DELHI, INDIA

I landed at the Delhi airport around 9 p.m. and I had made a phone reservation for a room at the Hotel Relax in the Paharganj area of Delhi. By the way, I wasn’t clear on it myself until I researched it, but Delhi is the name of this massive city of 12 million people and within it are an area called Old Delhi and the modern city that the British laid out called New Delhi. It’s all really the same place, but I thought they were separate cities miles apart. Pahar ganj is an area more or less between new and old and is considered to be the tourist ghetto. I’ve stayed in many areas of many cities that are known as tourist ghettos and most are fun, cheap, and filled with backpackers. The Hotel Relax has nice sounding rooms with A/C for a bit over $20 per night.

I got in line at the pre-paid taxi desk at the airport and I was thinking how much I like this concept. As I’ve mentioned before, many cities have nightmarish line ups of competing taxi drivers, each trying different ways to rip newcomers off. My book said the fare would be around $5, but it turned out to be less than $4. Wow. The taxi ride took about 40 minutes even though there wasn’t much traffic. I didn’t see much of the city since it was dark, but Delhi didn’t look too bad…yet. My driver said he couldn’t take a car down the street where my hotel was located and he recommended I get a rickshaw from where he could drop me off.

He drove me as far as he could, but I could see the rest of the way was a thin road filled with pedestrians and bicycle rickshaws. I got out and was instantly solicited by a bicycle rickshaw driver for a ride. I asked how much and he said 20 Rupee (45 cents) to the Hotel Relax so I hopped in even though I had read horror stories about these guys. He peddled along with some effort, but got up to a respectable speed. I saw a side street that appeared to be where my hotel was located according to my map, but the driver passed it. He then asked my hotel again and I said Hotel Relax. He mumbled something like that back to me and insisted it was further ahead.

Another couple of minutes down the road he turned down a dark and lonely street and rode another minute or so and then pointed to a dark and lonely looking hotel with a name not resembling Hotel Relax. He indicated I should get out and go register, but I instead yelled at him that this was the wrong hotel and he passed the street when I said. This is the common scam with these assholes. They get a huge commission for helping to fill rooms at crappy hotels and you end up paying for the room plus the huge commission for your whole stay. He then jumped off the bike and went to talk to a friend and pretended to ask him where Hotel Relax was. Then he was laughing a bit and chatting so I started to climb out, but he then ran over to me and told me to get back in. Suddenly he knew how to get there again and he took me. I knew this might be a problem, but I had nothing smaller than a 50 Rupee note. I gave it to him and asked for my change and he gave me 15 and I yelled at him again so he gave me 5 more and started whining about how he went all that way. I was overcharged by 10 Rupee and taken the long way. Welcome to Delhi!

The hotel was actually very nice and the room had a large, comfortable bed and a coffee table. I ordered a good and cheap meal from the room service menu and asked if they had beer. There was none on the menu, but just like in the other places the employees will happily get you beer for an inflated price and a tip. Even with those things it was still pretty cheap so I ordered three large bottles. The beer around the world is almost all better than, say, Budweiser, but the beer in India might be worse. It was cold and it made me feel better so I was fine with it.

The next morning I walked around my neighborhood a bit and discovered that it was disgusting. There is a vegetable market in the square right in front of my hotel and in the morning there are dozens of cows sleeping and hanging around that area. I guess the cows get much of the unsold produce so it’s an ideal place for them. The problem is that cows are gross and they take craps wherever they want. I could barely believe my eyes.

I then took a short cab ride to the nearby area called Connaught Place that intrigued me on the map. It’s in the heart of New Delhi and consists of concentric circles for avenues. I expected this area to look regal and proper, but when I got there I saw that it was dilapidated and falling apart just like everything else in India. There were decent stores and restaurants and it was far nicer than Paharganj (with hotels that cost twice as much or more) but still pretty lame. I walked around a bit and bought a Thailand guidebook and used the Internet for a bit and then went to buy a train ticket for the following day to Ajmer. I knew then that I wanted to minimize my time in Delhi.

I went to the train station, which was actually very close to my hotel, and found the office upstairs where tourists can buy tickets. It was crowded and disorganized. I eventually found out that there was one line for people paying in foreign currency and another, longer line for people paying with local currency, but if a foreigner pays with Indian money they have to show an exchange or ATM receipt. I guess they are worried about foreigners taking 50 cent per hour jobs in India and buying train tickets with the money so they set up this clumsy system to stop that. This is just one example of the nightmarish bureaucracy that seems to dominate almost everything in India. The lines are actually a semi circle of chairs and benches and as the line moves you keep skooching into new seats. It’s also ridiculous. I got up to the front of the Rupee line before I found out about the ATM receipt rule so I had to get into the foreign line at the end. A while later I had my ticket on the early morning train for the next day to Ajmer, but my impression of India just kept getting worse.

I walked back to my hotel and asked if they knew of a city tour I could take that afternoon since I had seen very little of Delhi and wanted to get out and not come back. The hotel said they have a car and driver that I could hire for about $13 for 8 hours. I said I wanted to see whatever I could in maybe 4 or 5 hours, but the price was fine. I arranged to start the tour soon so I went up to my room to relax for a few minutes before I started what I figured would be a necessary but hellish tour.

The driver showed up and we climbed into the small car. He spoke reasonable English so right there I expected it to be far better than my similar Mumbai tour. We first headed into the government area of New Delhi and it was quite a sight to see. In this ridiculously overcrowded city they have giant park areas that are very well groomed and have fancy buildings here and there. It was a lot like Washington DC’s mall area, but not quite as ornate. Still, compared to the rest of the city it is really bizarre.

The driver took me to a temple, but I didn’t want to go in, to save time and money. We went all over town and hit all the highlights and I went into a few places, but some I just photographed from outside. Overall the sights are more impressive than Mumbai and a larger part of the city is less awful than Mumbai, but it also doesn’t have the tiny bit of glitz that Mumbai has and many parts of Delhi are just disgusting. I am very glad I took a comprehensive tour of the city because I think it’s important to really look around before you pass judgment on a city. If you just toured Hollywood and Downtown LA you would think Los Angeles is fairly dirty and definitely disappointing, but I was all over both Mumbai and Delhi and while they each have (sort of) nice parts, most of both of them is a disgrace.

I ordered room service and beer that night from my hotel and tried to get a good night’s sleep. The train to Ajmer left at 7 a.m. the next morning, but luckily the station was walking distance from my hotel. I woke up around 6 and checked out and when I went outside my hotel I found even more cows than the previous morning. It smells bad enough without them, but it smells like a barnyard on top of everything else too. I walked the 10 minutes to the station and found my train with no problem and climbed aboard. Goodbye Delhi!