Before I start with the next entry on Delhi, let me advise all of you who are thinking of 'backpacking' in India, or anywhere for that matter. Have a guide book in hand. Especially 'Lonely Planet Travel Guides and Information' book. Totally a godsend. It 'saved' our lives... but more on that later.
The streets of Delhi to be continued:
That's our destination, the Jama Mosque:
I know I risk sounding like a pampered brat, but man... the way to the mosque smells extremely bad... Imagine sewage, dried fish and faeces...
Cool place to hang out...:
Okay, so here's the thing about visiting mosques in India (and all over the world for that matter), you have to be covered up. For both guys and girls, no berms are allowed and a scarf is necessary for girls. If you wear bermudas, they will loan you a sarong. Yes, LOAN you a sarong or headscarf. And its not cheap. Nor is it very useful to cover yourself up with. And certain mosques (and mausoleums) in India, will not allow free photography and video-recording in the compounds. Again, its not cheap!
I found it ironic that being the only Muslim out of the 4 of us, I had to pay for a sarong because I was wearing berms that day.
But Jama Mosque in Delhi is a must-see if you are in Delhi:
You can pay for a detour up the south minaret:
They take the wudhu (ablution) at the pool in front of the central prayer hall of the mosque:
Then we took another trishaw down to the subway station... Yes, all 4 of us squeezed into the trishaw. We tipped generously to that guy who ferried us there. God bless his calves.
It seemed that the only respite from the Delhi heat and stench is the time we had in the subway stations. We even took time to sit at the platform to chill.
Not just anyone can go into the subway stations. There were not just entry barriers but also metal detector gates and hordes of security guards at every entrance! Security is very tight. Beggars and the homeless are turned away from loitering in the stations. And thankfully the stations are free from the stench you get out in the streets.
Our next stop was at Connaught Place in New Delhi. We really had enough of the old parts of Delhi. We needed a change of scenery... prompto.
So when we reached the subway station of Connaught Place and saw an escalator going out of the station, and as we went up the escalator and saw a streetlamp... and we saw the colonial buildings and paved roads, we were extremely thankful.
But inspite of that, the poor community still managed to rear its pitiful head in the rather posh district of Delhi. For example there were a couple of families of half naked construction workers restorating buildings in the district. One of the family even had a baby tied to a brick as both the husband and wife worked in a construction site nearby. And there were the few odd beggars on the streets.
I saw this really old and frail woman with cataract in her eyes and vitiligo in her skin, begging on the street. I had to give her some money and instead of smiles, I got stares from the well-to-do Indians who were walking past.
That is just the tip of the iceberg of my bad Indian experience. The experience that left me jaded happened a few hours later that night before we took a train to Jaipur. Here's what happened:
We were at New Delhi Train Station, a short walk from our hotel in Paharganj, and since it was the first time we were travelling on an Indian train, we had no idea that our e-ticket that we printed after booking the train rides online, were sufficient as boarding tickets to be shown to the conductors. And we were just about to clarify with one of the counter staff at the train station when a guy intercepted us. Dressed in shirts and jeans, he introduced himself as an officer at the train station. He said, "Tourists should go to the Tourist Information Bureau counter at the second floor". He was persistent on helping us despite us waving him away. And he lied (the first of many lies), "don't have to pay me, I am officer here at the station."
So up we went to the second floor, and as expected (cause we were there at 4am in the morning), the office for the Tourist Information Bureau was closed. Plus, there were about a dozen guys sleeping on the floor. A guy, equally sloppy as the first one, came out from around a corner. The first guy saluted the second guy. Yes, SALUTED. "Good morning, sir," he said. "Impressive," I thought of his acting, "can be a Bollywood star..."
The second guy said, "You have to go to another Tourist Information counter. Our 24hours office. Let my friend here show you the way."
Alarm bells rang in my head. Thank God, I had read 'Lonely Planet' guide book cover to cover. I knew this was a scam. They would convince us that the official service centre was closed or burnt down. Take us to another 'official' office. And get a 'high-ranking officer' there to sign and stamp our e-tickets to be 'approved'. They would then charge you a bomb for their services...
So my friends and I followed the first guy down. True enough, he brought us away from the train station and across the carpark and across the road to a row of 'official' and 'government-approved' tourist information offices... Before I could stop my friends, an idea popped in my head, "Let's jus see what's going to happen..."
So that's what I did, I just tagged along for the ride. And it was indeed interesting...
In the office, there were another dozen guys sleeping. On the floor, on the chairs, on the tables... Even the 'high-ranking officer' with his own cubicle was sleeping with his feet on the table. He explained to us, "I don't want you to get into problems when you board the train, you need your tickets signed by me... blah blah blah..."
I turned to the page where they were showing the scam in the 'Lonely Planet' guide book and enlightened my friends. The scammers, who were probably aware that we knew they were cheating us, simply let us out of the office without asking for payment.
Except for the first guy we met at the beginning and brought us all over the station... He asked for a 'tip'. The cheek of that douchebag!!!! I almost flipped! You scammed us and now you want us to tip you for scamming us??? Oh puh-lease!!! ...
Li-En gave him 10 rupees (30 cents) and the jackass went away. That was not the end of our drama. When we finally asked the official counter guy at the counter, he told us that though the location of our train station (according to the e-ticket) is New Delhi, it wasn't New Delhi Train Station but Delhi Train Station a.k.a. Old Delhi Train Station. Oh man... because of the scam, we already wasted half an hour and had less than an hour before our train departs from the Old Delhi Train Station.
So we dashed out to get taxis or tuk-tuks to drive us there. For the next 10 minutes was extremely hair-pulling crazy. None of the drivers there wanted to take us there because according to them, Old Delhi Station was an hours drive away and we would miss the train anyways. Instead, they insisted, we cancelled our tickets and rebooked from the New Delhi Station (again a scam for us to book at the 'official' tourist centres and pay a ridiculous amount).
Bullocks! We took the subway train the day earlier and we knew that the New Delhi subway station and Old Delhi subway station were one after the other!!!! How could it have take an hour to drive us there?! And, we saw a couple of the taxi drivers secretly talking to the first original scammer...
After 10 minutes of 'Amazing Race'-I'm-about-to-lose-hope moment. A true Bollywood hero came forth. He told us he would drive us there and it would later take us barely five minutes to reach the Old Delhi Train Station. Our savior.... but of course we overpaid him...
Finally... we managed to take the overnight train to Jaipur.
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