3/05
We leave Colombo and after a short flight arrive in Delhi. We get an airport pickup and the driving feels mad, loads of people walking everywhere. It feels busy already, intense. We arrive in Pahar Ganj, the Delhi seedy area full of bacpackers and cheap hotels. We settle down in the Hotel Cottage Yes Please, fairly recent and clean. I go for a quick look around, many cars, rickshaws, cows, many people and then we have some food in the restaurant across the street. Quick walk in the bazar to have our first impressions. We feel tense, anxious, it is so different...A realy dirty and dirt road (the street is in really bad state) but it is late and the street is not too busy. Few cloth and souvenir shops around and apart from a couple of guys, not many people seem to care about us too much. Bed time and we find it hard to rest.
4/05
Wake up. We then have breafast across the street, we can already feel the heat and the dust. We go for a walk in the area, Pahar Ganj, trying to walk in the middle of rickshaws, cars, cows, many people, managing our ways in the dust inside the bazaar and side alleys. Val starts getting oppressed by the men looking at her in her 'chest eyes'. She feels vulnerable and rather disturbed by it. We have been warned, Indian men stare and stare and never stop staring..We will find some more Indian clothes for her as many female travellers advise her to protect herself that way....We then take the metro to Connaught Place. So different again, a certain order here, in the middle of the chaos. We go to a travel agent for some info and he is trying to sell us a package holiday with driver and all the bling...We walk around, oberving the masses, the people around. We take the tube back and it is amazing to see some endless lines of people queueing in a way never seen before!! So organised and quiet!!!Not indian at all!!! Londoners could only be ashamed in comparison of the calm and order of the users here. Each door has two waiting lines, each composed of no less than 50 people...okay it was our mistake, it's rush hour!!! Stormy weather, the rain starts, lightnings. We walk in the streets back to the hotel, the dust blown by strong wind...Dinner at a corner eatery (local). We are the only foreigners in that one, the kids stare at us. Feels strange as they look but with an empty glaze. Is this curiosity, challenge, arrogance? They don't look down...we smile, they smile back...The area is not brilliant but we could get used ot it, even the dirt, if it wasn't for the constant mad noise, the horns, the shouts, the real assault on our sense is through our ears here...
5/05
Today is sightseeing day. We have booked a car with a driver to take us around Delhi as there are many areas to visit and under 45 degres, it seems mad to struggle and walk around. Our driver, Gail, a devout sikh, is going to take around all day. Old Delhi first, to see Jama Masjid, the mosque very sobre, we walk through the market, and through an extremely poor area, it feels weird to walk through this. No bad feeling about security, more...disgusted! We are now dealing with a real indian street, crowded, poors, beggars, cows, dust, rubbish everywhere, bad smells...amazing how people don't seem to be affected by it!!! We see the Red Fort from outside (the one in Agra is apparently similar but more beautiful), a lovely red stone fortress built by a Moghol emperor in the 17th century. We also see a Jain temple and its bird hospital on the way. We then visit Taj Ghat, the Gandhi memorial, in a beautiful garden, with only a black stone with a burning flame. The place is peaceful and many Indian come here to pay their respect to the Nation founder. We have food in a very posh restaurant, our driver refuses to let us eat in small cheapies!! We then visit New Delhi in the afternoon, it is more airy, big avenues, we see the India Gate, Humayun's tomb, the Parliament and government House, Gandhi's killing place and then our driver takes us to a big Sikh Temple. It is the second temple in the country (18-20,000 devotes a day). We get in, covered, walk around, observe the devouts, see the rituals, it is nice and feels intimate and quiet despite of the crowd. After a short break, we go to the train station to book some tickets. An adventure in itself, crossing the station, the many many people, the crowd, finding the right place, getting our tickets...a struggle..like many things here, so many contrasts, such plurality in everything, religiosity everyhwere, business like mad, uncoherent mixes... We realise it will take time to adjust...We go to a nice cafe for meal, we have some chai across the road from the hotel, then bedtime.
06/05
We take it easy this morning. A quick shopping session to try and find more appropriate clothing for Val. We stroll in the main bazar and stop for lunch in the small canteen around the corner. We have our thali and the very good chai from the old man across the street before heading off to the station. We hire a cyclo-rickshaw and climb on the small seat with the bags behind us. It is a bit of an epic, we're obviously so heavy, the guy sweats like mad, it is hot. The driver smiles to us, a smile on which we can read the pain. Val feels so guilty, but I sort of don't. He's a proud guys and I respect him for that. He works hard and we pay him a price probably relevant to the effort. We're trying to adjust our good-thinking European mentalities to the indian way. It is hard, believe me. But a man who works will be able to afford some food and some kind of accomodation. I prefer hiring this rickshaw-wallah rather than the tuk-tuk guy. The last one charges more for the same journey (same duration also), but without any effort. The road is bumpy and full of potholes, there is not much left of the tarmac, the ride is not comfortable but we get to the station. We load our backpacks on our backs and start crossing the station grounds, scattered with litters, beggars, entire homeless families, other families waiting for their unprobable train, the queues are so long for the cheap second class or unreserved seats, that some of them will maybe wait for a day or two to get on one of the trains. We make our way around them, slowly progressing through the station, smiling at people smiling at us, being stared at by others we stare at back, smiling again. This is crazy, nice, mad, demential, interesting, infuriating, entertaining, confusing, annoying, amusing, irritating, funny, strange, weird and god knows what. Hence the warning from everybody and the stressful constant announces from the rail company for watching belongings, suspicious passengers, potential terrorists, pickpockets, street kids...where the f*** are we!!!!!??? I acknowledge that I freak out a bit, but there is nothing threatening around here...If you ever buy a guide book to visit India, please start by ripping the danger and annoyance pages...It is mad but somehow manageable!
We find our train and talk a bit with a guy from Austria. We board our conditioned coach (it's about 40 degrees inside!!) and soon set off to the North in direction of Haridwar. The train is packed with indian tourists, all of them middle and upper middle class. We will not have much of an experience here as we are not in the popular carriages but didn't feel adventurous for our first trip in train!! We slowly leave the megacity of Delhi, going through the suburbs, some clean, some nearly like slums, with kids running naked on the piles of garbage, some digging in the hope of an item they'll be able to exchange for a few rupees, rubbish in the water, waterfalls of garbage in the fields. We then pass the dry landscapes of the countryside and finally reach our destination just after sunset. The near entire carriages unloads here. The hussle and bustle carries on when we thought it would become easier!!!Loud noise, horns, shoutings. The dark helps, but hundreds of people walk around us, rickshaws and auto-rickshaws (tuk-tuks), horns, buses, cows, dogs, beggars...Wow...we walk along the dark and murky road to end up in our hotel. Not nice, but we don't want to walk around at night so heavily loaded...We were expecting something quite nice, but the rooms are tired, not really dirty (a bit though), bear...It is far from the luxury of our Sri Lanka Palaces...We are desperate to go somewhere else nicer but what will we find at this time? After a long chat, we decide to take the room and go for a walk around the small streets of the bazar and check some other place on the way for tomorrow. The city is busy with pilgrims, we are the only Westerners around, but it feels fine. There are many small streets, alleyways, tons of ashram all around the place, some ghats, a busy markets, some bridges with many sadhus (spiritual local wise men), a strange and very religious atmosphere.
7/05
Short night. Wake up late today for Val's birthday, a bit tired and apprehensive. We have recovered and try to think pink for this special day. After breakfast we go for a walk in the bazar in direction of Har-Ki-Pairi, a very holy ghat on the pilgrimage route to the Ganges sources. We were aware of the fact that Haridwar is full of Indian tourists and that the summer holidays are taking place now, but the city is buyant, a continuous flow of people arriving from the entire country but it feels that we weren't fully prepared. Not scared or anything bad but during the past four months we haven't encountered this intensity...
We arrive at the ghat surrounded by Sadhus and Holy Saints of hindhuism and beggars and poor pilgrims and middle class pilgrims, bathing, taking pictures, I get a street guys to show me a King Cobra straight under his nose (but alive and not to be eaten this one, spine shivers...), the place is definitely holy but there is some kind of paradox that it is more a spa but also an asylum...it is very strange. It is so disturbing and confusing. Poverty is overwhelming, noise is omnipresent, motorbikes, auto-rickshaws, cars, lorries are honking constantly, even close to your face, swerving in front of your nose in such a normality that is so unsettling. I don't think we've ever felt in danger anywhere because of the traffic but there is this 'so be it' attitude here from everyone that makes my heart pump sometimes.
Because we feel slightly overstimulated we decide to go and hide in the only 'nice' restaurant of the town. It's air conditioned, but overlooking the street behing thick glass. At least we can enjoy watching the stream of people and avoid the shouting loudspeakers, honks reving engines and bells. All our senses are overloaded, and we feel a bit lost...We catch ourselves spotting westerners. There aren't many of them...far from it!!!
We want something special today...but it is a bit in its own way. India way. We have no reference here, everything is different and we sort of look around trying to find something. There is some sort of vertigo, a whirling that takes us. We have a quick walk to check the buses to Rishikesh after lunch, feeling a bit more relaxed and ready to confront our surrounding but 20 metres later we feel tense again. India will be a complete and unique experience, we have to learn new skills to be able to cope with the singularity and forget about plans, as it seems it is always changing here. We rest again and then go for a walk in the market, I buy Val some small pink bracelets for her birthday, we then go to see the ceremony at Har Ki Pairi, it is a fascinating fire ceremony but a bit scary as the ghat is really crowded by thousand of pilgrims, offering flowers and candles in some small boats to the Ganges, mother of river. Flowers, powder, incense, flames, gurus, pilgrims, a fabulous mix! Amazing to see such a mass of humanity: the pilgrims with long hairs, bright saris, some smells: shit and burning onions, incense and urine, sandalwood and spices...We try to reduce the sensory overload from time to time by closing our eyes but you can still feel the buzz. Spirituality everywhere here. We then go for dinner in the nice restaurant again. We manage to find an internet cafe, in the middle of the street and Val checks her birthday emails, she needs it, we both have to feel strong and it will be an education this raw humanity around us!!
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