Delhi Belly

OH MY GOD YOU'RE GOING TO GET PHOTOS AND VIDEOS AND EVERYTHING.  (I lied, no videos - I loaded them, but they're rubbish.  Just traffic, and trains, and me talking and messing up my sentences.  NO VIDEOS FOR YOU)

 

(No, I didn't eat here.)

I've had too much sugar.  So, there's this place nearby in Delhi that makes amazing dosas, which are these Indian crepe/pancake type things, and you can get them with different stuff in them: shredded coconut, vegetables, stuffed with potatoes and spices, etc.  They're cheap, and reasonably filling, and fantastic.  And by themselves, they aren't very spicy.  But I'm a sucker for spicy sauces, and they serve a mildly spicy sauce with them, and so, by nature, I cover the dosa in this sauce, and my mouth gets all burny (in the good, delicious way) ...and then regardless of how full I am, I have a sweet tooth like nobody's business. 

So I went on the prowl for sugar, and bought some amazing cookies from a guy on the street (yeah, how sketchy does THAT sound?) ...I think they were butter cookies, or shortbread cookies, or something.  But they were hot off a bed of charcoal, and tasty, and I devoured them.  EXCEPT, I had just visited a convienience stand and bought a cheap pack of chocolate chip cookies...and when I got back to the hotel, I decided to try one, since I had just bought them...and one turned into the whole little pack. 

Half a bottle of fanta later, I feel like shit. 

I'd like to say 'lesson learned'...but I know it's not.  I really, truly shouldn't eat spicy food this often, if only because I really, truly shouldn't consume sugar this often.  I hate sugar.  But I love sugar.  It's an evil thing.

Interlude: Some pics from Mumbai

 (Trying to photo my foot tan/new silver anklets - you can't really see either very well, but a good shot of my tattoo!)

 

 Just being silly.

Anyhow, I'm in Delhi now.  I got here well enough, though, the train system in India is strange; (yeah, yeah, stealing from an email; sue me) I got a class called 2AC, which is like second class air-con, with two sleeping tiers.  However, that is four people per berth.  On the train to Chiang Mai, we had two seats, and they converted into one bed.  Here, they convert into two beds.  Plus two up top.  With only one curtain blocking the area from the aisle.  So I slept beside three Indian men, and a child.  And I don't understand how seating works at all.  I sat beside no less than 6 different people before it got dark.  Random people just kept showing up, and then other people would leave.  It's like, your reservation doesn't matter, and people just sit where they fancy.  Or something.  But I don't get it at all.  We got served dinner and breakfast on the train, and in the end, it took 19 hours, not 16.  Neither meal was anything fancy, and I only picked at the dishes.  The food is too spicy here, and it makes me not really want to eat (and when I do, sugar overdoses usually occur thereafter).

(more email stealing, I'm lazy, and this is what happens when I write an email before I write a blog post - I really can't be bothered to write it twice.  Sorry, Tim) 

My first impressions of Delhi:  If one more person tries to befriend me, give me directions, ask me to buy something, or go somewhere, or just talks to me in general - I'M GOING TO PUNCH THEM IN THE FACE. 

The touts here are insane.  I mean, I normally blatantly ignore when the travel guide warns about touts.  Whatever, I can fend them off.  But here, they are INSANE.  I went four blocks out of my way yesterday to shake one of them off.  They walk up to you and ask where you're from, and start to chat to you, and they follow you...FOR BLOCKS.  I walked a block the wrong direction, stopped, turned around, took a photo, and like 10 minutes later bumped into the same dude again, where he kept walking with me, and when you tell them to go away, they get offended.  And they are really helpful and nice. 

New Delhi makes me feel like an asshole, basically.  Other impressions:  So far, much less poverty, the streets are wider, there are less people and less traffic, though, I think there is more pollution.  Yesterday was a really foggy day, and I can't quite figure out why.  I mean, the weather was cool, but not cool enough for an all-day persistent fog, you know?  It was blocking out the sun to the point that it was just a glowing orb in the sky.  And I walked halfway across town only to uselessly find out that the museum I wanted to go to was closed, but c'est la vie.     

(End of emailing stealing - it's not copyright if it's my own work, right?)

I managed to make it to that museum today, and while it was neat, it wasn't anything special.  I'm not big on museums to begin with, and I was most impressed with the textiles, the coins, and the artwork, but once you've seen one marble pillar carved from the *insert century here* ...it's kinda all the same.  Sure, the style was Indian and the carvings were from Indian myth rather than roman-greco, but...it's all the same to me.  There were some really beautiful sketches that I tried to snap shots of, because I've got art ideas revolving around Indian artwork when I go home, but that was really the highlight for me.

Also, I seem to have a knack for going to closed places lately.  I went on a massive metro/auto-rickshaw journey to go to this area in Delhi where I could get Indian outfits tailored...and they are closed on Tuesdays.  Museums on Mondays, Markets on Tuesdays, apparently.  I wish there was a sign somewhere saying this.  I wasted over 2 hours in the last two days trying to go places that weren't open.

To placate myself, I went to this place of worship shaped like a lotus flower.  It's called the Bah'ai House of Worship, and the Bah'ai faith are a group of people who believe that all of mankind is good, regardless of what religion they worship, and this massive lotus flower temple allows worship from every religion.  A few times a day, they give a prayer service where they recite passages from different holy books from different religions.  The concept is pretty spectacular.  I never did actually go inside, but only because there was a 200 person lineup to get inside.  The number of Indian tourists that come there was crazy.  I made friends with the guy at the information desk, and he told me that 14,000 people go everyday.  I really wanted to go inside, but not badly enough to wait in a line for it.

 

(They were posing for someone else.  I was sneaky!)

 

Maybe if I have time, I'll go early in the morning before I leave Delhi.  I'd love to see one of those sermons, if only to prove to myself that somewhere in the world, somebody thinks all religions can co-exist harmoniously.  Just because Joe has one god, Sally has several, and Bob doesn't have one at all, doesn't make any one of them right or wrong.  I think the concept of the Bah'ai faith is kinda neat from an academic standpoint.

But yeah, I actually spent more time at the information desk talking to the guy there, than I did taking photos of the temple, or walking the grounds.  I was there for, I think, two hours talking to Andrew.  He's an American of Irish descent (a point I mention only because it describes his features; he has black hair, and those clear blue eyes that I've only ever seen on the Scottish or the Irish) ...eyes that I have a particularly distinct weakness for.  He kept reminding me of the blue-eyed teenager who served me shortbread on the shores of Scotland.  Those eyes!  Anyhow, he's living in Delhi now, and working at the Bah'ai temple, and once a week he teaches English to a group of 23 schoolchildren.  We had a really good conversation, and we talked about places to go in India, and he gave me directions to some good places to get some Indian clothes tailored.  He invited me out for dinner, but I was starving and didn't want to wait the 3 hours I would have had to wait for him to get off work, so I tried to invite him out tomorrow night, which also didn't work.  Either way, I left him with my email address, and how long I'd be in Delhi.  So if I hear from him, we might go for dinner or something.  He was pretty interesting, and I don't get to talk to too many people anymore these days (maybe I'm not approachable by anyone but touts, or something) ...either way, I enjoyed my afternoon. 

I want to go to Agra while I'm here and see the Taj Mahal, but I'm not sure if I have time for it.  There's a bunch I want to do/see in Delhi, and I don't want to do a day-trip to Agra, because that would be nearly suicidal, I think.  I'm not sure - I'm trying to hash out plans for the next three weeks.  I leave for Sirsa on the 6th - I got my tickets today - and I'm hoping someone picks me up from Sirsa to go to the village.  I honestly have no idea how this will work, but I hope it works out okay.  After that, I was going to head into Rajasthan, but the place I wanted to go to doesn't have a train, and I'm leery about taking the bus, mostly due to motion sickness.  Mind you, long train rides are giving me vertigo really badly, so I'm not really sure if motion sickness versus vertigo is a good trade off!  ...anyhow, Andrew mentioned a place called Kalka, in the Himalayas, and I'd like to look into it if there isn't snow (I'm simply not dressed to be that cold, sadly) ...and then slowly head back to Mumbai before I leave.  I've got some last-minute shopping to do in Mumbai, so I need to leave myself a bit of time. 

Although, I'm starting to run out of money, so I suppose that will be the defining factor to a lot of things, I suspect.