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Other entries in Delhi

more pics from not-new delhi

we've spent barely 48 hours in this city but feels like a lifetime. after barely making it off our squalor-slumhome street the first day, by day 2 we were ready to leave the nest. (even ped's indian friends who grew up here said we were staying in the pits - so figured anywhere but here had to be better.)

one of us got the hair-brained idea to walk to the red fort. on a map, it was only a few kms away on pretty major-looking streets. no prob right? in reality???...like a lot of places I've been - especially when you're new and the place is a little on the grimey side (OK a LOT on the grimey side), it's hard to tell the difference between slum and just how people live. and granted, I never felt unsafe on this walk (at least 'cause peds was with me) so my gut says we were never in a bad part of town, but wow. this stretch made our hovel of a street look like a zen buddhist retreat by the time we got back.

I don't think I walked in a straight line for more than a yard. otherwise, it was dodging - mostly people (and mostly men - very few women on the streets...), but also cows, cow shit, open sewars, garbage, blah, blah, blah. 

peds and I have a bet on who will step in cow shit first. at one point, he steped in something mushy, looked down, and in that split second before your brain catches up with what you're thinking, he was releived to see he didn't loose the bet cause he'd stepped on a dead rat instead. ummmmm.....what sort of place makes you happy you stepped on rat?! even if for just a split second?!....this is only day 2....

about a thousand times I maybe almost broke down and was going to ask to take a rickshaw, but before I could ask out loud, we'd see the most amazing stuff.

devali - a national holiday - is coming up so vendors are selling glittery, sparkly things  & sparklers everywhere (and maybe you know how much I like sparkly things so this was heaven for me!).

we saw 3 snake charmers. MORE cows (I've stopped counting). peds used a public urinal that was the most rank thing he's ever done. we oogled the sidewalk food (tho still neither of us ready to eat it....need to get our bellies steeled up a little more). got lost. guessed at what half the stuff was for sale on the sidewalks. and in general, gawked at how many people there were and how hard they were working

(ex: these guys with wooden carts who line up in the middle of the street (like a taxi stand) waiting to be hired. they get loaded with piles of heavy stuff and then pull it by hand across town....never mind they probably only eat 2 veggie meals a day. I have so much respect......)

the red fort was interesting enough. best was the museum of indian history - they made out the indians to be galliant in every battle (despite loosing most to the brits). but I alsway dig reading stories of the point people get so fed up by colonization their national pride takes over (as it should). there was a newpaper clipping from a day where everyone burned their western clothes. take back the sari! have seen this effect in lots of the countries I've been too. terrible the circumstances that bring it on, but inspiring the sense of national pride that is left.

we both agreed there's NO WAY we'd do that walk again, so hired our first non-auto rickshaw (aka: skinny old guy peddaling us through town. again with the respect...) by the time we got back to our slum-street-of-chaos - the same one that yesterday pretty much knocked our socks off - it felt so familiar and homey, we were thrilled to be there!

bought our train ticks the day before, so by night, we packed up, hopped our first indian train, hoisted peds up to the top bunk of 3 (easily 10 ft off the floor), tucked in and tried to sleep until udaipur.

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