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 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.
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment