Old Delhi

My plans for today were to start the day slowly and explore parts of Old Delhi.
The weather was warm. 26 to 39 today with 'widespread dust & haze'.
As usual, the immediate comparisons between the comforts of the haves, compared to the deprivations of the have nots are glaringly obvious.

From the absolute comfort of my hotel room at the Hilton New Delhi Mayur Vihar, my view is of slums where people live in absolute poverty. 
The hotel was opened about twelve weeks ago. It is of 4 1/2 star quality. The staff are obliging, and the service is excellent. Every facility is on hand. Four complimentary bottles of spring water are provided every day. Cable television is beamed into the rooms. Wireless internet is on hand, and all fittings are flawless.
400 metres away, people are living in the dirt. Tin sheds form their housing, and ablutions are carried out almost in the open. Adjacent to their dwellings are assorted cows and pigs, wallowing in a festering green waterhole..
Around them construction continues at a breakneck speed. New commercial and residential buildings are being built everywhere....
I, on the other hand finished my breakfast, had my coffee and read "The Times of India".
The taxi driver from yesterday, Nelu, was reliable, so after breakfast I called him, and organised that he should be my tour guide for the day.
I gave him carte-blanche to use his own imagination as to where we should go.
First stop was Humayan's tomb. An impressive early Mughal tomb built for the Emperor Humayan in the mid-16th century by his Persian born wife. Elements of the design of this building, including the dome, and the formal gardens were later to be refined and used in the design of the Taj Mahal. A very beautiful and impressive memorial, surrounded by large tranquil gardens.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humayun
After leaving the tomb, we visited the shrine of one of the world's most famous Sufu saints, Nizamuddin Auliya. Again, fascinating. This is one of the sites that Nelu visits regularly for meditation, and is quite near the Humayan tomb.
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nizamuddin_Auliya
From the Sufu shrine, we motored on to the Gurdwara Damdama Sahib, a sikh shrine. After wearing a head covering, removing my shoes, washing my hands, and then walking through a foot bath, I was allowed to enter the temple. Within the temple is a shrine to their holy book. Raised on a plinth and surrounded by fresh flowers, this temple is a site for quiet meditation. The sikhs at this site provide clean drinking water and have a large kitchen where they cook and provide food, for anyone who needs.
http://www.sikhiwiki.org/index.php/Gurdwara_Damdama_Sahib_(Delhi)
When I was leaving the "gurdwara" Delhi police were filling an urn with fresh water, and locals were collecting sandwiches from the kitchen.
From the the sikhs we moved on to visit the famous Red Fort within Old Delhi.
Getting there was half the fun. Firstly, pushing our way through the traffic, eventually we got as close as possible to the fort, where we stopped and I continued my journey on a cycle-rickshaw. The poor driver rode through heavy traffic for about half an hour before depositing me at the entrance to the Red Fort.
The Red Fort is one of the Indian World Heritage sites and is a popular tourist destination. Entry is via security checks, very official looking, but I suspect rather innefective. After going through the security checks I bought an entry ticket for 250 rupee ($5), the locals pay 10 rupee (.20c).
More security, metal detectors and body searches. A number of militia with old rifles standing guard.
The Red Fort was built in the 17th century and was the residence of the Imperial Family of India. It is fantastic.., and a combination of many beautiful buildings.
Check out  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Fort
After walking around the site for over an hour, I returned to my patient rickshaw driver who returned me to my taxi driver whe had also been waiting patiently. Before heading back to the hotel, I was "encouraged" to visit another little shop with Indian handcrafts. Lovely, but I'm afraid one is the same as the next..
Just before getting in the cab however, I was treated to a snake charmer, sitting nearby who had two cobras performing...
More than enough excitement today.

Connaught Place

Started the day off slowly today after a good sleep.

I watched the morning news and was informed that the yoga Baba Randev is about to start a fast so as to force the government to crack down on corruption and on black money accounts stashed overseas. 

The government is worried. Why?


Wandered down to the restaurant on the 3rd floor with the imaginative name "Cafe on 3". Pleasant enough. I started with a nice OJ and a pretty good filtered coffee. Thought I'd stick with the Indian theme today so ordered a Rice Dosa for brekky. had my Dosa with a potato masala filling, accompanied by some coconut chutney, some chilli paste and some green unidentified goo.

Really nice start for the day, and once I'd read the Delhi City Times, and had another sip of coffee I was ready for my first excursion. 


Collected my cameras, and worked out some transport. Caught a cab from the hotel with my driver Nelu from the "Hilton Hotel Taxi Service". Poor bugger has been sleeping in his cab in the hotel car park for the last 3 days. He gets approximately 2-3 fares a day if he is lucky. The cab was clean and he assured me that he was too !! I paid him 400 rupees (About 8 aussie dollars) for his 40 minute drive, and he'll probably get two fares today. The rent for his 2 room apartment is 700 rupee a month ($140). He struggles paying it...
He drove well, managing to avoid all oncoming obstacles. He did his duty and warned me of the touts.
Connaught Place is the geographical heart of New Delhi. Designed in 1932 by the architect Robert Russel, it is an imitation of the Royal Crescent in Bath, England. Architecturally, it may be similar, but the cultural differences separate the two by a million miles. Every metre of footpath and road is under constant demolition (by hand of course). I'm not sure that it ever gets repaired again. Probably not, by the looks of things.
Connaught Place is designed as a number of concentric circles of grand English architecture, but the dirt is everywhere, and not just the piles of dirt all over the footpaths where they are being dug up, and dug up again, but the buildings, which are painted white, all which have paan stains smeared over the base of the columns. The stains look like faeces, but thankfully are not. (You will have to look up paan yourselves in wikipedia)  or http://thegoriwifelife.blogspot.com/2009/01/paan.html
Regrettably, the poverty is everywhere. There are mangy dogs sleeping in nearly every entrance and hidden corner. They have no hope of being healthy. Many poor street children, covered in detritus are also sleeping fitfully in hidden alcoves.
Even though I was acutely aware of the touts and con artists, I was targeted immediately,  and was conned into taking a tuk tuk to "the shopping mall down the street". Goodness knows why I succumbed, I have no interest in buying anything, but I don't think my visit would have been complete without getting tricked into visiting a shop that I had no interest in visiting. After being harassed and befriended one time too many I hardened up, and as even able to ignore the nagging children.
A number of the shops were interesting though, and the better ones were constantly being mopped out or if they were shoe shops or book shops, they were being dusted almost constantly.
After three or four hours of battling the heat, dust, dirt and touts I was exhausted and headed back to the hotel with a kamikaze tuk tuk driver. He managed to zigzag his way around potholes, pedestrians and cyclists, but got hopelessly lost as he got close to the hotel. Eventually I was deposited at the hotel where I had my bags x-rayed before I could enter the foyer.

I had a nice lunch of a mixed vegetarian mezze plate before coming back to the room and chilling out.

The flight over

The flight was relatively uneventful.
Yoni assisted me with the bookings and all went well.
I flew Sydney to Singapore on Qantas QF5. Left Sydney on time at 3:50 pm on Tuesday and arrived at Changi airport in Singapore at 9:55 pm local time. Actually took just over eight hours flying time though, and thanks to Yoni, I was in Premium Economy. 6289 km on a Boing 747-400. Very comfy seats. Just a shame the turkey in front of me was lying flat, and on top of me for the entire trip. He even somehow managed to tip a full glass of water into my lap. Not a very fortuitous start to the trip.
After some inedible food at Swensen's (San Francisco style dining 'ahem') and a Caramel Frappuccino with extra cream at Terminal 2's Starbucks, I was ready for anything.

At 6:25 am Wednesday morning, after trying to sleep across a row of four plastic benches through the night in the transit hall, I boarded a Silk Air Airbus A320 for the very quick flight to Kuala Lumpur. Less than an hour later I was at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) and was met at the gate by a very obliging Malaysian boy who hustled me from Terminal 3 to Terminal M. We seemed to walk for ages, and then caught the Aerotrain which shuttles passengers between the main terminal and the satellite building. The layover was an hour and twenty minutes, but I spent most of that time rushing to the satellite building, and organising a new boarding pass. KLIA is a huge airport, and I'm not sure I would have made the connecting flight without the assistance.
By 8:40 am our flight was all ready to take off for Delhi. Malaysian Airlines this time and another 3,874 km by Boeing 737-800. The flight was scheduled to land 5 and a half hours later at Indian local time 11:40 am. I was surrounded on both sides by heavily tattooed Indians. The flight was ok though, apart from the lack of any proper in flight movies. I treated myself to some curried vegetables for breakfast, and filled out my Indian entry forms. Screaming babies entertained the passengers through the flight and the trip seemed to take ages, but we landed on time. The air was heavy with heat and humidity.
I was prepared for chaos, but Delhi's Indira Gandhi Airport was, although massive, relatively well organised, and easy to navigate.
Once outside the immigration hall, I was almost immediately met by a driver from Koenig, who was very helpful. We walked about 10 minutes to his van, he apologised for the heat (which reached 35'), and he drove me to my accommodation.
The ride was, as could be expected, "interesting". There were no real eye openers though. We've all seen movies of Delhi traffic, and it was just as I'd expected. Crazy...

                                                
Lots of motorcyclists, auto-rickshaws, cars, trucks and buses, all vying for the same piece of road. A number of motorcyclists had their wives sitting side saddle, with babies being nursed as the bikes constantly jostled for position, along with the other traffic. Amazing that no-one seems to collide.
My driver had never made a drop off to the Doubletree Hilton before, and doubted that he'd been to that part of the city before. He had to stop by the roadside to ask directions on a couple of occasions. Still, my driver drove well, and after 40 minutes he dropped me off at the hotel. Interestingly, there is strong security at the hotel. Barriers, gates and security guards armed with mirrors on trollies that were used to check the underneath of our van before we were let into the 'complex'.
Once in, the Hotel appeared very comfortable. New, probably just recently built for last year's Commonwealth Games. A good 'business class' hotel, filled with eager staff.
After checking in, my bags were taken to the room. I had a shower, bliss !!, a bit of a rest, and then went downstairs for a bit of dinner. I stuck with the western food tonight. Experiments with Indian food can wait till tomorrow. Nicely cooked rack of lamb was on my menu, and once digested with a quick read of the "Times of India", I headed upstairs for an early night's rest.

Off to India...

Well. Here I am.
53 years old, and off on my first trip to the sub-continent !
Bags are packed now, with the bare minimum on-board. Had my shots. Cholera, Hep A, Hep B, Typhoid, Polio, Tetanus. Did I forget any?
Before I fly, Sarah and I have wandered down Bondi Rd for a quick brekky together.
A macchiatto, mushrooms on toast & my last read of the SMH for a while, while Sarah has her English breakfast tea with a slice of lemon.