Baaaaad Delhi

When we planned out our trip there were some places/activities that we really wanted to see/do. Oktoberfest in Munich and Pamukklae, Turkey are examples. We decided to spend almost two weeks in India because it is an incredible place that we hear lots about and also because Lara has a really good friend who lives there. Unfortunately, our friend wasn't able to join us due to a visa issue. Since we pretty much winged our European trip we thought we were now experienced travelers who could tackle anything. Wow, were we naive.

Since we received a 48 hour notice from our friend that he wouldn't be joining us, we were able to make hotel arrangements for two nights in Delhi. The hotel said they would pick us up at the airport (at 4am) and take us to the hotel. We arrived at Delhi Internation Airport and our hotel driver was no where to be found. We decided to take a cab to the hotel instead. As soon as we stepped out of the airport we knew we were in for an adventure. Entrance to the airport is restricted because there is litterally a mob outside of the airport trying to get in. Everything is different; the sights, sounds, and even the smells. Our driver took us to our hotel, dodging the cows, beggars, and stray dogs to get there. Our hotel was able to let us check in early and we slepped until noon.

When we got up we decided to explore the neighborhood, Karol Bagh. Like we expected, we saw poverty at its extreme. We made our way to the local Metro station to go to the center of New Delhi. Our Indian friend had said that we need to see Connaught Place and its underground bazaar. Our friend also said we should take the Delhi Metro to get there as its super cheap and 10x better than BART. The Metro is cheap..... overcrowded and smelly. I'll gladly pay $3 instead of $1 to ride BART instead of the Delhi Metro.

When we arrived in Connaught Place we explored the area. We literally could not go more than 20 yards without being stopped by someone trying to sell us something or strike up a conversation in hopes of selling something. Then we walked by one guy who walked along me and tried to talk to me. He then pulled out a piece of paper and tried to show me something. At the same time another guy walked towards us, in the opposite direction, on Lara's side. After the guy on Lara's side passed the other guy on my side walked away. When both had cleared us Lara told me that she had been pickpotted. Lara had a sweatshirt tied around her waist and the man walking in the opposite direction had reached into the sweatshirt pocket. Luckily, nothing was in it, before or after the incident.

We decided to tempt our fate again by checking out the underground bazaar. The underground bazaar is unequivacly the worst shopping experience I have ever had. It's an underground area with no natural light, or much unnatural light, with narrow walkways and shops on all sides. Although there are dozens, if not hundreds, of shops they are all the same; fake electronics (I-pad, I-fone, Compac computer, etc.), fake jewelry, fake jeans, etc., etc., etc. We tried to leave twice but we couldn't step over the people sleeping on the stairs.

We finally escaped the shit hole and tried to walk around. A nice guy approached us and struck up a conversation and said that he was headed to his shop and he would show us some sights on his way. Since he was 5' 3", 100lbs, and 50 years old we didn't feel too threatened and we proceeded to walk to a Hindu Temple. It was interesting. Then for some reason we all hopped in an auto-rickshaw and we went to another temple. Again, it was interesting. We went inside, saw some sights, eh. Again, we got into an auto-rickshaw with this guy and he took us to a 'credible tour company'. We went inside and we listened to a tour they had for a little over an hour. We tried to ditch our little friend but we were too nice and we couldn't shake him. We requested to be taken to the Government of India Tour Office. He obliged and we were taken to what we were told was the Government of India Tour Office. We sat down, were told this was the official Government of India Tour Office and we listened. 5 minutes in we realized that these guys were full of shit. When the tour company representative went to get us some tea we snuck out.

We were now lost in New Delhi with no one to contact and the sun was setting. We quickly asked some credible looking people where the Metro station was and we were directed in the right direction. We hoped onto the Metro (packed like sardines) and made it back to our hotel. We arrived at our hotel at 6pm and we never left that night.

We realized that we were fucked. I worked on the hotel's computer trying to make an itinerary in India (avoiding Delhi) while Lara looked for American tour companies that had India tours available. Luckily, Lara was able to find a reputable tour company and at 2am we booked our India tour. Unfortunately, our India trip went from being our least expensive to our most expensive.

You might notice that we don't have any pictures on this post. That's because we only took one picture while in Delhi that day and it wasn't even that good. We've been averaging ~100 pictures a day, but because we were so afraid of taking our camera out we only took one picture from our window while we ate lunch.

The next morning we were picked up by the tour company's car and things changed.