I head to Delhi

Thursday 26^th February 2015

It was a relief to wake up feeling better this morning. We got up early as we were taking a drive out to the national park that’s close by but by the time we actually got moving and had breakfast it was 10am.

The drive took a little over an hour and once inside the park we headed for the lake only to discover that it no longer exists and clearly hasn’t for quite some time as there are now houses built there. The drive was still pretty fun (apart from one horrible section of unsealed road that went on for about 5km of bumpy hell)

We attempted to have a motorbike riding lesson but as usual two guys on a bike appeared from nowhere and wouldn’t leave they didn’t really speak English but parked their bike in front of me and asked the usual questions “where you are from?” “Where you are going?” “What is your good name?” all without understanding the answer or really caring. Every time I went to drive off they would make random noises and in the end I sacked it in as they threw me off my game

We drove back a different way (unintentionally as we missed a turn but it worked out for the best since we missed the unpaved road section) we came into Varanasi on the south bridge where we witnessed two altercations with the same policemen on motorbikes the first was a car driving the wrong way across the bridge the policeman immediately began waving his hitty stick at the car and held up all the traffic and made him turn around (rightly so) the second the policeman was actually clubbing a rickshaw driver over the head (again he was driving the wrong way across the bridge)

We parked up at the Assi Ghat which is the furthest south and found some food (including apple pie and ice-cream!!!) then had a little wonder about before driving back to the old town. We parked up and Mark got a Bhang Lassi and played Tetris for the rest of the night while I looked at flights to Nepal.

Friday 27^th February 2015

We mixed it up a bit this morning and headed out for breakfast we wanted puri bhaji but were out of luck and had to settle for idly. After eating we walked a bit before getting annoyed with all the traffic

We headed back to the guesthouse for some tea and a bit of a chill out before setting out on an adventure to find spark plugs. It was actually a pretty easy find and on the way back we stopped off at the train station for me to get a ticket to Delhi. I tried tourist quota and there was one ticket left but it was 2AC having never travelled anything other than sleeper it better be worth the extra rupees (I could have waited in line and got a tadkal (“emergency”) ticket but last time we did that in Jaipur it took about six hours so I just paid the extra.

We took a drive through the Benasi Hindu university campus (the travel man at our guesthouse tells me it’s the 3^rd largest university campus in the world but I’m not sure if that’s actually true or not) the campus is pretty massive and a lot of the buildings are beautiful. Driving through it seemed a bunch of the students had started celebrating Holi early as there were tons of guys running around covered in coloured powder (the fact that they were all screaming “Happy Holi” at us was another clue)

Since we were at the southern end of the river we decided to park up and have some food. Drawn in by the apple pie from yesterday we went to the same place and had massive thalis followed by apple pie.

When we came out of the restaurant we saw a man with a monkey on a chain. The monkey was clearly miserable pacing in circles the length of his chain and when he stopped pulling at it and at his collar the whole scene was just wrong and was made worse by the fact that the man was obviously using the monkey as a tool for begging.

The other thing we noticed when we came out was that the bike was leaking petrol so after driving back to the guesthouse Mark set about being all mechanic like and tried to fix it while I sat on my arse.

I managed to be somewhat productive and book a flight to Nepal which took ages as my stupid credit card wanted me to use a stupid mobile verification code but I don’t have a phone so that was a no go!

We had quite a late dinner at a somewhat average kind of place then chilled for the rest of the evening.

Saturday 28^th February 2015

As usual we were awakened by the sounds of a random Indian man on the roof next door shouting at his pigeons it’s the most bizarre thing he stands there waving a stick yelling what sounds like orders from a drill sergeant followed by pigeon coos.

We headed up to the roof and had some breakfast as sat about for a bit then I raced off to the post office to get some stamps before they closed I got there just as they were shutting up shop but managed to wheedle my way in and get my postcards sent.

Back at the guesthouse we decided enough time had passed and we could go get lunch so we walked to the German bakery and sat up on the rooftop eating bread and cake and then more cake.

We took a slow wandering walk back to the guesthouse and did a whole load of not a lot and I packed my bags before eating again and then heading to the station.

The drive there took an age it was only 3km but the traffic was horrendous and we had to deal with several round abouts which in India are pointless as no one gives way to their right everyone just plows onto the roundabout and then no one can move. Near the station was a whole lot of road works and it was so dark we couldn’t really see where to go so we parked up and walked the rest of the way.

We said our goodbyes for now and I got on the train with minutes to spare before it pulled off. It was my first time in any other class than sleeper after getting the last tourist quota ticket I was in 2AC which has ruined trains for me now! I’m not sure I can ever go back to sleeper! It was so warm and clean and there were no rats or mice crawling on my feet. They gave me two sheets two blankets and a pillow. The beds were wider. There were charging points. The toilet was clean ANDTHEDRE WAS TOILET PAPER! Basically it was luxury on wheels.

Not long into the journey a policeman came through and I had to sign a document saying I had read his guidelines for not getting drugged on the train, basically your common sense don’t take candy from strangers kind of thing.

I passed the time reading my book and then listening to tunes as I dozed and next thing you know it I was fast asleep.

Sunday 1^st march 2015

 I woke up this morning after a pretty good sleep (it’s amazing how much better you can sleep on a train when you are reasonably confident that no one is going to try and get into bed with you in the night) and arrived into Delhi about an hour late. It was pouring with rain and everyone was acting as if it was aid rather than just water and pushing each other and trampling people down in an attempt to find shelter. Getting off the platform and out of the station was difficult as everyone was hiding from the rain on the stairs and in the over bridge making moving through near impossible.

When I finally got out of the station I had the same problem at the rickshaw stand over half the people crowded into the shelter didn’t even want an auto they were just getting out of the rain meaning I kept getting pushed further and further away from the counter by people not even in the line! Eventually I used my bags to plow people out of the way and pushed my way to the front, all the while the touts were also in the shelter constantly asking me where I was going and trying to tell me I wouldn’t get a rickshaw because of the rain but that they could take me. Why people feel the need to out and out lie is beyond me.

Eventually I was in a rickshaw cruising through the near empty Sunday morning streets of Delhi the driver was a bit of a nutter and every time we had to go around a roundabout he drifted through the huge puddles which was quite fun more than once we were on two wheels.

It took about 25mins to get to Haze and Johns (my auntie and uncle) I arrived rather wet and muddy and dived straight into a hot shower and then scoffed down some peanut better toast (PEANUT BUTTEER!!!!) before we called mum on skype and chatted for almost three hours.

The afternoon was spent snacking and chatting and generally lazing about before we got hungry and braved the rain to walk 50m down the road and get some noodles for dinner. More lazing followed before I finally crashed and went to bed.