New Delhi - India
3/11/05
We arrived in New Delhi quite late, 2 AM, and we didn't have a reservation for the hotel, just some addresses of places that we copied from Lonely Planet, Angelique was ok with that but I was worried about how to get to the hotel in one piece. The luggage took forever to come, that gave us time to talk to a nice Indian guy that was in the same flight also waiting for his luggages. He grew up in England but is now living in Canada and came to India for his vaccation.
He gave us some advices about the food and trains in India. After we finally got our luggages we went to the International Tourism Beureau in the Airport, a government orgnization. That was a good way to find a decent hotel at a reasonable price and also to get a safe cab in the early morning. Everything done professionaly, no hassle for money or tips. Between the airport and the hotel you could already feel the misery in India. Lots of people were sleeping on the sidewalk in a piece of cloth or paper while others had improvised simple tents with materials probably from the garbage.
The hotel wasn't exactally clean but it had a private bathroom and hot water in the shower, enough for the night. By the time we went to bed it was already 5 AM.
Around 10 in the morning we took a cab (free service from the hotel) to the Tourism Bureau in the center of New Delhi, on the way we started to see India as it is. The traffic is as crazy as in Cairo with only two differences, here they drive on the left and use to stop on red lights, the rest is the same, chaos and honks. The city is very crowded with lots of rickshaws and tuk-tuks driving wherever they find room. Sometimes a holy cow standing in the middle of the road will block the traffic and nobody seems bothered. Here and there, you can also see monkeys jumping around.
There, at the Tourism Bureau, the agent, Abdul, helped us a lot with good information and suggestions. Abdul went over many possibilities matching our planned itinerary until we found something for our budget and, everything was arranged for our first week in India. The plan: visit New Delhi in the afternoon and the next morning a driver would take us to Jaipur, then Sawai Madhopur for a safari, Fatehpur Sikri and finally Agra where we would take a train to Varanasi.
So all we had to do was to relax and drive around in New Delhi. First stop was at Laxmi Navayan Birla Mandir, a Hindu temple. Very nice and peacefull place, though when you enter you must ring the bell, and that is the only noise you hear there. When you come in you must ring te bell, so the gods will notice your presence. It is built with a modern archtecture in Orissan style.
There, the people are calmly walking, getting together at the garden, praying and relaxing. And in our first stop we started to discover how friendly the Indians are. Very easily you can start talking to them and learn how life goes on around here.
From there we went to see the President's house and government buildings, the complex took 22 years to be build under the British time and it needed around 20.000 workers to complete the task. All the buildings have beautifull well mantained gardens where from you have a nice view of the Indian Gate, a memorial for the 90 000 Indian soldiers who fell during the World War I.
We also visited Indirah Gandhi memorial and Mahatma Gandhi memorial. The last one is built in the house where he was killed and that today hosts a museum where you can have a grasp of his life, thoghts and his non-violent undertake against the British Empire which led to independency of India in 1947.
The Bahai temple also known as The Lotus temple, because of its shape, was our next stop. The temple has been completed recently by the followers of Bahai faith, who believe in the universality of the lord and equality of all religions, so it is a temple for all the religions.
From there we went to The Qutab Minar (a huge minaret), remain from the Imperial Delhi, built in 1.193. 72 meters high, but we could not climb its stairs, because it has been closed due to an incident where some kids fell down and died.
The rest of the day was spent in the Lodi Garden, with tombs of the Lody Dynasty amidst of the beautiful flower gardens.
Many other places that we visited in New Delhi have nice gardens with a very relaxing atmosphere, there are colorful flowers feeling the air with many different perfums and lots of birds whisling in the trees.
From the Lodi Garden we went back to the Tourism Bureau to get the vauchers of our tour, btw, if you are planing to visit India, do not buy a package in adance, buy it once you arrive through the Tourism Bureau, it will bee much cheaper and the one at the airport is open 24h. We bought a big good Indian dinner for the equivalent of 2.25 dollars for both and went back to the hotel.
We arrived in New Delhi quite late, 2 AM, and we didn't have a reservation for the hotel, just some addresses of places that we copied from Lonely Planet, Angelique was ok with that but I was worried about how to get to the hotel in one piece. The luggage took forever to come, that gave us time to talk to a nice Indian guy that was in the same flight also waiting for his luggages. He grew up in England but is now living in Canada and came to India for his vaccation.
He gave us some advices about the food and trains in India. After we finally got our luggages we went to the International Tourism Beureau in the Airport, a government orgnization. That was a good way to find a decent hotel at a reasonable price and also to get a safe cab in the early morning. Everything done professionaly, no hassle for money or tips. Between the airport and the hotel you could already feel the misery in India. Lots of people were sleeping on the sidewalk in a piece of cloth or paper while others had improvised simple tents with materials probably from the garbage.
The hotel wasn't exactally clean but it had a private bathroom and hot water in the shower, enough for the night. By the time we went to bed it was already 5 AM.
Around 10 in the morning we took a cab (free service from the hotel) to the Tourism Bureau in the center of New Delhi, on the way we started to see India as it is. The traffic is as crazy as in Cairo with only two differences, here they drive on the left and use to stop on red lights, the rest is the same, chaos and honks. The city is very crowded with lots of rickshaws and tuk-tuks driving wherever they find room. Sometimes a holy cow standing in the middle of the road will block the traffic and nobody seems bothered. Here and there, you can also see monkeys jumping around.
There, at the Tourism Bureau, the agent, Abdul, helped us a lot with good information and suggestions. Abdul went over many possibilities matching our planned itinerary until we found something for our budget and, everything was arranged for our first week in India. The plan: visit New Delhi in the afternoon and the next morning a driver would take us to Jaipur, then Sawai Madhopur for a safari, Fatehpur Sikri and finally Agra where we would take a train to Varanasi.
So all we had to do was to relax and drive around in New Delhi. First stop was at Laxmi Navayan Birla Mandir, a Hindu temple. Very nice and peacefull place, though when you enter you must ring the bell, and that is the only noise you hear there. When you come in you must ring te bell, so the gods will notice your presence. It is built with a modern archtecture in Orissan style.
There, the people are calmly walking, getting together at the garden, praying and relaxing. And in our first stop we started to discover how friendly the Indians are. Very easily you can start talking to them and learn how life goes on around here.
From there we went to see the President's house and government buildings, the complex took 22 years to be build under the British time and it needed around 20.000 workers to complete the task. All the buildings have beautifull well mantained gardens where from you have a nice view of the Indian Gate, a memorial for the 90 000 Indian soldiers who fell during the World War I.
We also visited Indirah Gandhi memorial and Mahatma Gandhi memorial. The last one is built in the house where he was killed and that today hosts a museum where you can have a grasp of his life, thoghts and his non-violent undertake against the British Empire which led to independency of India in 1947.
The Bahai temple also known as The Lotus temple, because of its shape, was our next stop. The temple has been completed recently by the followers of Bahai faith, who believe in the universality of the lord and equality of all religions, so it is a temple for all the religions.
From there we went to The Qutab Minar (a huge minaret), remain from the Imperial Delhi, built in 1.193. 72 meters high, but we could not climb its stairs, because it has been closed due to an incident where some kids fell down and died.
The rest of the day was spent in the Lodi Garden, with tombs of the Lody Dynasty amidst of the beautiful flower gardens.
Many other places that we visited in New Delhi have nice gardens with a very relaxing atmosphere, there are colorful flowers feeling the air with many different perfums and lots of birds whisling in the trees.
From the Lodi Garden we went back to the Tourism Bureau to get the vauchers of our tour, btw, if you are planing to visit India, do not buy a package in adance, buy it once you arrive through the Tourism Bureau, it will bee much cheaper and the one at the airport is open 24h. We bought a big good Indian dinner for the equivalent of 2.25 dollars for both and went back to the hotel.
posted by Adriano and Angie | 11:15 PM
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