I spent the day shopping - possibility the activity I hate more than anything else in the world. Haggling is fun, but picking out clothes is a god-awful experience. In any case - I now have a huge second bag filled with clothes, batik tapestries, sandals, bags, a chapati griddle, incense, cardamon pods, and a kickass pressure cooker that will mean no more 1.5 hours to cook lentils.
I sold my barebones Motorola mobile phone to a electronic shop for about $7USD, as I won't need it anymore. When I come back to India next time, I'm going to bring a GPRS/data phone so I can surf the web from anywhere.
I rewarded myself in the afternoon with a back/neck massage (which I've gotten quite a bit here in India). They're not as good as the mind-blowingly fantastic (yet sometimes painful) ones that you can get in Thailand, but at approx 30 rupees (less than 1USD) for half an hour, a massage from an Indian barber is dirt cheap, and quite relaxing. It's much much better than the 500 rupee, ayuverdic oil massages that are hawked to tourists here.
With that - I'm done. I've spent the evening catching up on emails, and in about 20 mins, I catch a taxi to the airport. At 2:25AM, If fly from Delhi->Munich, then to London, then to Washington DC, and finally to Indianapolis.. 20 hours of flying, and probably somewhere around 24 hours of total travel.
It'll be nice to have good internet, and escape the non-stop honking of horns in Delhi, but I'll miss India - a place where I can really relax, and not worry about things. Real Life kicks in again tomorrow.
Showing posts with label delhi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label delhi. Show all posts
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Karma
This morning, I took an auto-rickshaw about 30km across town (at least that was what the meter said), and went to the super clean and impresive offices of Axiss Dental Clinic. I'd called the day before, and made a last minute reservation.
Its been twelve months, and I was expecting at least a filling or two - but no, for the most part, my teeth are fine. Total cost: 1200 rupes (slightly over 30 dollars), for a cleaning at a top notch private dental clinic. Medical Tourism is fantastic.
To celebrate my good luck at not having to spend my last two days getting a root canal, I decided to go for a bit of karmic payback.....
I spent an hour on the phone with the US and British embassies, trying to get a list of foreigners locked up in the delhi prison for drugs. I want to visit someone who speaks with an accent similar to mine, but who isn't locked up for pedophelia or murder. Due to privacy reasons, neither embassy would give me the names of anyone...
There has got to be a way to do this - so I'l try calling the jail tomorrow morning. I know it's not going to be pleasant to visit a prison, and see someone stuck behind bars - but... it must be even worse when you're stuck behind those bars. As someone who is leaving in a couple days, a free man, I think it's the least I can do.
Other than that - my last couple days will consist of shopping for the most part. Indian clothes are mostly crap quality - breaking, tearing or fading after one or two wears, so I don't know if I'll buy any of those. I did however, spend about $35 USD on a top end 3 liter steel pressure cooker, so that I won't have to spend hours cooking lentils anymore. I want to get a few more kitchen things, and then perhaps some fabrics and such for my home...
I've been regularly praying each evening that I don't get food poisoning again during my last couple days here. Hygine in delhi is beyond horrible, and so all I can do is hope. With 4 flights, approx 7000 miles, and about 18 hours of flights on Friday - I realy realy do not want to be crapping myself non stop.
Its been twelve months, and I was expecting at least a filling or two - but no, for the most part, my teeth are fine. Total cost: 1200 rupes (slightly over 30 dollars), for a cleaning at a top notch private dental clinic. Medical Tourism is fantastic.
To celebrate my good luck at not having to spend my last two days getting a root canal, I decided to go for a bit of karmic payback.....
I spent an hour on the phone with the US and British embassies, trying to get a list of foreigners locked up in the delhi prison for drugs. I want to visit someone who speaks with an accent similar to mine, but who isn't locked up for pedophelia or murder. Due to privacy reasons, neither embassy would give me the names of anyone...
There has got to be a way to do this - so I'l try calling the jail tomorrow morning. I know it's not going to be pleasant to visit a prison, and see someone stuck behind bars - but... it must be even worse when you're stuck behind those bars. As someone who is leaving in a couple days, a free man, I think it's the least I can do.
Other than that - my last couple days will consist of shopping for the most part. Indian clothes are mostly crap quality - breaking, tearing or fading after one or two wears, so I don't know if I'll buy any of those. I did however, spend about $35 USD on a top end 3 liter steel pressure cooker, so that I won't have to spend hours cooking lentils anymore. I want to get a few more kitchen things, and then perhaps some fabrics and such for my home...
I've been regularly praying each evening that I don't get food poisoning again during my last couple days here. Hygine in delhi is beyond horrible, and so all I can do is hope. With 4 flights, approx 7000 miles, and about 18 hours of flights on Friday - I realy realy do not want to be crapping myself non stop.
Monday, August 20, 2007
Back in Delhi
It was supposed to be a 16 hour bus ride.
I'm getting ahead of myself slightly though. Yesterday, I packed up all my stuff, gave my last read book away, waved to the tourists openly smoking chillums at the bus-stop, and boarded a 1.5 hour local bus (bags, and some passengers on top, and lots and lots of other passengers inside). Due to the unwritten rules of decency, I had to stand for 1.5 hours, with my face close enough to a chap's armpit that I could see the individual hairs, all so that two scantily clad Israeli girls could sit down. Grrrr.
The local bus was insanely overpacked. There is always space for one more person, and while I usually feel bad for people who have to stand close to my stinking self, I can honestly say that some of the characters next to me must have come straight from handling cow shit. In addition to the armpit in my face, another gentleman stood very very closely behind me for about half an hour, muttering quietly, with what can best be described as a warm lump from somewhere in his crotch region pressed into my jeans-covered bottom. There honestly wasn't any room at all to move around, and so I spent most of the journey concentrating on not falling over, and on giving the seated Israeli girls the stink-eye.
The local bus dropped me off in Bhuntar, where I made my way to a private travel agency across the road from the airport (note to self, next time, fly to Kulu).
An hour and a half later, my deluxe VIP sleeper bus rolled up.
While the lying bastard of a travel agent who sold me the ticket insisted that I had a sleeper cabin in the middle of the bus, when the bus actually showed up, it turned out that I had the very last single sleeper at the back of the bus... which promised to make for a super bumpy ride....
The sleeper compartments of the bus were occupied by tourists, israelis for the most part - while the cheaper "push back" seats below us were occupied by a few Indians, and a whole lot of (what looked like) tibetian nuns.
The journey was supposed to take about 16 hours, putting us in to Delhi sometime in the morning.
At 9AM, we pulled up at a rest-stop approx 250KM from Delhi with a flat tire. I also found out that we spent about 4 hours during the night sitting in a traffic jam. This wasn't going to be pretty.
As the sun rose, the bus got hotter - and thus the entire bus soon smelled of body odor, farts and feet. No matter how holy the nuns may be - their sweaty stinking bodies still smelled as bad as the rest of ours.
I have to admit - that seeing a buddhist nun drinking a coke and eating a chocolate bar just doesn't seem quite right... although I suppose they have just as much a right to enjoy western corporate culture as the rest of us.
Eventually, at around 4PM, the bus pulled into Delhi, making it an approx 20 hour journey.
I've got a dentist apt. booked for 11:30AM. It'll give me 3 days to have whatever work needs to be done. I'll try and take care of a bit of shopping - although Indian clothes tend to fall apart, so there isn't much point in buying them.
I leave for the US on Thursday night.
I'm getting ahead of myself slightly though. Yesterday, I packed up all my stuff, gave my last read book away, waved to the tourists openly smoking chillums at the bus-stop, and boarded a 1.5 hour local bus (bags, and some passengers on top, and lots and lots of other passengers inside). Due to the unwritten rules of decency, I had to stand for 1.5 hours, with my face close enough to a chap's armpit that I could see the individual hairs, all so that two scantily clad Israeli girls could sit down. Grrrr.
The local bus was insanely overpacked. There is always space for one more person, and while I usually feel bad for people who have to stand close to my stinking self, I can honestly say that some of the characters next to me must have come straight from handling cow shit. In addition to the armpit in my face, another gentleman stood very very closely behind me for about half an hour, muttering quietly, with what can best be described as a warm lump from somewhere in his crotch region pressed into my jeans-covered bottom. There honestly wasn't any room at all to move around, and so I spent most of the journey concentrating on not falling over, and on giving the seated Israeli girls the stink-eye.
The local bus dropped me off in Bhuntar, where I made my way to a private travel agency across the road from the airport (note to self, next time, fly to Kulu).
An hour and a half later, my deluxe VIP sleeper bus rolled up.
While the lying bastard of a travel agent who sold me the ticket insisted that I had a sleeper cabin in the middle of the bus, when the bus actually showed up, it turned out that I had the very last single sleeper at the back of the bus... which promised to make for a super bumpy ride....
The sleeper compartments of the bus were occupied by tourists, israelis for the most part - while the cheaper "push back" seats below us were occupied by a few Indians, and a whole lot of (what looked like) tibetian nuns.
The journey was supposed to take about 16 hours, putting us in to Delhi sometime in the morning.
At 9AM, we pulled up at a rest-stop approx 250KM from Delhi with a flat tire. I also found out that we spent about 4 hours during the night sitting in a traffic jam. This wasn't going to be pretty.
As the sun rose, the bus got hotter - and thus the entire bus soon smelled of body odor, farts and feet. No matter how holy the nuns may be - their sweaty stinking bodies still smelled as bad as the rest of ours.
I have to admit - that seeing a buddhist nun drinking a coke and eating a chocolate bar just doesn't seem quite right... although I suppose they have just as much a right to enjoy western corporate culture as the rest of us.
Eventually, at around 4PM, the bus pulled into Delhi, making it an approx 20 hour journey.
I've got a dentist apt. booked for 11:30AM. It'll give me 3 days to have whatever work needs to be done. I'll try and take care of a bit of shopping - although Indian clothes tend to fall apart, so there isn't much point in buying them.
I leave for the US on Thursday night.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Delhi to Leh
My evening in Delhi consisted of stuffing my face with all the food I'd missed, picking up bits and bobs that i'd need for my trip, and then attempting to catch some rest.
3 showers later, I was still hot and sweaty, and even with the A/C and fan going full blast, I couldn't get any sleep. I blame the jetlag at least partially.
A screwup with the taxi (essentially, I got swindled for about 50 rupees), meant that I had to pay retail for a taxi at 3AM - I woke up the taxi driver dozing in the rear seat, and paid him 220 rupees to take me to the domestic terminal.
I've briefly befriended an Australian hippy, who very kindly offered to take my gigantic pot of Marmite, a can of lebanese hummus (to be used in a trade with a desperate israeli), and a few other heavy items with her on her flight. Air Deccan, the low cost carrrier I was taking are very very strict in terms of weight - as they can charge you for every kg you go over. This of course gave me a large incentive to keep my eye on her, lest she run off with my Marmite once she got to Leh.
The flight: I can honestly say that it was the most fantastic flight I've ever taken. It didn't last much more than an hour, but the trip over so many snow-capped mountains made for a fantastic view - and in many cases, it seemed like we were just a few hundred meters over the mountains.
The decent into Leh, was...crazy. There is one short runway, with mountains on either end, and so the airplane had to make a series of decending circles, each time getting a bit and bit lower. It gave us a good chance to see the mountains - and also, the mega-ton of army vehicles, troops and airplanes in the area. Gun turrets and sandbag-protected soldiers lined the runway, and kept the eye on our plane the whole time as we landed.
It's ironic I suppose, in that both this place, and the Andaman Islands I went to last year - some of the most beautiful places I've been to in the world, and both are chock-a-block full of Indian Army/Navy. And in both those situations, the troops consider it to be a really horrible posting. No one likes getting sent to Leh - but thats probably because it's far below freezing 8 months of the year.
Once we landed, we both checked into two different rooms at a guest house about 15 mins outside of leh - and the majority of the rest of the day was spent snoozing. I was already feeling feint - either because of the altitude, or the lack of sleep, and so I really wanted to take it easy.
3 showers later, I was still hot and sweaty, and even with the A/C and fan going full blast, I couldn't get any sleep. I blame the jetlag at least partially.
A screwup with the taxi (essentially, I got swindled for about 50 rupees), meant that I had to pay retail for a taxi at 3AM - I woke up the taxi driver dozing in the rear seat, and paid him 220 rupees to take me to the domestic terminal.
I've briefly befriended an Australian hippy, who very kindly offered to take my gigantic pot of Marmite, a can of lebanese hummus (to be used in a trade with a desperate israeli), and a few other heavy items with her on her flight. Air Deccan, the low cost carrrier I was taking are very very strict in terms of weight - as they can charge you for every kg you go over. This of course gave me a large incentive to keep my eye on her, lest she run off with my Marmite once she got to Leh.
The flight: I can honestly say that it was the most fantastic flight I've ever taken. It didn't last much more than an hour, but the trip over so many snow-capped mountains made for a fantastic view - and in many cases, it seemed like we were just a few hundred meters over the mountains.
The decent into Leh, was...crazy. There is one short runway, with mountains on either end, and so the airplane had to make a series of decending circles, each time getting a bit and bit lower. It gave us a good chance to see the mountains - and also, the mega-ton of army vehicles, troops and airplanes in the area. Gun turrets and sandbag-protected soldiers lined the runway, and kept the eye on our plane the whole time as we landed.
It's ironic I suppose, in that both this place, and the Andaman Islands I went to last year - some of the most beautiful places I've been to in the world, and both are chock-a-block full of Indian Army/Navy. And in both those situations, the troops consider it to be a really horrible posting. No one likes getting sent to Leh - but thats probably because it's far below freezing 8 months of the year.
Once we landed, we both checked into two different rooms at a guest house about 15 mins outside of leh - and the majority of the rest of the day was spent snoozing. I was already feeling feint - either because of the altitude, or the lack of sleep, and so I really wanted to take it easy.
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Back in India
15 months after I left, I'm back in India. Thus, starting today, farting is suddenly a very risky act - as you never know what will happen.
Delhi airport can be a crazy experience. I had breakfast this morning with a South African woman who got completely screwed over when she arrived last night - taxi drivers threatening to drop her off in the middle of nowhere, over-priced mold infested hotel rooms, threats of violence, etc... All because she opted to go with a taxi driver who walked upto her, and offered her a deal.
It's like so many of the horror stories you hear - in hindsight, it's easy to see where they went wrong.
My experience on the other hand, was painless this morning.
I walked out of the airport, got some cash from the ATM - 2500 rupees in my money belt, and 300 rupees in bills in my top pocket.
I walked straight to a policeman, and asked him where I could catch a bus to the city - he pointed me the right way, and a second policeman outside actually walked me to the bus. Police are your good friend in India - assuming of course, you're not an Israeli backpacker trying to smuggle hashish.
The bus cost me 50 rupees, and dropped me off in Connaught Place. A 20 rupee auto-rickshaw ride took me to the area where I'm staying. After a bit of brief haggling, I got a air-con room in a decent hotel for 450 rupees.
First thing I did, was go and get a shave. I haven't shaved for 3 months, and looked like some kind of cross between a goat and a mujhadeen. Cleanly shaved, I got my first paan in 15 months, a towel, a lungi (a sarong/skirt) - as it is damn humid here, and breakfast: Idli.. mmm, oh how i've missed it.
Sure, it's so humid my shirt is sticking to me - yes, cows roam the streets, and the mud in the streets certainly isn't mud... but it's India, and I feel strangely, at home.
I fly to Leh tomorrow morning at 6AM. Leh is an ethnically tibetian area, the highest in altitude in India. However, it's also in the state of Jammu/Kashmir. Kargil, the beginning of muslim Kashmir, is a few hours away - and the Kargil War nearly caused a nuclear war back in 2002. Thus, while Leh will be flush with backpackers, the security situation is still very tight. Permits required to see some sites, military everywhere, and getting a GSM card for my phone may be tough.
I expect to have solid internet in Leh - and will be there for at least a few days, as my body will need to get used to the altitude.
Until then.
Delhi airport can be a crazy experience. I had breakfast this morning with a South African woman who got completely screwed over when she arrived last night - taxi drivers threatening to drop her off in the middle of nowhere, over-priced mold infested hotel rooms, threats of violence, etc... All because she opted to go with a taxi driver who walked upto her, and offered her a deal.
It's like so many of the horror stories you hear - in hindsight, it's easy to see where they went wrong.
My experience on the other hand, was painless this morning.
I walked out of the airport, got some cash from the ATM - 2500 rupees in my money belt, and 300 rupees in bills in my top pocket.
I walked straight to a policeman, and asked him where I could catch a bus to the city - he pointed me the right way, and a second policeman outside actually walked me to the bus. Police are your good friend in India - assuming of course, you're not an Israeli backpacker trying to smuggle hashish.
The bus cost me 50 rupees, and dropped me off in Connaught Place. A 20 rupee auto-rickshaw ride took me to the area where I'm staying. After a bit of brief haggling, I got a air-con room in a decent hotel for 450 rupees.
First thing I did, was go and get a shave. I haven't shaved for 3 months, and looked like some kind of cross between a goat and a mujhadeen. Cleanly shaved, I got my first paan in 15 months, a towel, a lungi (a sarong/skirt) - as it is damn humid here, and breakfast: Idli.. mmm, oh how i've missed it.
Sure, it's so humid my shirt is sticking to me - yes, cows roam the streets, and the mud in the streets certainly isn't mud... but it's India, and I feel strangely, at home.
I fly to Leh tomorrow morning at 6AM. Leh is an ethnically tibetian area, the highest in altitude in India. However, it's also in the state of Jammu/Kashmir. Kargil, the beginning of muslim Kashmir, is a few hours away - and the Kargil War nearly caused a nuclear war back in 2002. Thus, while Leh will be flush with backpackers, the security situation is still very tight. Permits required to see some sites, military everywhere, and getting a GSM card for my phone may be tough.
I expect to have solid internet in Leh - and will be there for at least a few days, as my body will need to get used to the altitude.
Until then.
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