New Delhi - Day 22
Trip Start
Jan 31, 2008
1
27
251
Trip End
Ongoing
Delhi,
India
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Got a cab to the airport, checked in, and only had a 45 minute wait before the flight departed. Boarded the plane and saw a hilarious advert for Bosch car horns on the fold town tables, typical India ! With the strapline "Get heard, Get ahead", this advert really taps into the Indian driving mentality, made me laugh!
In the end decided to stay In Paharganj district which where the main bazaar is located, managed to find a roof top room with A/C at a hotel called the Majors Den. The chap that owns the hotel is an ex army major, hence the name. It's supposed to be one of safest, cleanest and cheapest places for travelers to stay in this part of Delhi .
I know it's a bit of a cliché but Delhi does well and truly attack all your senses, in many ways your brain struggles to process all the information, its complete sensory overload. The smells, the noise and the visual input all combine to make a crazy concoction in your brain which doesn't quite compute. I know a lot of travelers don't like Delhi , but for me it's a place I'd like to explore further.
Bumped into some Indian Kashmiri guys who own a travel agency near my hotel. Started chatting with them, had a couple of beers in a hotel and now I'm randomly flying to Srinagar in Kashmir tomorrow morning at 8am . Staying on another houseboat for a couple of days in a lake in the Kashmir Himalayas, then hopefully going to organise a 3 day trek and return to Delhi in 5 or 6 days. I'm currently sat in one of guy's apartment in old Delhi , they invited me back for dinner. One of guys is flying with me tomorrow to go back and see his family and fiancée. He's going to look after me and show me the ropes while I'm Kashmir .
My original plan was to spend a couple of days in Delhi before moving onto Agra and then the source of the Ganges via Rishikesh, but the Kashmir opportunity is to good to miss. So I have to sacrifice Rishikesh and the Ganges until I return to India , I'll defiantly be back, I'm sure.
You may say a visit to Kashmir is risky but so is crossing the road in Delhi ! Life is for living and all our days are full of risks which we don't even realise. The main draw to Kashmir for me is the mountains, lakes, trekking and climate, going to be chilly at night which will make a nice change to the very hot and humid conditions of Kerala as the heat builds before the monsoon, no mosquito's either!
