Aglaia | Click to view my profile.

Latest Entry Older Entries Old Journal (HS, Early College) Send E-Mail Aglaia's Survey Read/Sign Dreambook

India - Day Two/Three

04 May 2011

India, Day 2 (April 22)

After the departing the plane we make fairly good time through baggage pick-up and customs. As we exit we see our tour group sign. Ah, it is nice to be picked up from the airport.

Usually this is where the adventure begins. The where am I and how exactly do I get to where I need to go...and how can I do this cheaply. But, this time we've gone with a tour group so instead we just wait around. And wait some more.

Apparently we've had a few people cancel, one person is stuck back in the States due to a Visa issue and another had a NYC connection issue so never made it on Air India. That would be a bummer.

From the airport we load everything into a motor coach and head into the city. Not a lot to look at our ride in. Typical near-airport view....dirty, trashy and industrial. When we do arrive we all depart and head into the hotel bar for a de-brief.

The tour is about (20?) people. Mostly older folks in their 50s. There is a set of three younger people, maybe in their late 20s. Majority are couples although there is a mother/daughter duo which I think is a pretty cool. (India with your mom? Awesome!)

1st odd thing --while waiting around at the airport you would think that our guide would engage us. Admittedly, I didn't engage with him, but that's because I thought he was just an airport greeter. When we've traveled with go-today the person at the airport would walk us through our itinerary and drop us off at the hotel but we'd never see them again after that.

You would think since the person in India was with us for the entire week he would have used that wait/downtime at airport to make introductions and start chatting us up --why did we choose India, what do we hope to see, etc. I mean it was fine, and the group naturally started to make introductions and inquiries between each other but our guide definitely had a missed opportunity from the beginning.

2nd odd thing as we sit around at the hotel I expect this is where our onsite materials will be handed out. Nope. He doesn't really provide any information other than...hey, this is the hotel, hope you're comfortable. The start of our tour the next day is also weird...instead of telling us where to meet he asks what time we want to start.

This isn't prefaced with any options or pro/cons...i.e. if we start at 8 AM we'll be able to do X or....we can start at anytime, but leaving at 10 AM will mean less traffic. It's just --"what time do you want to start?"

Since we have no idea what time we need/should start we all stare blankly back at him which I think annoys him. I understand being frustrated when no one answers a question yet...we have no information to go on to even begin to have an answer. I'm confused on why he is even asking. And so begins the week-long mystery: is our guide just clueless or is he is so "whatever" about us that he isn't interested in putting in the effort? I still don't know.

After we pick an arbitrary start-time he's ready to jet but we start asking questions --when is breakfast, is there internet here, what about the pool, do you have any local maps, where is it safe to go, what do you suggest for eating out?

He doesn't really answer any of our questions. It's all vague, "I think...could be...don't know..." The worst was when it came to evening plans. It is approximately 5:30 PM in India. We have been on a plane for 15+ hours. We are ready to go do something.

His suggestion? Oh, you are probably tired. "You should stay in, order french fries from room service."

WHAT? Ugh. I'm pretty sure from that point on I filtered everything he said from a negative point of view. Again, is he being a dick and completely unhelpful or does he really think that Americans just want to laze around and eat fries? I don't get it.

When we all balked --I mean really, who orders room service? --and french fries, c'mon? I love french fries, but perhaps not on day one! (Personally I never order room service --not usually very good and way too expensive. This should be a last resort).

When pressed for more information he couldn't really help us. Oh there's things all around. It really would be better for us to eat at the hotel.

.....better, because it's unsafe outside? Better because you don't feel like dishing out recommendations? What exactly? He said he's been doing this tour for five years so inexperience is not the reason. I'm guessing boredom and burnout is.

I overhear a group saying they are going into the city about 11km away. Sounds OK to me and I ask if we can join them. Unfortunately, I missed the part about where they were going into the city to eat at...the Hard Rock Cafe.

Ugh. I take it back. Apparently, we really do all want to eat french fries. I realize that many people do the HRC circuit when they travel though so I tried not to judge. It did suck to take an expensive taxi ride out (totally suckered by the cost of this from the hotel doorman), on top of an overly expensive dinner that wasn't very good. It was actually in the middle of a mall. Apparently night mall is all the rage in big-city India. Did I mention we're in New Delhi?

A semi-awkward dinner later (nothing like dining with complete strangers), the taste of disappointment still fresh, we head back to the hotel. I unpack and then go to bed.





Day 3 (April 23)
The hotel is very nice. Much nicer than the places that Jeff and I usually stay. Although, I still wake up with bug bites; don't think they're bed bugs but not sure what they are. We (not surprisingly) have trouble sleeping. It's approximately a 10 hour difference from home so we're all out of whack.

In the morning, I stupidly can't figure out the shower and end up taking a freezing cold shower. Definitely awake after that! Breakfast was awesome. There were three different buffet options all good but the Indian prepared food was the best. I don't even think people knew it was there. Everything on the line was delicious. Good enough to go back to for seconds.

We head out to discover Old/New Delhi. We visit the Laxmi Narayan Temple. You can only take photos outside of the temple and it's hard to take a good one with everything that is around it. I didn't bother.

Inside you have to take off your shoes.

3rd odd thing --this is DEFINITELY something your tour guide should give a head's up on. One, you will be asked to take off your shoes. If you plan on wearing sandals, you may want to pack a pair of socks if you don't feel comfortable walking around barefoot.

I was wearing sandals so barefoot I went. I think as an American this was super strange at first. It goes against everything --we wear shoes. Everywhere. Although I would like to think the floors are cleaned regularly...it is a holy place after all, my dirty feet indicated otherwise. It felt weird to share the floor with so many other feet. India is not exactly a clean place so there was a bit of an ick-factor. As I got used to it I did sort of like it. There's something very homey about just experiencing earth and space with bare feet. Still, would have been nice to have known about this.

After the brief tour inside we walked to our bus which was parked a short walk away. It was our first bombardment of beggars and basic street sellers. I've traveled enough to know that you just can't acknowledge them or else you'll be pestered. I think for some folks this was hard for them---sure, it does feel rude but it's really the only way to survive. Don't look at them, don't acknowledge them --even to say "no thanks" --any type of engagement is an invitation.





We also "see" Raj Ghat, a memorial to Gandhi. Well, we see it from atop a hill but don't actually go in close to take a look.

Mostly, I just remember today as being a drive by. I have a bad "oh yeah, this is a tour" feeling. We are seeing a lot but not really seeing anything.

We're supposed to take a rickshaw to something (so said the tour summary) but really it's just a token ride. I did enjoy the experience --being right in the middle of city bustle via rickshaw is crazy. Lots and lots of traffic and things to look at. YET, it felt a little gross and indulgent. Yes, take a rickshaw if you need to go somewhere but we weren't going anywhere. We essentially went around a large block. As Jeff noted it was all tourists that were in the rickshaws that were in front, behind and passing us to left and right. I'm pretty sure we just hopped on the "tourist circuit".

In the meantime, we were really clogging up the traffic. All of us tourists. Real people were trying to do their every day job and we were just in the way. It made me feel bad. Not to be a tourist but to so blatantly spoil what should be a genuine experience in India. The guy handling our rickshaw was so tiny and frail. I know he was a man but he was shaped like a little boy and he struggled the entire time. Honestly, I just wanted to hop out and help push the cart. Again, felt stupid for being on a "ride" rather than actually in transport to get somewhere.






Hosted by Diaryland

Sign the Guestbook (Site is down)

Sign the NEW Guestbook

Random Entry Generator

Aglaia's Diaryland Picks

Template by Marty