From Athens I flew through Moscow to New Delhi.
At the Moscow airport I celebrated Halloween with pumpkin seeds that i had brought from Europe.
On the 2nd I did a day tour of Delhi. On the tour I met 3 Indian guys traveling and touring. They were very nice and very curious about what I was doing and shocked that I was doing it alone. I very quickly realized that I was not surrounded by other independent travelers like I had been in Europe. This was fine, but I found it to be one of the most challenging places to meet people with similar mind sets. I found that the majority of people whom i encountered traveling were other Indians exploring other parts of their country and the main response I received was surprise and would recieve a lot of questions trying to somehow find a way to understand why someone would want to travel alone. The hard part for many of them to grasp was that I would make friends as I went and create new and unique experiences to learn and grow from and when I was on my own I would appreciate my surroundings and learn more about myself.
November 3rd was Diwali or the Festival of Lights. This is one India's biggest festival celebrated by India's in all parts of the country. I was lucky enough to celebrate with the Govil family. The evening started with decorating, eating, and puja. After all of this the town exploded into smoke, lights and noise of fire crackers. It was a beautiful evening with very welcoming and friendly people.
November 5th my day started at 6am getting ready for a three day golden triangle tour. I checked out of my hostel at 6:30 and went to find a rickshaw. The day before I was told I should pay 50 or 60 rupees but no more than 100. When I asked what the price would be the driver told me 300! I was astonished and just laughed. I told him I would pay 40. He settled for 50 which I was quite pleased with because I would have paid up to 70. It was a fairly sketchy ride because he kept asking if I had a boyfriend, offering me drugs, and stopping to smoke. Luckily I made it to the tour office without having to deal with anything serious. There were 5 of us on the tour. Two ladies for Goah and two older men from Sweden. The drive was insane; I have never seen such gridlock in my life. It puts Los angles and Seattle traffic to shame.
In Agra we saw:
The red fort
The Taj Mahal
A marble handy craft shop
A rug and textiles shop
At the stores we got a initial presentation of what they did and how they did it which was fascinating but then came the sales pitch....both places started off with the bigger items with higher prices and then worked their way down to smaller more inexpensive items. It was very staged and although I loved everything they had it was all out of my budget and the way everything was presented was very sly and I didn't want to be a part of it.
After checking into our hotel the two Swedish men and I went to dinner. It was delicious! I have no idea what I ate, all I know was that it was a chicken dish. I had asked the water for suggestions and taken his recommendation. I was quite pleased. We had a pleasant conversation and they paid for my dinner. I hope that one day I will be able to do the same for another traveler.
We returned from the tour on the 7th and for my remaining couple of days I didn't do much. I walked around the city and found good indian food to eat. One day I did a hop on hop off tour but only got off at one stop which was India gate. I enjoyed it because there was grass surrounding the gate and I just found a patch to sit and relax in. However, people made it very difficult for me to relax. One guy would come sit near me, leave, come back and sit again and the cycle continued for about 30min. After this a little girl that was on a picnic with her family came up to me and said "hello, how are you." This was not as annoying because she was cute and just practicing her English. Another group of little kids came and asked me for money and throwing rocks. A large group of school kids walked past staring and taking pictures. There were more encounters that occurred but I think my point was made.
On the 10th of November I was excited to go to the airport and move to a different place because I felt I had exhausted things to do in Delhi. Don't get me wrong, overall I enjoyed India but it was a lot to take in and I was ready to move on to other things.
I arrived at the airport in Delhi at 5am for my flight which I thought was at 7:10. Without a ticket they would not let me into the airport to check in. I thought this was going to be a real problem because i needed to go to the counter inside to check in and get my ticket but they wouldn't let me in without a ticket.... Finally someone pointed me in the direction of the ticket counter at the far end of the airport. I went and had them print out a form that basically just had my name on it and flight info. It was certainly not a ticket. Anyway, I then tried to check in and the lady at the Air India counter told me I needed to come back after 6am to check in. I was confused again. She wanted me to check in less than an hour before my international flight? Well, I soon found out that the flight was at 9am and not 7:10. I was glad that I had mistaken it for earlier and not later. Anyway, this caused yet another problem. I was getting picked up at the airport in Nepal by the trekking company and they were going to take me to my hotel but they were expecting me at around 9 when I would actually arrive around 11. The airport advertised free wifi but you could only access it with an Indian phone number to receive an SMS code. Great, I didn't have phone access, let alone an Indian phone number. After I was finally checked in I went to an information desk where they told me I could get free Internet at a desk inside. I found the desks that the lady was describing but all the computers were broken. I then went to a different information desk where I was told I could get Internet on the 4th floor. What? How am I supposed to get to the 4th floor? I finally found it but when I asked about free Internet they said you have to pay for access to the lounge to get Internet. I asked if there was a way to just pay for 5 minutes worth of Internet because I just needed to send one email. They were extremely nice and let me use the wifi for free. I sent an email to Raj telling him the new flight information to get picked up at the right time. However, I would not know if he received the email or if I would actually get picked up from the airport until I actually arrived. Ohh then came the visa application. I couldn't remember if I had my pictures for the visas in my carry on or where they would be if they were not there. They also did not take the Nepali Rupee for the visa fee. Somehow I was able to find my pictures in my carry on and paid with the only US money I had.
I love reading about your adventures! Be safe!!
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