24 Hours in Delhi
Around 3:30pm today I stopped negotiating. I had already been in three rickshaws today going to and from the same places and frankly, I was sick of asking for a price and then haggling it down to a more appropriate fare. The drivers just laughed at me when I asked them how much the ride would cost and then announced I would only pay him 40 rupees eventhough he had asked for 60. I figure that if he didn't want 40 for it he wouldn't have driven me.
My mom arrived safe and sound. Hooters and I were dillusional at 3:30am at the airport and it was great fun watching the sterwardesses strut off the plane. The best was the man in a full white linen suit with long slicked back hair and shades. Shades at 3:30am in the morning!? Me likey.
In the first 24 hours with my mom I have been told to move back home, stop doing everything I want to do and start listening to my mom and finally get married, have children, buy a house. I'm too much of a loner according to her and need to integrate myself back into our community. She thinks my travel plans sound kind of shady as there is a big hole after June....
Being with her has been lots of fun as well. She's like a kid in a candy store and asks a million questions. Why don't the cars stop to let us cross the street? Why aren't there any payphones? How do all the trees survive the pollution? Where are the residential neighbourhoods? Why are the cars parked in neutral and then pushed into their spots by the attendants rather than their drivers? Why are there people sleeping on the floor in the train station?
Generally speaking she's amazed by everything including the fact that I travelled alone for two months with all the hub bub around. Going to the train station I was reminded of how difficult it is for someone who is new here. First off, she thought we were going to die in a terrible autorickshaw accident. Then a few aggressive touts tried to get us to go to the wrong tourist office where they would have booked us into a rather expensive or non-existing tour and she stopped to actually listen to them. The most bizzare thing has been taking her hand and leading her accross the street. She just instinctively reaches for it now when we are about to cross a street. Crossing the street is like climbing Everest sometimes. It's dangerous and scary. You get honked at, bumped and cut off by rickshaws, cars, motorbikes or cycles. Traffic lanes don't really exist.
Tonight we head to Jamma Masjid, the biggest mosque in Delhi. A couple days from now we are off to a town called Ajmer in Rajahstan, an important Sufi pilgrimage site near Pushkar, an important Hindu pilgrimage site. I pretty much saved all the religious stuff for my mom. Away with the tank tops and out with the scarves.
My mom arrived safe and sound. Hooters and I were dillusional at 3:30am at the airport and it was great fun watching the sterwardesses strut off the plane. The best was the man in a full white linen suit with long slicked back hair and shades. Shades at 3:30am in the morning!? Me likey.
In the first 24 hours with my mom I have been told to move back home, stop doing everything I want to do and start listening to my mom and finally get married, have children, buy a house. I'm too much of a loner according to her and need to integrate myself back into our community. She thinks my travel plans sound kind of shady as there is a big hole after June....
Being with her has been lots of fun as well. She's like a kid in a candy store and asks a million questions. Why don't the cars stop to let us cross the street? Why aren't there any payphones? How do all the trees survive the pollution? Where are the residential neighbourhoods? Why are the cars parked in neutral and then pushed into their spots by the attendants rather than their drivers? Why are there people sleeping on the floor in the train station?
Generally speaking she's amazed by everything including the fact that I travelled alone for two months with all the hub bub around. Going to the train station I was reminded of how difficult it is for someone who is new here. First off, she thought we were going to die in a terrible autorickshaw accident. Then a few aggressive touts tried to get us to go to the wrong tourist office where they would have booked us into a rather expensive or non-existing tour and she stopped to actually listen to them. The most bizzare thing has been taking her hand and leading her accross the street. She just instinctively reaches for it now when we are about to cross a street. Crossing the street is like climbing Everest sometimes. It's dangerous and scary. You get honked at, bumped and cut off by rickshaws, cars, motorbikes or cycles. Traffic lanes don't really exist.
Tonight we head to Jamma Masjid, the biggest mosque in Delhi. A couple days from now we are off to a town called Ajmer in Rajahstan, an important Sufi pilgrimage site near Pushkar, an important Hindu pilgrimage site. I pretty much saved all the religious stuff for my mom. Away with the tank tops and out with the scarves.
posted by LOTC at 6:42 AM
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