technically we arrived in india very early the morning of new years day...but we didn't arrive anywhere until the afternoon of the 2nd, when our bus FINALLY arrived in delhi...delhi is a VERY different capital city from kathmandu...kathmandu is completely tame compared to delhi...delhi is much more aggressive, much more crowded, much more polluted...as soon as we got off the bus we were surrounded by rickshaw drivers who wanted to take us anywhere, at very inflated prices...and they also lied to us about several distances we asked for...fortunately, we were at a bus station, and it had a prepaid rickshaw stand...not surprisingly, they tried to steer us away from it, saying it was closed...surprise surprise, it wasn't...the price we ended up paying was less than half of what any of them were offering...when we arrived in the area where we planned to stay, we again had to fight off touts...they wanted to show us all sorts of hotels, and tried to entice us with tv, big rooms, etc...none of that is what layna and i want in a hotel room...all we need or want are beds, and we don't want to pay much for them...
our first full day in delhi was so so, and both of us thought india wasn't going to be that great...it was our first experience with the radically different entrance fees for foreigners and indians...at the red fort, we paid 250 rupees (1 USD = approx 47 indian rupees) to get in...indians paid 15 i think...the best part of the red fort was the conversation we had with visiting afghan university professors...they were all professors at kabul university in afghanistan, and in delhi for 10 weeks or so attending workshops...later that afternoon we visited jama masjid, the largest mosque in india...the courtyard is supposed to be able to hold 25,000 people...entrance is free, but you are supposed to pay 200 rupees for a camera...layna and i had no intentions of taking pictures, and so hid our cameras...the guy at the gate was only stopping foreigners to check for cameras, which was really frustrating...as he felt my ipod in my purse, he decided it was a camera w/out seeing it and insisted i pay the fee...(my camera was in the back of my waistband, where i knew it wouldn't be found)...i didn't pay the fee, nor did we leave our shoes with the shoe minder, instead we carried them in with us, just like all the indians going in...when we got inside, we were glad we hadn't paid the camera fee...sure, it's big, but not all that picture worthy...the frustrating part was seeing all the indians who were taking pictures, and knowing that they hadn't paid the fee...argh...
our second day in delhi was a LOT better, and both of us loved every minute...first we found a mosque that was marked as an archeological treasure, but wasn't touristed at all...as we went in, the one man inside (who was about to start his prayers) told us the mosque was over a 1000 years old, and that we were more than welcome to look around whereva we wanted...we found several sets of stairs that led to great views around the area...right next to this mosque was part of an old fort...this was also an archeological treasure, but not touristed...and again, we were allowed to explore and climb whereva we wanted...after having two such areas completely to ourselves, we decided to skip the rest of the fort, knowing that it would be much more crowded...next we went to humayun's tomb...i don't know who he was, but the tomb was built for him by his second wife...apparently, she really liked him, cause it's HUGE...built of red sandstone and white marble...beautiful...as we were entering, so were hundreds of schoolgirls on a field trip...the most exciting part of the tomb for us was taking LOTS of pictures with all the schoolgirls...we had a lot of fun, and so did they...lots of laughing and smiling...
the third day we walked to the US embassy, so layna could have extra pages put in her passport...(a free service for US passport holders, in case any of you ever need them)...it turned out to be the day the embassy was celebrating it's 50th anniversary...i guess that's newsworthy, as there were quite a few tv trucks there...the first guard we talked to (to find out which entrance to use) asked us which channel we were from...hee hee...
our first meals in india were great...one of the things we had been looking forward to about india was the food...we realized there are soooooooooooooooooo many types/flavours here, we'll never get to try them all!!! dosas, curries, rices, juices, fruits, snacks, sweets, etc...
and so ends the intro to india.....
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