Discovering Dehli

Our internal clocks are mixed up with the time. Keeping my phone on Sarnia time doesn't help either as calculating the time can be difficult when it is actually 3:30am instead of the calculated 5:30am. It is not till we are out on the street, looking to satiate a famished belly that we realise something is wrong with no restaurants open. We eventually spy out a café with some life and join a man from France. After some good coffee, conversation, and an Indian version of a Spanish Omelette, we are back to our hotel to check out and put our main packs in storage for the day.

We venture out looking for some kind of Canaught centre, a supposedly happening place for tourists when we are accosted by a auto-rickshaw taxi driver who's morning mission was to be the recipient of our cash. Upon reflecting on the word auto-rickshaw, the associate words rickety, sh-t and ahhhhhh comes to mind. After failing his mission, he points us to the way of the tourist.


We eventually come to the place and it is more of a crazy driving place then something for tourists. A friendly Indian points us to a 3 story bazaar that is holding our treasures and we walk into a Alla Bubbas flying carpets. "Welcome my friend, you are our first guest and we want to sit you down as our honoured guest." We obliged them and sure enough, out flies the carpets, one by one; silk, wool, and Yak wool versions...all from Kashmir. They also had a weaving machine and they demonstrated the fine art of weaving and creating carpets. Aaron really enjoyed it...for about 15 minutes and I really enjoyed the whole show. They also brought us tea while we were being wooed into a purchase. Alla Bubbas' assistant keeps the carpets flying as he unrolls them with a flick of the wrists and the thud on the floor. Large ones, medium ones, baby ones in all kinds of natural vegetable colours.

I am thinking that our carpet in the great room needs replacing so our call up my beautiful wife, at about 12:30am her time. She is very surprised to hear my voice and when I propose a prized possession 5'x7' for $750 she thinks I am kidding. Would I kid about such as serious matter as a Kashmir silk rug from India? When I convince her that I am serious, she tells me, in her very blue sweet way, "No." So I disappoint Alla Babba with the bad news. However, in the end, I do purchase a baby flying carpet (I assume only babies can actually make this baby fly) because I am the first customer and they threw in free shipping to Canada and because I really did like it and want one for a memory of the trip.

After getting a feel of what the rest of the bazaar would be like, we decided to go on a pilgrimage to a temple. After consulting a local, he pointed us to the biggest temple in the area. On our trek there, we were again asked by a local if we needed a taxi because we seemed lost. We informed him of our pilgrimage of which he informed us that the intended destination was closed for the day. He suggested the "monkey temple" and accompanied us on the pilgrimage. We arrived at the said destination and were instructed to take off our shoes. As we approached the temple, our newly discovered guide did some kind of chest pointing gesture that reminded me of Catholics doing the cross routine. The temple really was a three sided room with a roof and had shrines of fat grotesque figurines. The temple was a Hindu temple and we met a monk who put a touch of orange paint on our forehead (a tika) for good luck. Our guru guide ask me if I ever heard of so-and-so and kept naming different names that seemed to excite him. I kept shaking my head and he must of thought I was a real ignorant pagan. We eventurally got our shoes back on and headed for the DTTCT for a map of the city. They convinced us to take a taxi tour of Delhi and see as many sites as we could in the next 4 hours; cost rs 1,800.

We informed them that we would do the taxi trek after we found some lunch. An Indian from the DTTCT said lunch was right next door and jumped up to show us the way. After we informed them that we wanted Indian food, we took us quite a distance to arrive at a bonafide Indian cuisine. I really didn't expect it would take that long to find India food in India. We suddenly realized that we were now accompanied by a Guru and now our own personal tour guide. These guys turned out to be students and wanted to practice their English.

Eventually we booked a tour at the official Tourist place which was supposedly better for us because they gave us a coloured map. They talked us into a tour but now the tour is either rs 4,600 or rs6,5000. What is the difference? the $6,500 has a bit nicer car adn also includes the entrance fees to the sites we are visiting. Why did the other guy quote me 1,800? Well that is for the locals and you are not allowed to take that option. With the higher price I get a professional driver who speaks fluent English. I take the 4,600 as we are running out of time and I don't want to go back to the other place only to find out that the price changed.

Our Driver was Mosin and his car was okay, his English was very poor. His driving was probably professional but in that environment, you have to drive crazy, not professional, if you want to actually get any where. We did see several sites and I am glad I did even though that is my least favourite thing to do when travelling. My favourite thing to do is to live with the people, eat their food, travel they way they travel and just experience the culture.

So we finally are at the airport and are hungry. We find a food court and decide to try McDonalds. While I generally only eat ethnic food on a trip like this, I also like to experience the local version of McDonalds. In Nova Scotia I remembered eating a McLobster. At this Indian McDonalds there were no Big Macs or 1/4 pounders. In fact, there were no beef products, only chicken. I decided to order a Chicken Maharaja Mac. It was interestingly tasty with a curry dialect. The fries were exactly the same as the North American version. Cost for a combo (Mac, fries, Coke) rs 185 (less than $2).

Stay tuned for our arrival in Nepal.