India blog-
Day 1-April 1-What a verrrry long plane ride--I had flown out of Milwaukee, WI to Newark, NJ. There was about a two hour layover until we got on the plane to Delhi. We arrived in New Delhi about 7:15pm India time after 14hrs. The airport was very big and efficient. Dr. D said she had a great big red duffle-she wasn't kidding! While in the airport we exchanged some US dollars for rupees. I guess the exchange rate right now is about 50 rupees/dollar. From there we went outside to the warm-95°, steamy New Delhi night where C.S. Singh, and his wife Pommi, met us and took us to our hotel. It was a bit of a hair-raising drive due to the many motorbikes around us, and the way everyone drives. (Those who know me know I'm a motorcycle driver myself-so, this really interested me!) Naturally they drive on the 'wrong' side of the street. Everyone cuts everyone else off, and it's up to the driver to look out for himself. There is no defensive driving here-everyone drives as quick as they can, to fit into the next open space on the road-
What also amazed me was the number of people walking in the streets right along with the cars, (even on main three lane roads), people on bicycles with carts attached-like 'rick-shaws' I guess, and the roaming animals all over (cows, monkeys, dogs).
We got to our hotel on the west side of Delhi, and had some pizza next door at Dominos-yes, I did say Dominos. It was great after the plane food. At about 10:30pm we called it a night to get up by 0500, to catch the train to Kalka by 0730. The room was clean, cool, and very comfortable. I was so excited, I know it took me an hour to settle down. Then, next I knew, I was awake again-thinking about the day ahead.
Day 2-April 2-
The gentleman C.S. uses to drive us places, arrived at the hotel at 0600 sharp to take us on to the train station. Again we weaved frantically in and out of traffic. This time we saw more monkeys, dogs, cows on the way. The sides of the streets, and the streets were teeming with people-many going somewhere, many just living in the street. I saw the New Delhi police dept., one or two hospitals, a museum, several businesses, many two story and higher apt dwellings. Many of the buildings I saw were very dilapidated and crumbling. People live in and amongst these buildings no matter what state they're in. We saw some areas where houses were made of whatever materials were available-cardboard, and other materials less permanent.
When we got to the train station, our driver asked 5 men to take our baggage for us to the train. They started arguing about something-our driver and the men, we suspected it might have been about price.
As it happens, I was sitting next to a woman on the train who is an architect for the government, and travels each Monday to her job, and returns on Fri. I asked her about the housing. She said the government has several building interests around the country-but none to tear down the dilapidated areas and build new because then, where would the people go. Too many would be displaced. She also said, the gov had a program where you could apply for a subsidized home. But, people were buying the home, and then leaving it and renting it out to someone else, and moving back to their original home, and collect the money. Some would buy two homes and do this. Well, the gov passed a law it could only be one home per person to try to curtail this.
Now as many folks know, I love my food, and I also cannot function on cookies and tea. In fact, on the plane I had to resort to my stash of granola and energy bars to tide me over. Well, when we got to the train station this morning, I had told Dr. D I was going to have to dig into my stash again. We had heard they served food on the train, but, didn't know what exactly. Shortly after we started out, we were served coffee or tea-and cookies. So, we thought that was breakfast. Then we learned, no, we were going to be served BREAKFAST! My heart sang!!!! We were offered not only food but choices-there were three different types we could have. Omelet, South Indian, and vege cutlets. I chose South Indian on the advice of my architect friend. It was delicious! We had juice, toast, butter, jam, coconut chutney, a black bean fried 'donut', and formed semolina with veges in it. Oh yes-and there was a sauce which went on the donut item. It was spicy but not too spicy. It was a lot of food! Along the way, we're passing varied and dichotomous scenes. Cities, animal drawn plows, grain fields, brick-making kilns, etc., with satellite dishes on roof-tops, people with the latest technology and the profoundly poor.
Enjoy the pictures ---Ignore the time stamps-they're incorrect.
Sorry about the length of this first post----all after this one will be much shorter!
Lynn
