Delhi, Jaipur & Udaipur

Our first week of travelling in India has passed and the culture shock - especially for me - is slowly easing. I arrived in Delhi a week ago after a long, boring 7 hour flight and was welcomed by Paul at the airport. Our first meeting after nearly 2 months!
We stay in Delhi for a couple of days and Gerry, one of Pauls expedition partners is still there too. But Delhi is not at all what I expected. It's my personal version of hell. Chaotic, smelly and dirty. Nothing pretty or exciting about the place. It's not just that as a foreigner you stick out and therefore are an easy target. The gap in the lifestyle of the people is truly shocking. You have obviously westernized people with jeans, sun glasses and mobile phones walking past the man sleeping on the street wearing next to nothing. It's not easy to digest. We want to leave as soon as possible, because staying here isn't cheap either. We have chosen Jaipur as our next destination. To get there we need to organize train tickets.

Paul

Gerry

Delhi

The Delhi train station is a unique experience. Never in my life have I seen so many people in one confined space. The signs are in Hindi and English and never obvious. From the minute we enter the grounds we are beeing harrassed. Every guidebook warns of this. The international booking office is apparently somewhere upstairs on the 1st floor, but people step in your way and start telling you it is closed, forcing you in the direction of some agent. We need to be firm and keep looking. It takes about 30 minutes until we finally find it. It nice and cool here and we get the ticket organized.

The next day we get the train from the Old Delhi Station to Jaipur. We are travelling Sleeper Class and it is hot. Paul sleeps most of the time, but I find it grueling. The heat is getting to me and I am again bored. You can read only so much. In India it is not considered unpolite to stare at somebody. And Indians stare for hours without taking their eyes of you. Very uncomfortable in a train compartment! If the train wasn't so basic, I could convince myself, I am a celebrity.

At Old Delhi Train Station

I only have vague memories of Jaipur other than it was hot - again - as I was sick for most of the days and spent a good portion of the time in bed. We visited the City Palace and some craft shops, but overall it is a very dry and dusty place.

A couple of days later we get the overnight train to Udaipur. Getting out of the train on Saturday morning and taking the riksha o the old part of the city, we instantly take a liking to the place. It is smaller, with little streets and pretty houses rising four or five floors high. The surrounding landscape is full of hills, but sadly the lake in Udaipur is very dry. We spent most of the days wandering around in town sightseeing and chilling in roof top terraces reading our books. Even the heat is more bearable here, as it is always windy. People are also more friendly here. It's less hectic and it starts feeling like a holiday.

Udaipur

Street vendors

Spot the elephant!