, women in flaking courtyards washing clothes with babies on thier hips, fossilised Chai men sitting at little stalls on the side of the alley. Absolutely mesmerising. I wandered for more than an hour amongst these enchanted alleys - everyone was surprised I was there, but very friendly. Didnt get any hassle though at all. Wonderful.
As part of the alleys, I came across the "wedding supplies" road - shops containing paper decorations, fake gold jewellery, turbans and Henna. One stop shop for all your wedding requirements. All the shops were sparkling and glittering with gold, flowers and shiny paper, crepe and cardboard acessories. ACE! Another bazaar area was the Bead bazaar - huge sacks of colourful beads at the front of the shop, sat on, and presided over by the shop owners, who would ladle out the beads and sell them to you by the kilo. Marvellous. The colours man!!
In the end of the alleys, I popped out right next to the Jamma Masjid - great navigation skills if I do say so myself! I busily covered my head and went in to say Hello to Allah. The building was quite impressive (not like the one in Ajmer though), and from the courtyard, there was a great view over the Old city. I spent a meditive half hour and then skeddaddled down the front steps to the main chowk. Next, I was headed to the spice market. You know you are in the spice market because people start to sneeze. The whole air is filled with delicious aroma's of spices and herbs - many of which are of course chilli related. They are flying on the air, and so are irritating peoples noses!!! so funny to have a whole road of sneezers. Anyway, the spice market was lovely, aromatic and picturesque. Big sacks and bowls of spices in various states of powderedness.
The sun was waining and it was time to get back to Vishals via the magic metro. Lovely. In the posh part of town, I caught a rickshaw back to Vishals, and for most of the way we were escourted by a very cool Sikh man on a motor bike who had a huge bright pink turban on, with some aviator goggles over the top. He was COOL. I also saw signs for MacDonalds advertising McCurries like McAloo and McPaneer. wierd....
Next day was roasting, and it was time to go to Jaipur (Im heading there for last minute shopping of course). Vishal booked me a dream bus - Aircon and very swish. I even got to sit next to a lady! Amazing! The journey was seamless, with only one brush with death when the bus driver undertook a huge lorry without enough space to do so. When it was obvious he wasnt going to make it, he just accelerated and swerved out into the face of the oncoming traffic. No problem.
Its marvellous coming back to Rajisthan. About halfway between Delhi and Jaipur you start seeing the dessert, and camels on the road, and old men in white with huge red spotty turbans.
Im in Jaipur at the moment, and its lovely to be back. Its still as hectic as ever, but I do LOVE this place. Its really good to catch up with my friends and dive back into the daily competition of survival on the streets! Love it! I did some lovely shopping yesterday and caught up with my friend Maggie. One thing that is happening in Jaipur at the moment - Lychees are in season, so ive been gorging myself! Beautiful! Tonight off on the overnight train to Varanasi, India's most holy city. REALLY looking forward to that.
My second day in Delhi was spent in Old Delhi- which was a complete revelation - it was CHAOS, but the sort of chaos I relish - traffic jams of rickshaws, bikes, handcarts, cars, busses, cows and people. Pollution, smoke, street vendors, tangled dangerous overhead electrical supply wires, blue sky and hot hot heat. Dust and extreme noise, honking, shouting, drums being banged, singers, food plates smashing, babies crying. WICKED!
My day started with another revelation - the Delhi underground. Unlike London, this is a slick, very clean and very professional set up. It was peaceful and really simple to deal with. WOW! I didnt even know there was an underground in Delhi. I purchased my small plastic token coin, waltzed through the barrier into the aircon halls leading to the polished platform. Within moments a smart clean new metro train arrived with a scattering of people on board - plenty of seats available. Aircon in the trains too, along with soothing lift music. The other end I cruised out of the gate (which ate my microchipped token) and into the craziness of Old Delhi. How exciting! What a contrast.
Old Delhi is famous for its chaos - and so tourists go there to experience "real" Delhi (like you see on the films). Most of them take a rickshaw around the sights and are strictly onlookers. NOT Abster style as you can guess. I spent several hours walking walking walking through the melee of people, sounds and smells. First on the list was Lal Quila which is the Amber fort of Old Delhi. Its not that remarkable if you have seen the real thing in the pink city Jaipur, but it was a nice beginning. Risked my life to take a photo (that entailed crossing the road...) and then wandered back towards the bazaar areas. These are large areas of tiny alleys running between the main chowk(road) to the Jamma Masjid (the Muslim Mosque) The bazaar is a mind boggling and very very closely knit network of small shops, peoples courtyard houses, workshops and chai shops. All of it is ancient and slightly moorish in feel, as well as being in beautiful decay. Every tiny corner you turned, there was a new picture for the minds eye. People carrying huge bundles of cloth on thier heads, women in flaking courtyards washing clothes with babies on thier hips, fossilised Chai men sitting at little stalls on the side of the alley. Absolutely mesmerising. I wandered for more than an hour amongst these enchanted alleys - everyone was surprised I was there, but very friendly. Didnt get any hassle though at all. Wonderful.
As part of the alleys, I came across the "wedding supplies" road - shops containing paper decorations, fake gold jewellery, turbans and Henna. One stop shop for all your wedding requirements. All the shops were sparkling and glittering with gold, flowers and shiny paper, crepe and cardboard acessories. ACE! Another bazaar area was the Bead bazaar - huge sacks of colourful beads at the front of the shop, sat on, and presided over by the shop owners, who would ladle out the beads and sell them to you by the kilo. Marvellous. The colours man!!
In the end of the alleys, I popped out right next to the Jamma Masjid - great navigation skills if I do say so myself! I busily covered my head and went in to say Hello to Allah. The building was quite impressive (not like the one in Ajmer though), and from the courtyard, there was a great view over the Old city. I spent a meditive half hour and then skeddaddled down the front steps to the main chowk. Next, I was headed to the spice market. You know you are in the spice market because people start to sneeze. The whole air is filled with delicious aroma's of spices and herbs - many of which are of course chilli related. They are flying on the air, and so are irritating peoples noses!!! so funny to have a whole road of sneezers. Anyway, the spice market was lovely, aromatic and picturesque. Big sacks and bowls of spices in various states of powderedness.
The sun was waining and it was time to get back to Vishals via the magic metro. Lovely. In the posh part of town, I caught a rickshaw back to Vishals, and for most of the way we were escourted by a very cool Sikh man on a motor bike who had a huge bright pink turban on, with some aviator goggles over the top. He was COOL. I also saw signs for MacDonalds advertising McCurries like McAloo and McPaneer. wierd....
Next day was roasting, and it was time to go to Jaipur (Im heading there for last minute shopping of course). Vishal booked me a dream bus - Aircon and very swish. I even got to sit next to a lady! Amazing! The journey was seamless, with only one brush with death when the bus driver undertook a huge lorry without enough space to do so. When it was obvious he wasnt going to make it, he just accelerated and swerved out into the face of the oncoming traffic. No problem.
Its marvellous coming back to Rajisthan. About halfway between Delhi and Jaipur you start seeing the dessert, and camels on the road, and old men in white with huge red spotty turbans.
Im in Jaipur at the moment, and its lovely to be back. Its still as hectic as ever, but I do LOVE this place. Its really good to catch up with my friends and dive back into the daily competition of survival on the streets! Love it! I did some lovely shopping yesterday and caught up with my friend Maggie. One thing that is happening in Jaipur at the moment - Lychees are in season, so ive been gorging myself! Beautiful! Tonight off on the overnight train to Varanasi, India's most holy city. REALLY looking forward to that.
posted by Abster at 7:08 am
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