Adventures in India-part 1-"Smelly Delhi"

Ok, first off let me just say that most, if not all, of India is smelly. But there is only one city that rhymes so well with said description. Let me also say that it is probably very dangerous for me to be trying to post at this hour so bear with me. I didn't have a chance to write anything over the weekend so I thought I'd take advantage of my jet lag issues and get things going.

Sunday, July 22 and Monday, July 23--All in all it took us about 34 hours to get to India. We were only supposed to have a 3 hour layover at JFK, but that turned into a 7 hour layover for a reason that was never disclosed to us. But we did get a food voucher from the airline and the chance to catch up on some much needed sleep. I was actually pretty surprised at how quickly those 34 hours seemed to go--especially seeing as how our row of the plane had electrical problems and we had no audio for the movies nor light to read by.

Finally, we arrived exhausted and a bit exasperated at the airport in Delhi. The customs process was very smooth as you have to arrange a visa before arriving in the country. We had to wait quite a while for our luggage...mine came out at least a full half hour before Heidi's and that caused some tense moments but fortunately nothing was lost. By that time it was after 3 a.m. and we were now more than 4 hours late. We had little-to-no hope that our hotel transfer would still be awaiting us...but to our great surprise they were still there. I swear to you that my name has never looked so beautiful as it did written on the grimy little paper our driver was holding!

We finally made it to our hotel and were pleasantly surprised at its offering for a 3 star (Indian standards) establishment. I think more than anything we were just happy to shower and fall into bed...especially since I had the worst cankles I have ever experienced in my life!!

Tuesday, July 24--Most of this day was spent in a complete stupor of jet lag, interrupted by three phone calls...one asking if we wanted breakfast, another from Heidi's brother's mission companion and a third asking for a copy of our reservation confirmation. I groggily grabbed the paper and headed out for the lobby, not realizing that the floor was wet and thereby falling down the stairs and landing flat on my back. OUCH!! I'm just glad noone else was around to see my moment of grace.

After the front desk/stair fiasco I went back to bed for a bit but eventually we decided to rouse ourselves and venture outside in search of the internet and bottled water. The hotel staff led us to a travel agency where some guy let us use his computer and proceeded to talk to us about our options while in India. We decided it was better for us not to commit to anything in our stupor but promised to come back the next day.

Wednesday, July 25--Our first real day in India began with hiring a driver to take us around to the sights. We first went to Jama Masjid, India's largest mosque. Our excellent planning in having skirts in our backpack allowed us to actually enter the mosque. It is quite an impressive building and there were many people there (as I soon came to understand, there are many people everywhere in India.) We encountered people staring at us as if we were aliens and others who took pictures of us or with us as if we were celebrities. I'm sure we looked as interesting and unique in our own right as they did to us.

I neglected to mention that our driver suggested we move around Old Delhi via bicycle rickshaw as parking in the area is difficult. Heidi and the driver rode in one rickshaw and I rode in the other. It is a great way to see things but I have to admit I felt guilty having this little Indian man try to pedal the big American around in unbearable heat! One of my favorite things was when he told me to put my feet on the metal bars hooking the rickshaw to the bike and said "This is your seatbelt." :)

Anyway, we proceeded to head to the market area of Chandni Chowk, which holds a number of markets for the locals including a spice market, wedding market and jewelry market. It was amazing to navigate maze of the narrow alleyways of the market right along with throngs of people, motor bikes and other rickshaws. I wish I could have truly captured the experience, but the best I could do was a short video which doesn't do it justice.

Afterwards we were dropped off at the Red Fort. By this time we were feeling pretty dehydrated. I was so hot I could hardly stand it. The bottled water for sale near the entrance looked a bit "iffy" so we opted for orange soda instead. It was so miserably hot that it was all I could do to put one foot in front of another. The fort is a pretty great place but I don't think I enjoyed it as much as I could have if my body hadn't entered a nuclear meltdown. Here's Heidi outside the fort:

Anyway, the whole point of going to the Red Fort was to meet up with Boddu (Heidi's brother Adam's mission companion.) Apparently "Indian Time" is similar to "Latin Time" or "Mormon Standard Time" and so we toured the Red Fort waiting for him to show up. He was finally there when we resurfaced on the outside and it didn't take long for us to realize why Boddu is one of Adam's favorite companions. He is definitely our favorite Indian. We made a stop at India Gate which is a memorial to the Indians who lost their lives in World War I. This is me and Boddu at the gate.

Heidi had a list of things she needed to buy for her brother so we headed for an area called Connaught Place and entered a spiraling underground shopping area called the Palika Bazaar. This was our first introduction to the very persistent Indian vendors who tried to attract our attention by calling out "excuse me madame!!" By the end of our trip I was so tired of hearing this phrase that I thought I was going to pull my hair out. Anyway, Heidi was able to buy some of the things on her list and also bought an outfit for herself after being assured that the store carried "Ma'am-size options" (if you want the full story on this you'll have to ask in person...needless to say it was our ongoing joke for the whole trip!)

Boddu then took us to a nearby restaurant serving vegetarian Southern Indian food. He ordered this sampler type thing for each of us that consisted in a large steel dish that had a banana leaf on the bottom and small shot glass type steel containers of different types of sauces or concoctions. In the middle of all this was an Indian bread called roti that we ripped pieces off of and dipped into the various sauces and concoctions. Some of the stuff was okay but a lot of it was too spicy for my delicate palate. I did enjoy the roti and another bread called poori though...very tasty.

We eventually made our way back to the hotel to await Candice's arrival from Bangalore. Her flight was delayed but she arrived safe and sound. It was good to see her after so long. After much effort on our behalf, the hotel finally provided us with the extra bed, which consisted of a folded wooden platform that laid out semi-flat and had a thin mattress on top...hmmm! We talked for a while and then crashed to rest up for the next day of sight-seeing.

Thursday, July 26--Thanks to the time difference, I was able to place a call this morning to wish my mom happy birthday back in the States. We then headed out with a new driver to tour the sights of New Delhi. We started by driving past the president's palace and some other government buildings. Following this we went to Humayan's tomb, which was a predecessor to the Taj Mahal. There were a lot of cool structures here and it wasn't entirely swarmed over with people so that was nice.

We then continued on to Qutb Minar which is the world's tallest brick minaret (spire.) This was a really cool tower and I just couldn't believe how tall and well-preserved it is. The tower is 239 feet tall and was completed in 1230 AD. There is also a lot of detail work and really neat carvings all around the complex. Just to show you the impressive size of this structure, I am the tiny dot in the center at the bottom of the tower. Wow!

Afterwards we went to the Lotus Temple of the Baha'i Faith. We had to take our shoes off to go inside and I swear my flesh was grilling up right there on the pavement it was so hot. The temple is beautiful though and is reminiscent of the Sydney Opera House. Perhaps the best part of all is that you are not allowed to speak or make any noise inside the temple, which was a very welcome change from the utter chaos of the streets of Delhi.

We did a little more shopping that afternoon thanks to a recommendation from one of Candice's Indian coworkers. As we finished, we spied a Pizza Hut across the way and decided that would be a safe way to curb our hunger. The pizza was slightly different, but good nonetheless. As a side note, in restaurants, menu items are denoted vegetarian by a green square with a green dot in the middle next to the item, while non-vegetarian items are denoted bya red square and dot. We made it back to the hotel and enjoyed just relaxing and talking more before hitting the hay.

TO BE CONTINUED....