Delhi

The last day of our tour was in Pushkar, one of the holy cities. The main attraction is a market, selling the generic kind of tourist stuff. We arrived, had some lunch and went for a camel safari. I got on the camel where there was just a stump to hold onto, and was pretty uncomfortable on the top. From my workplace injuries I’ve lost proper grip in two fingers as well as grip in my thumb – I don’t need the list of injuries that I’ve had over the past five years to include falling off a camel. Whilst camels have been used for transport and carrying heavy loads, I wasn’t sure how ethical it was to ride them.

We went to the market, just to see what it was like as we had the next morning to do as we pleased. Our dinner stop was with a local family, cooking us all a vegetarian meal.

The next morning I spent in the market, but being in Asia for ten weeks there was nothing that really stood out. There were a couple of other places to visit that I wasn’t too fussed about seeing.

After a seven hour train back to Dehli, we reached the hotel and I had the next day to do as I pleased before boarding the flight to Dubai, then Budapest. My driver stopped me off at a Sikh temple, Humayun’s Tomb, a market, the outside of the Lotus Palace as the queue was around two hours long, and then the airport.

I had been advised by a few people to go to the airport six hours before the flight to leave enough time for traffic, which was heavy when I first arrived to India. The only traffic I encountered was two red lights, so I had five and a half hours in Delhi Airport, a flight to Dubai, then nine hours in Dubai Airport and six hours flying/sleeping to Budapest.

What did I get out of going to India? I saw how other people lived. A massive part of the culture is based on marriage, religion, education level, political views – very different to what I’ve been around my whole life. I’m very content to be able to do what I want to do without being subject to do what is expected of me by everyone in the culture.

I also saw how people live on the streets, people with struggles that I will never have to face – just because I was lucky to be born where I was born. There was someone on the trip who moaned about being uncomfortable on an unpaved road, but if they had paid attention outside the window of the air conditioned car, she would have realised how well she’s lived. I enjoyed a lot of the trip, but at time it felt as though we were at places to be in places, like staying in a fort with not a lot to do around.

I also had a small group of four people, me being the youngest by at least fifteen years, and two retirees. I have a feeling that we missed out on a few things for their comfort, and there was no one really I could have a laugh, have a drink and chat shit with. There’s a few small things that I would’ve liked to do, like fit as many people as possible into a tuk tuk. Whilst it’s something Westerners would do more for a laugh as it’s something we would get arrested for back home, it’s legitimately how people live. They’d rather sacrifice their comfort for fifteen minutes and use the money instead of hiring another tuk tuk to help themselves live.

Would I go back to India? Absolutely. Next time though, the South and Central. As I’m approaching the end of my travels it’s definitely going to be a few years at least until my return, but it’s near the top of my list.

From Malaysia to Delhi was a five and a half hour flight – a lot longer than I’d expected. I didn’t get up to much in KL, though I’ll post some pictures within the next couple of weeks. I got to the hotel around half 8, but went to bed when I arrived.

Yesterday was the day prior to the tour group meeting. I was pretty hesitant about going out alone as India does not have the best reputation for safety for a foreign woman alone so I booked a tour. The choices were food, New Delhi or Gandhi’s Delhi – I’d definitely be eating local food on this trip with the help from a guide, and I’m going to be visiting places similar to what is included in the Delhi tour, so I opted for Gandhi’s Delhi as it’d be the most unique one.

It was just the guide and I so our first stop was the place where Gandhi was cremated, and Sammy, my guide, took me over the early stages of his life and how he died. I had planned to read his autobiography on the flight over here but I got distracted by the Lord of the Rings movies on the entertainment system. Nowadays it’s a historical monument so is protected by fencing but it’s interesting that the flowers decorating the slab where he was cremated are changed every day.

Next we moved onto a stepwell, which is unrelated but served the purpose during monsoons to contain clean water for households. It’s no longer used for those purposes but now it’s a hangout place, there’s been movies filmed there and it’s a popular spot for people bunking classes as it’s fenced off. Whilst we were being driven to places Sammy told me a lot of information about the area and about Gandhi’s non-violent philosophies, and some of the major events in his life.

We’d stopped off to get some food – starting off with a samosa and some chai, which honestly is one of the best things I’ve ever drank. This was followed by a dessert called gulab jamun; it’s a semolina ball with nuts, spices including cardamom, deep fried in butter and served in a sugar syrup. I knew if the food was like this all along I’d be in for a treat.

After the samosa pit stop we went to the museum of Gandhi, where he spent his last 144 days before being assassinated. They’ve left his few possessions there including his bedroom, glasses, flip flops and walking stick. There’s too much information there for me to take in, especially on a hot day and Sammy highlighted the major bits.

In the garden there, his final footsteps have been marked along with an alter right where he lost his life. It’s a very well maintained area and very quiet in comparison to the rest of Delhi that I’ve seen.

Today, the group went on a tour of Old Delhi, starting at the Hama Masjid Mosque, and then a Sikh temple, both of which were pretty standard in terms of places of worship – I may still be templed out from Cambodia. We then had a stop at the spice market, then back to the hotel to chill for a few hours. We signed up for a street food tour with the company for tonight which I’ve recently arrived back from, and I feel as though I would still need an uber to walk a couple of blocks. In addition to the food in the pictures below we also ate Samosas, Kulfi (saffron ice cream with nuts) and Momos (Nepalese Dumplings).