Day 48 – New Delhi, India

Oct 15th

Traveling
After getting up at 5:45AM, I happily snacked on my pineapple pastry and OJ, while waiting in the Union for my group to gather. We checked all our liquids and batteries in a single bag for the group, since Indian airport security is apparently stricter than the United States. During the 45 min bus ride by motorcoach to the Chennai Airport, we saw the rolling countryside, which was a nice change from the bustle of the city. Security at the airport turned out to be rather lax, although they did segregate women from men, and make women go inside a pink curtain to be searched by a female guard while the men were searched in the open. Marissa and I went to the bathroom to find squatter toilets with no toilet paper or soap. We improvised with napkins, holding our breath and lots of Purel. Afterward we decided to be even more adventurous and try and new food at the snack stall. Marissa insisted we try this green gooey sandwhich, which turned out to be fermented beans and cheese. I could only manage a few bites, since it smelled like dog’s breath. Finally, at around 8AM Indigo flight #6E took off and we were on our way to Delhi!

New Delhi
Two and a half hours later we landed at the Indira Gandhi International Airport and headed straight for the tour bus. Our guide Kapil greeted us with orange marigold lays. Tim was lucky enough to find a dead caterpillar on his. I creatively turned mine into a flower cap. New Delhi, the capital, is the second largest city in India with 14 million people. The city consists of two parts: Old Delhi, which was the capital of Muslim India between the 12th and 19th century, and New Delhi, which was created by the British to serve as the imperial capital. New Delhi is a spacious and clean city, with extra wide streets and more semblance of organization than any other Indian city. Kapil called Delhi “the greenest capital in the world” because of its meticulous tree control. Delhi is clearly an up-in-coming city with the amount of construction underway. Currently, they are in the process of building the first underground subway system, along with new railways and highways. Our first stop in Delhi was lunch at the Sahara restaurant. Cory, Nichole, Marissa and I excitedly spent the entire 2-hr meal delving into the historical references of every Disney movie ever created to decide its general time period. Our analysis got surprisingly detailed. Aladdin was a big contentious issue, however, since we couldn’t decide where exactly it was located.

Tour of Delhi
After lunch, we toured the government buildings in central Delhi. We passed Rashtrapati (the Indian White House), the Parliament House and the Indian Gate, which commemorates the lives of 90,000 Indian soldiers who died in WWI. Afterwards we saw the largest roundabout in the world (which was six lanes wide) at Connaught Place. Indian driving habits (ie, ignoring road lines and weaving around each other) makes this roundabout ten lanes. Then we passed through the ‘Hollywood’ section of Delhi and saw $150 million dollars homes of India’s billionaires. Apparently, India (and New Delhi in particular) is home to the largest number of billionaires in the world. The weirdest thing was at the end of the street, where we found Mother Teresa’s shack-like home that she stayed in whenever she visited Delhi. Delhi also doesn’t have any advertisements, since a woman once crashed and killed 6 people trying to read a shoe sale sign. Our final stop in Delhi for the day was Raj Ghat, the cremation site of the ‘Father of the Nation’ Mahatma Gandhi. Set amidst large, well-kept stone buildings and pristine gardens we removed our shoes and wandered around Gandhi’s black granite table adorned with flowers and flames. Once Gandhi was cremated on the table, his ashes were spread all over the world.

Train Station
Upon arriving at the New Delhi station, we were greeted by the stares of just about every person there. Swarms of homeless and poor children ran up to us and asked for food. Everyone seemed to be un-phased by the cockroaches and large rats that roamed the trash heaps and rail tracks. When we first saw our compartments, we were happy to see glass windows (others didn’t have them) and “air conditioning” or fans fixed to the ceilings. We also had a family of friends (ie, cockroaches) scaling the walls for the entire trip. Despite my best effort to avoid the bathroom, I had the trill of using another squatter toilet while bugs crawled above my head and the moving tracks passed in the hole below. Afterwards, Lauren and I drowned our sorrows with a half bottle of hand sanitizer. We passed the six hours on the train dozing in and out of sleep, eating mooghal dal (fried lentils) and playing ‘Apples to Apples.’

Holiday Inn
Six hours after our “4-hr” train pulled in to the Agra station, we headed for dinner. It was about midnight, but Kapil made arrangements with the hotel to prepare a special, authentic meal. After a quick, useless shower, we passed out to catch as much sleep as possible before our 5AM wake up call.

Highs and Lows
My “high” was seeing my name in Tamil on my train ticket! My “low” was finding out some ghastly gossip from Cory on the train.