Namaste Delhi! I can tell you’re gonna give me culture shock.

Why fly Air India?

I met up with Margaret and Dan at JFK airport, where we excitedly boarded the plane together.

The Indian spice and Bollywood dreams filled the air the moment I boarded my Air India flight. Women in saris gracefully greeted us at the door. Male flight attendants walked down the aisles holding two aerosol deodorant spray cans, shooting them in the air. On our seats, a small plastic gift ziplock of earplugs, eye-blinds, socks and breath-freshener. Before me, my TV set monitor with an endless variety of film channels, filled with Hollywood and Bollywood films (Om Shanti Om, Life in a Metro, Welcome, etc…)!

We got two meals. Indian meals. Yum!

If you’re gonna go to India, go Air India. First class all the way.

Namaste, Delhi! I can see you’re going to give me culture shock.

Arrived in India! Safe. WOW! I can’t believe I’m here.

Delhi has got so many things going on at once. It’s hard to choose what my eyes want to see.

The drive in from the airport took us through congested roadways occupied by cars, pollution, auto-rickshaw taxis, cows and pedestrians. It’s all chaotic. On the side of the road, you see squatters (people are just hanging out) and food sellers selling carts of snacks, fruits and chai.

Paharghanj leaves a lot to be desired.

The area our hotel is in, Paharghanj. It’s noted as a “backpacker area” because it’s got a wealth of budget hotels (my other one here). But its at a bit like Fez in that its a bit “backwards” in time, crowded and poor. Rickshaws, auto-rickshaws, motorcycles and pedestrians all claim the same small dirt streets. Noise pollution. Delhi has it bad.  A lot of high-pitched honking and beeping!

My first impression of the neighborhood as we entered it, was like dread punching me in the gut. “Our hotel isn’t HERE, is it?“

Driving there, this is what I experienced and saw:

•  Little street food vendors strung along the streets make it feel at times like a wide outdoor market. 

•  The unpleasant odor of dust and urine tinges many of the alleys.

•  An ‘over-population’ of homeless dogs and staring Indian men (you don’t see many women at all)

•  Hotels choked into one block

•  There are many small alleys filled with service shops and shops selling “stuff”.

•  Internet and STD shops are also around. STD signs are very noticeable and the abbreviations are misleading different from the US. Basically, these are shops where you can make phone calls from at cheap rates, not contract diseases.

… It all regurgitates a childhood memory of staying at a shabby San Francisco hotel in downtown Chinatown in the 80′s, where we couldn’t even drink the tap water . Basic, run-down, the kind of ‘clean’ where you still don’t want to touch or lounge on everything without examining it first.

Some memories leave an indelible stain during youth, however, newer ones inevitably come in to take the prize.

Paharghanj was definitely now taking the prize.

What is Indian efficiency?

India can make you laugh initially. It appears backwards but it’s ripe with manual labor. It’s got so many service hands doing one job and that helps ensure efficiency. But sometimes, not.  In our hotel, one service hand washes the window and he’s got 5 guys watching him. Sometimes, I think there’s just too many people. But at least India finds a way to employ them.

The Grand Godwin Hotel in Paharganj

Our hotel is small comfort to the shock of  Paharganj or even the Indian bathrooms, for that matter.   At $25/night our hotel is decent but not as nice as the name sounds. Still, all seemed clean. Everyone’s silk liners went out over the beds, nevertheless. 

Regina is my roommate. Margaret and Dan share the other room.  Regina is originally from Hawaii and she’s Margaret’s friend; it’s the first time I’m meeting her. She has friends in Delhi and will hop on and off our itinerary, but also visit alternate cities. Regina generously picked up Vodaphone SIM cards for her, myself and Margaret (costing us 250Rs or $6). I hear there’s a lot involved in getting a SIM card. 

Indian hotel bathrooms

Thankfully in hotels, there are sometimes western toilets. However, there’s no separation between shower, sink or toilet. It’s just one room and one drain that lets you know that all splashes goes to the same place. Must make cleaning easy.

Also, there’s a large bucket w/ a small bucket inside it next to the shower.

You do the math.

An India bathroom

Tonight we will go into C.P. or Connaught Place for dinner. Then we’ll get our cards “topped-off”. I think here, the rate is 1Ruppee a minute for a local call… which is like a 1 cent/minute.

“Top-off:” It means paying to put minutes onto your SIM card so you can make calls.

 

The over-population of men in India

I had a “brisk” walk through Paharganj at night, turns from a stroll into a light jog! Walking as a solo female through Paharganj at night is like wolfing your food down at a restaurant. Even though I wanted to see and explore things longer, to do so amidst the dark stares of men makes me nervous.

They say, for every twenty Indian men, there is one woman. I believe it.  There are lots of men and not the Bollywood-hottie types I’ve been used to watching on TV, but those of a darker shade, which blends into the night. Only the whites of their eyes seem to follow you. It’s creepy because it’s foreign; it’s culture shock. You don’t know what they’re thinking and as a tourist, you don’t know if you’re doing something culturally wrong. They watch silently, stalking you with their eyes. Sometimes they smile in a way you think you know what they’re thinking.

I see very few women on the streets here and that makes me nervous.

In India, women and their work lives don’t have much visibility here… so it seems. Out on the streets, the marketplace shoppers, shop owners, waiters,.. are all men. At my hotel, everyone from the cook to the maids and receptionists  … MEN.

Night time in the streets of Paharganj

OK… we are underway. Early day tomorrow… I’m excited! I can’t believe I’m actually here.

Seeing Delhi and Getting Scammed in Delhi    >>