05.05.2014
I had a very soft
start in the Indian way of life. Annika and Lukas gave me a driver from the
airport to our hostel as my birthday present. So they have been waiting for me
and I could just get in the air conditioned car. As well they booked a hostel
of a bit higher category for us, in order to have a place to rest and feel
comfortable. As we all have been very tired from the travel, we just sit in the
room talking and went for some lunch later in our street. The 10 minutes
walking in New Delhi have been already a lot for our brains. Smells (not the
good once), colors, noises from everywhere, people wanting to sell you
something, people staring at you… So in the evening we just had a beer on the
terrace and informed us about the tour of the next day.
On the 3rd
our already booked driver got us from the hostel and drove us the 3,5 hours
drive to Agra. He was very experienced with Germans and other tourists, a good
driver and a very nice and open person. First stop in Agra was the Taj Mahal.
Foreigners pay 750 Rupees – Locals 20!!! Having the ‘higher` ticket we didn´t
had to queue anywhere. Everyone was staring at us as there have been not a lot of
tourists. The peak season for tourists’ is over. The season for Indian
travelers is starting. I love to not just see tourists of foreign countries at
such places. And I don´t like to be seen as a tourist, too. So I always try to
dress and behave like locals. So we all went with long pants, a huge scarf over
the shoulders and acted quite. Well, it wasn´t working to not stitch out of the
crowed. I thought it was because of the blond hair and tall statue of Annika
and Lukas. But as people start to ask me to make photos with me, we figured
out, that there is no chance for us all to hide in the crowed.
I had the situation
with Luisa in Thailand some times in 2 weeks, that they want pictures from us.
Maybe cause´ we are small and white skinned. But on my first real day in India,
at the huge sight, people took more pictures of us than we took from the Taj.
At least the most asked, but some just started to take pictures. But the most
annoying thing is the staring. Men stare
at us. We started to play the game `who looks away first’. Sometimes you have
to stare back in their eyes for 40 seconds till they look away. So no matter
what we did, the attention was on us. After the Taj we saw the Red Fort, Itimad-ud-Daulah
and Akbars Tomb. Back in Delhi we asked Ashtok for a typical place to eat
dinner. He told us it will be different than we expected but he can bring us to
a place, where Indian people go to eat. It was a nice and modern fast food
restaurant. It was full of people talking hectically in Hindi, so we have been
thankful that Ashtok just ordered us some different things. Everything was so
good and with a less strong taste than at an Indian restaurant in Germany.
Tired but happy we drank beer in our room and went to bed. On the 4thAshtok picked us up at 9 o´clock and showed us Delhi. He stopped at the Jama Masjid, Raj Ghat, the Indira Gandhi Memorial and the house where Mahatma Gandhi died. We saw the `White House’ of India and the parliament as well as the impressive gate of India. Again we went to the Indian food place and at the end of the tour Ashtok told us about his life in his rental flat in New Delhi, for his drivers to sleep close to the costumers. After a small break at our hostel we went for some shopping. The last days we have seen prices we found expensive for us, expensive for India or quite cheap. But at shopping we found us no believing how cheap they can sell things here. It was good to book things ahead and pay a bit more for the first days in India. This way we could just focus on the new impressions and after all the bagging and staring we had our nice and quiet room.
Tired but happy we drank beer in our room and went to bed. On the 4thAshtok picked us up at 9 o´clock and showed us Delhi. He stopped at the Jama Masjid, Raj Ghat, the Indira Gandhi Memorial and the house where Mahatma Gandhi died. We saw the `White House’ of India and the parliament as well as the impressive gate of India. Again we went to the Indian food place and at the end of the tour Ashtok told us about his life in his rental flat in New Delhi, for his drivers to sleep close to the costumers. After a small break at our hostel we went for some shopping. The last days we have seen prices we found expensive for us, expensive for India or quite cheap. But at shopping we found us no believing how cheap they can sell things here. It was good to book things ahead and pay a bit more for the first days in India. This way we could just focus on the new impressions and after all the bagging and staring we had our nice and quiet room.
What I have seen so
far is as dirty as I thought, as loud, smelly, sad and full as I thought. Well
India is different. But I´m positively surprised, happy that I decided to come
for a visit and happy to be with good friends at the end of a day. (One thing
you can´t avoid to recognize is the high population, the carelessness and the majority
of men.)
No comments:
Post a Comment