Day 153 and 154 - Delhi

Day 153 - Our train arrived at about 5PM. It was supposed to arrive at 2:50, but any delay of less than three hours is sort of to be expected. Our train arrived in Old Delhi Station. Ticket sales for trains leaving from any other station are sold at the New Delhi Station. We left Old Delhi, expecting to find a phalanx of taxis waiting to zoom us across town. Nothing doing. No taxis to be had. There were some tuk-tuks, but for whatever reason they wouldn't stop for us. Maybe we looked like we knew what we were doing and they knew they wouldn't be able to overcharge. We finally managed to wave down a pair of cycle rickshaws. This turned out for the best - there were massive traffic jams all over the city, and only the cycle rickshaws were able to penetrate the crush.

M, Cz, and I all trooped into the New Delhi Railway station. Our previous experience here had us ready for all sorts of trouble. This time however, we found our way straight up to the tourist booking center...which was air-conditioned, and organised, and HELPFUL. and the bathroom was CLEAN. We doubted we were in India anymore. Within half an hour, and no fuss at all, we had tickets for the 40 hour train to Goa. We even splashed out for an air-conditioned car. Less for the cool temperature, and more because we hoped it would be a little quieter.

From New Delhi railway, we were able to find a cab, and soon arrived at the Delhi Youth hostel, which is actually more swank than a lot of the hotels in the area. The poor brow-beaten young man behind the counter tried his best, but still manged to take almost an hour to check us in...and he's the GOOD employee.

By now it was nearly 9PM and we were STARVING. On our way out of the hostel, we ran into a man on his way home. We suspect he was someone's private driver, but that he was moonlighting as a 'taxi driver' while the car's owner was out of town. He proved to be a better driver than most 'real' taximen, and we did not regret surrepticiously slipping him our 'fare'.

We ate dinner at a Thai/Chinese restaurant, so that M could claim to have never eaten Indian food for dinner in Delhi. It was excellent, and I don't even think it was the extra-hungry talking.

By the end of dinner I was ready to collapse. Cz and M were feeling no pain from only 2beers with dinner. It was an uneventful ride home, and then immediately into our beds.


Day 154 - M took care of checkout since he was going to be in Delhi for another night. The other lady was behind the counter. Unlike the poor, abused young man from last night, she is frazzled and grumpy. And even slower. It took two tries and almost two hours to get everything sorted out.

All three of us (M, Cz, and I) planned to go to Goa, though M was going by plane, and we by train. The train wasn't scheduled to leave until 3PM today, and we had already seen all the tourist sights in Delhi that we wanted to see, so we decided to accompany M on his errand-running. The main errand involved trying to send a large duffel bag full of gifts back to the States. Posting anything in India is an adventure to say the least, so while Cz and M waited at the Post Office, I decided to go for a walk and try to find some Drammamine.

Women traveling alone in India are subject to incredible levels of harrassment. Other travelers I have spoken to have said that India is by far the hardest country that they have had to navigate. Sure enough, as soon as I was out on the street, touts started approaching me. The dialogue went like this.

Tout 1: The post office is down this way. (gesturing to an alley where the post office was decidedly NOT, and where a store was waiting to pay him a commission for my business)

Me: No. it's not, I've just come from the Post Office.

Tout 2: Don't listen to him, the Post Office is this way.(It wasn't. I told him so.)

Me: Umm, no, it's not, and I'm not looking for the PO anyway. I'm just waiting for my friends.

Repeat with many more touts and variations on the theme.

Me: Look. I've been in India a month. I KNOW where the PO is and I'm not going to follow any of you!

Touts: Oh.

And they all went away.

And I went back to the PO, where M had given up on sending his package.

We went to lunch in a tiny hole-in-the-wall...So hole-in-wall-ish that it was right next door to the guest house we stayed at our first trip to Delhi, and we never even knew it was there. As is typical of holes, this one had delicious food, including lassis made with house-made yoghurt.

By the time we finished stuffing our faces, it was time to head to the train station, on the off-chance that our train might be leaving on time.

Which it did, to the second. This was a total surprise - we have come to accept 'on time' as 20 minuted or less late.

The train from Delhi to Goa takes 40 hours. We will be reading a lot the next two days.