Kolkata-Delhi... Not enough and too much! (part 2)
Trip Start
Mar 02, 2008
1
2
6
Trip End
Jun 07, 2008
Delhi,
India
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
what to say...? well, i have been disappointed with my time here, as you have already surmised from the last entry. delhi showed a semblance of friendliness, more so than any other of the cities. but it was too little and too late for me. i may return one day, and if so it would have to be for at least three months, and away from the major cities, but that trip is now well down on my list of priorities. tom, one half of tom & dawn who we met up with in nepal, said that their travels (6 months throughout the country) had also left him not wanting to return. he was amazed and unhappy with the fact that tourism has taken such a hold in every place they visited (these two have been travelling for three years now and have seen plenty).
we spent our single day in delhi visiting the red fort - a huge complex built by the mughals 400 years ago - and the spice market. the spice market is a seething mass of humanity which assails your senses from the moment you arrive. if you think india in general is busy and overcrowded, go to the spice market. thousands of people jostle with each other; traders buying and selling by the sack in a little courtyard area, like a spice version of wall street; retailers searching out the cheapest and most fragrant spices for their restaurants, porters rushing to and fro carrying sacks on their heads; sellers sniffing samples to test their quality; and the occasional sightseer naive enough to enter this mayhem.
i also managed to find a camera shop, and purchased a new zoom lens (sigma 28-300mm for 181GBP). i had been very unhappy about the quality of my photos without my other zoom lens, so thought the buy a necessity. the fact that it was a good deal less than i'd buy in the uk, and also that i was interested in getting one like this eventually, helped to cushion the financial blow. speaking of which, my bank seems to have finally gotten the message - i arrived in kathmandu and am now able to withdraw a decent amount from the atm (well, the first time at least as i haven't tried again yet). this has only taken about six months of emailing, pleading, moaning and threatening to close my account. which i will do anyway upon my return to the uk.
the final goodbye to india, at delhi's indira gandhi international airport, summed up the week we had there. the flight to kathmandu is approximately 70 minutes. it took us, from door to door, 12 hours to reach our hotel in kathmandu. delhi IGI airport is a nightmare. don't go there! really, it will send you nuts! arrive; work out for yourself which gate door to go through; show guard your ticket to prove you are allowed to enter; wander aimlessly looking for an electronic sign to find which area you need to check in at; join a likely looking queue; find that it's a queue to put your baggage through as an initial security check, which wraps said bag in a security tape; fight through thousands of other people looking lost and bewildered to check electronic sign for check-in area, unsuccessfully; ask passing, harried and hassled, member of staff; go to check-in area; wait for two hours; get pushed in front of by arrogant russians; grumble, but say nothing as you are british and have a stiff upper lip and don't descend to arguing; check-in (tv's showing correct desks do not work, of course; join yet another, incredibly long, snaking queue; watch as more russians push in front; forget about having a stiff upper lip and tell them what you think of them before shoving in front; smile as a large indian wiht a broad scottish accent hurls abuse and then storms off to call the police; stare intently at said russians and also tell them what you think as they stand and smirk; watch the grins disappear as they are told by police to go to the back of the queue; chat amiably to scottish indian (lives in falkirk, and has for 30+ years); go through passport control - that's what this queue was for; watch as the russians sent to the back of the queue are whisked through this and the following hand baggage security check because they have caused their flight to be delayed by an hour; laugh a lot!; laugh a lot less when you have to wait until 11am, instead of the intended 6.45am, to take off because of heavy fog at delhi; snooze on the aircraft; land at kathmandu; get greeted by happy, smiling faces; meet more russians intent on pushing in; give up; listen to lots of grumbling; don't care as we're in nepal!
yippeeeee :)
