Delhi “Planes, trains and automobiles” The Real Surprise by Filipe Martins

Welcome to New Dehli Central Station, the thriving capital of the rapidly rising India. On a personal level I was expecting a fusion of old and new i.e. new high rise offices blended into the old down town (colonial style buildings) skyline, where is all this money going ? Definitely not Mumbai or infrastructure. The roads are truly horrendous; nothing is completely finished, it’s all half jobs, semi complete, unfinished. Mumbai and Delhi would look a hell of a lot nicer if the locals didn’t litter so much. They throw everything on the floor which then gets comprehensively mixed in with the cow shit to give modern day manure, regrettably not odourless. Down town Delhi does have a certain something, I just can’t put my finger on it.
An English backpacker (cliché backpacker with dreds) told me that India is a unique place in this world where the extremes are witnessed and experienced. For instance people have very good experiences and very bad experiences, the people are either very rich or very poor and so on. He unquestionably has a very long way in order to find himself (idiot).
My first impressions with Delhi were horrible; similar to Mumbai this place takes a day just to adjust to the cheap traders that swarm the white tourists like flies to a strategically placed cow pat. After a 16 hour train journey on the infamous 2nd AC coach, which in fairness was quite reasonable minus the heavy snoring from our neighbour Panesh. A chubby Indian businessman who has a skinny sidekick partner, looked more like little and large. A random man asked for our tickets outside the train station, as I proceeded to carry on walking and ignore him, he shouted “No ticket, where have you come from? Come here”, I followed with a polite reply along the lines of “where is your badge if you work for the station? %*ck off”. I guess the moment he told us the ticket office was down an adjacent dark alley way I smelled a scam.
As we are attempting to travel India minus a guide book we had a very vague idea of the whereabouts of the luxurious backpacker hotel we booked. Now came a series of harassing cheap traders from all angles, taxies on my right offering me rip off prices for 5min journey, travel agents trying to convince me that the painted “Govt. Approved” meant that there travel agents was official. He may not have realised that his neighbouring competitors also supported that logo. Finally we got to the hotel.
The best experience I can draw from India without a shadow of a doubt is the food. The traditional curries have been of the highest standard, even when eating from local eateries on the street in the downtown area where we are staying. In terms of “pleasant surprises” one would have to be not getting the dreaded Delhi Belly aka the squirts. The city definitely looks better at night when the beautiful old buildings i.e. Indian, British and Mogul don’t look so run down and neglected. One lesson that all visitors learn most probably the hard way is to haggle for better prices, definitely a way of life integrated into every local. The visit to the Taj Mahal has to be a highlight also, the site is unbelievable. Like the photos you see as a child it really is worth seeing up close even if just to see the sheer scale of the project and its perfect symmetry. The coach trip to Agra further confirmed Indian driving as being the most dangerous radical sport around. If you are a thrill seeker I suggest you rent a small to medium size car and do a road trip around India, making sure you experience Mumbai Madness and Delhi Traffic.
Just getting around Delhi is a mental and physical struggle. You can be smack in the middle of the downtown area which probably has the highest street seller per m2 in the world and have a small horde of cattle walk past you like a south west London gang. I can’t believe they have urbanised cows. I have yet to find a peaceful side of Delhi but I am sure they exist, almost certainly nearer the richer side of Delhi i.e. Embassy Road. However even the wealthier areas of Delhi lack that final finish that would have me making comparisons with Eaton Square or the Hamptons in NY. What happened to the grand houses with 100 caretakers and gardeners carrying out precision hedge cutting and maintenance to historical mansion houses? Is this a British Colonial myth that these stately homes exist in India?
The days in Delhi have been early starts with action packed intense days. I am writing this entry as we make our way by train to the North of India. Our primary aim is to see the Golden Temple. It is a smash and grab as we are taking a six hour train there and a six hour train back to stay for 2 hours. The Golden Temple better be worth it.
We decided to avoid catching the Delhi-Goa train like the plague. A grand total of 27 hours WOW 27 hours, that is a huge number, so we booked an internal flight to make sure we get a weekend in Goa. I can’t wait to go to the land of hippies. To conclude Delhi would have to be the land of the free........ oppps sorry I mean street hustlers, they could flog a donkey as a rare racing fully bred Arabian horse to even the experts.