Delhi Hotels
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arrival
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[written jan. 17, 2002]
hello everyone!
today is my last day in delhi...tomorrow morning i leave for agra by train. yesterday i was planning on being touristy and going to see the jama masjid (largest mosque in india) and the red fort...but it was very overcast and so i decided to do it today instead just in case it's nicer out. what i ended up doing instead, besides wandering around with suspicious indian characters (more on that later), was to go and check out jawarhalal nehru university (JNU) and the qutb minar, a 70m tall tower with the ruins of the first mosque ever built in india (of course, on top of jain and hindu monuments) at the base...both are about 800 years old. JNU was really interesting...it's out by the airport and it's incredibly spread out...about a 10-15 minute walk from the main gates to any buildings of note...i had to ask about 5 people and walk for 20 minutes to find the admin buildings. the university is slightly less run down than the rest of delhi (except for the government sector which is, of course, very well kept), but it was still hard for me to conceive of studying there being used to canadian schools. qutb minar was great, both because it was gorgeous and because the complex is enclosed and rather large and provided a nice break from the chaos of delhi. to get around in delhi i've mostly been using three wheeled auto-rickshaws (i would love to have one to drive around in canada, not that it would be legal...for good reasons)...they're cheaper than full blown taxi cars but i started noticing the down side yesterday (besides constant near accidents which you just have to accept if you don't want to walk, and probably even then too)...the sides of the auto-rickshaws are open and so delhi's rather oppressive air pollution is fully introduced to your lungs. yesterday i bought my first train ticket, which i was expecting to be a rugby match outside of a ticket booth...i discovered, however, that there's a foreign tourist ticket office in the train station (apparently quite a few train stations have these...definitely those in larger cities)...i went right at 8 am when it opens and there was nobody there...it took me 10 minutes to buy my ticket...so that was a nice surprise.
as for suspicious indian characters...i've discovered that there are really two types of touts in delhi (and this maybe applies to the rest of india)...first there's the type that very obviously just wants to drag you into their store, buy you a train ticket (at inflated prices) or book hotels. they are very easy to deal with by just saying no, walking by and ignoring them, or, if they're particularly persistent, by telling them that you're busy but that you'll stop by the store later. the other type of tout are the people who tell you right away that they know that you have to deal with a lot of the first type of tout and promise that they don't want to sell you anything...they just happen to have a day off from school or they're visiting from another part of india and they would just really enjoy talking with you...they then proceed to spend an hour or two being incredibly friendly...buying you tea, showing you around, before suggesting that maybe you should go and check out something at this store where, of course, they just happen to get a commission. two things always seem to happen...1) the stores are always supposed to be the 'government' store and so they have fixed prices...the stores have nothing to do with the government and the prices are outrageous (for india) because of the commissions...2) everyone always suggests that you buy a kurta (not sure of the spelling) pajama, which is common indian dress so that you won't stand out and be targeted by touts...the irony is almost suffocating...in the last two days i've met a bunch of these people and while i don't ever actually buy anything they suggest, the enjoyment of the first couple of hours is overshadowed by the realization of just how intricate all the lies are...which is not to say that i'm not enjoying myself, just that there's a very steep learning curve for social interaction.
anyway...i'm going to go and have breakfast...there's supposed to be a good dosa place near the hotel...i hope that everyone's well and i'll write again soon (probably from agra). bye for now.
daniel.
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