Delhi: Hotels & Festival time

Thurs, Oct 9:Delhi

I’ve hired a driver for a day to sightsee Delhi.

For 700Rs (a little over $10 and equal to a OW cab trip from Soho to my apt in Hell’s Kitchen ) this is a bargain! Both Sandeep and Regina have arranged to join me. Sandeep was generous to offer the use of his car for this, but I had booked my car in advance, so I’ve asked him to tag along instead. Also, it’s Regina’s last day to sightsee Delhi and she wanted to see things as well.

Tourist sights: Lotus Temple, Hanumayun’s Tomb & Quatab Minar (both to drop R off), the government sector full of government building & the port of India & the Red Fort.

I LOVE that I’m in India during festival time.

It’s the holiday of Dusshera (“Victory Day”)! All week I try my best to follow the festivals from Nepal’s Dushain to Varanasi’s celebration of Durga Puja and now to Delhi.

(Durga floats on their way to Yamuna River for their releasing)

(Makahna seller outside of a Shiva temple)

(Dussehra festival near the Red Fort in Delhi)

Regina & Sandeep in front of giant Ramlila dolls that will be burnt as part of the festivities

Today is the apex of festivals and an overlap of celebrations. Durga Puja floats will be set into the river to kick off Dusshera while giant tower-sized of dolls Ravana (a character from the Ramayana) will be set on fire in effigy for Dusshera, in memorial of good triumphing over evil. The festival excitement like a football tailgate party! You can witness it at carnivals, on the freeways as truckloads of people are shouting and jeering, faces painted with the red paint of Holi, as they take the floats to their releasing in the Yamuna River!

According to Sandeep and my driver, the hotel I had booked in Manju-ka-Tilla (a Tibetan colony up north near the sacred Yamuna River) is “not in a good area and is far from Central Delhi” & though I had booked it to be near the festivities, I doubt myself and scramble to find a hotel in a more convenient and safer location.

Vodaphone SIMs that continually  kill !

My Vodaphone SIM card is still not working and it’s hard not having a phone in India and its a standard form of communication. The complexity of getting an Indian SIM and then traveling out of the city you bought it in, is a sore pain. Without it, I’m forced to hit the streets in search of STD booths (aka calling booths!). While calling within India is relatively cheap however- 1rupee a minute or free if you’re calling a local number from a landline- I am thankful to Sandeep for offering his mobile phone. I promptly called hotels in or near Connaught Place (its a huge mall) and had my driver take us there to check them out.

STD shops allow you to use the phones to place calls for as little as a rupee/minute

I’ve always stayed at mid-range and nicer hotels.

My stars endorse me w/ a healthy portion of luxury in my career & life so that I don’t need to be mega-rich to enjoy the privileges of a 5-star resort! Thus, I can deliberately toe-dip on the side of dirty bedsheets, guest houses and budget hotels, knowing its not my curse in life! Afterall, I’m in India!!! How much local lifestyle will I see at an expensive HOTEL? Hello, would the Oberoi Hotel let their employees sleep on a blanket in the lobby after all is closed down?…

(some employees sleep on the rooftop of their workplaces too)

View of the rooftop from my hotel in Bikaner . Notice the blankets?

The budget-guesthouses to mid-range tourist hotels have been pretty consistent throughout. They run roughly $6-20/night and if the sheets or towels don’t look dirty, then they’ll charge you for toilet paper or the pillows will tempt smells of someone’s “man” head (as I imagine ALL of India- and its predominant population of men- passes through!) Also, while the bathrooms have western toilets, it also comes with an ugly version of a handicapped shower stall, a floor drain and what I haven’t enough curiosity to figure out the need for, in a large plastic tub and pouring cup.

On one hand, it’s a thrilling peek at Indian lifestyles, on the other, I’m overcome with shock. It’s like a gripping reality show and me, sometimes I wonder if maybe I’m just too dumb to notice whether I’m actually slumming it. Accommodations require tolerance.