Karma Salad: 2016

India Day 2 Part 2 - Tricksters & Train Tickets

Sunday, July 24, 2016

Early morning Delhi streets

The scorching daytime temperatures, high humidity and frequent rainstorms during monsoon season tend to deter travelers from visiting the Indian capital, but I expected at least a few die-hard backpackers here in New Delhi’s Pahar Ganj budget accommodation area. However, since leaving the airport I had not seen a single foreign traveler, and even at Bloomrooms Hotel there were only a few local guests.

Admittedly, the heat and humidity during July is tough to bare even for New Delhi locals, and when you step out of the air-conditioned hotel into the hot, wet streets, it’s a sweat bath! Fortunately, I live in Taiwan and therefore I'm no stranger to extreme weather conditions, but still…it was hot.

Anyway, the plan was to get to the Taj Mahal the next morning, and I had to buy train tickets to and from a town called Agra. (Oh, Agra… as I type this name, a feverish hot flush spread over neck, face and scalp... but later Agra... later I’ll deal with you, Agra..)

Now fellow globe trotters, please take heed: many respectable-looking ‘travel agents’ around New Delhi - even at recommended hotels like mine - will try to sell you special tours or tickets at inflated prices. They’re difficult to avoid but please take care. There’s a wealth of helpful travel information online and if you do just a bit of research before your trip, these swindlers can easily be debunked.

After fatherly warnings against all the many scamsters and tricksters out there, my recommended travel agent - let’s not mention his name here - assured me that there were long waiting lists for the trains I wanted to book. He pushed for a Taj Mahal minibus option at ₹6,000, and continued to produce several handwritten testimonials from past clients recommending his services.

Well, skeptical I was... I had read a helpful Delhi Agra Train Guide and knew the fastest trains would only cost between Rs 540 and Rs 750 per ticket. A Rs 6,000 minibus ride to and from Agra was therefore quite ridiculous. These trains were also mostly for tourists, and judging from the amount of foreign tourists I’d seen so far, I just couldn’t believe the ‘long waiting lists’ fable. Then, when Mr. Travel-agent-man started bargaining - “So, sir, how much will you pay for minibus? Maybe Rs 5,000?” - I was out of there. Needless to say I never saw this quack again.

In bright daylight the cacophony and chaos that is Qutab Road was simply accentuated. I dove right back into this milling mass of breakfast fires, auto rickshaws and pedestrians and headed to the New Delhi Railway Station building. On the first floor there was supposed to be an International Tourist Bureau that’s open 24 hours / 7 days a week. Really? Well this I had to see…

The Lonely Planet website states -

“For foreigners, it’s easiest to make ticket bookings at the helpful International Tourist Bureau . Do not believe anyone who tells you it has shifted, closed or burnt down – this is a scam to divert you elsewhere. There are reportedly railway porters involved in scams, so stay on your toes and don’t let anyone stop you from going to the 1st floor of the main building for bookings.”

India Day 2 - Part 1 - Breakfast Bonanza

Sunday, July 24, 2016

The day started well. The hearty buffet breakfast at Bloomrooms' downstairs restaurant is a culinary treat and worth every Rupee. They include a variety of breakfast dishes cooked to order like omelets, pancakes and flatbreads, as well as coffee, tea, cereal, jam & toast and a real bonus - fresh fruit!

The chefs went out of their way to introduce some authentic Indian dishes, which included -

Aloo puri - spicy potatoes (aloo) with gravy and puffed whole wheat bread (puri) - so good!

Aloo puri - photo courtesy of Zaika Zabardast

Poha - flattened rice (also called beaten rice) is de-husked rice which is flattened.

Poha - photo courtesy of Veg Recipes of India

Idli Sambhar - savoury cakes made by steaming a batter consisting of fermented black lentils (de-husked) and rice.

Idli Sambhar - photo taken by Soumya Dey

Upma - thick porridge made from roasted semolina or coarse rice flour.

Upma - photo courtesy of Veg Recipes of India

Sambar Vada - savoury fried dahl ‘do-nuts’ eaten with all kinds of chutneys. These are delicious!

Sambar vada - photo courtesy of rediff.com

And of course I had to try as much as I could.

The chefs' hospitality and the pride they took in discussing their national cuisine was inspirational. Admittedly, I was their only early-morning guest and they were just too happy to kill time by amusing the newcomer. But when I finally rolled out of there, I was one very satisfied customer.

Buffet Breakfast at Bloomrooms - photo courtesy of TripAdvisor

India Day 1 - Chaos, Contrast & Comfort

Saturday, July 23, 2016

It was around 10pm when my Malaysia Airlines flight MH190 touched down at Delhi’s highly-rated Indira Gandhi International airport. It was my first visit to India and I really didn’t know what to expect, but first impressions were, well, impressive. I soon found myself in an ultra-modern and well-designed airport building with some beautiful spaces and interesting art installations.

Delhi airport customs

“Very much welcome to India!” greeted the smiling customs official with bushy mustache and sparkling white teeth. As he stamped my passport and wished me well - “Happy and safe travels to you, sir!” - he provided my first experience of the open friendliness that seems to radiate from so many Indians I’ll meet in the next few weeks. Of course not everyone emanated such welcoming friendliness, but the majority did… and it’s infectious. With a huge smile on my face and in high spirits, I was off to a good start.

Outside the Terminal 3 airport building my jovial mood was severely dampened by an overwhelming breathtaking humidity that hits like stepping into a sauna. This was to be expected during monsoon season in July, but still… hot and sticky. At this point changing into a T-shirt and shorts wasn’t an option since I knew the last Metro Express train was leaving just after 11pm. With sweat gushing from every pore, I soldiered on.

What’s more, scores of ‘welcoming’ hotel touts and taxi wallahs tried to assure me that my hotel had burned down or moved, or that the Metro Express is either out of service or that I’ve missed the last train. Luckily I was warned about the fibs and scams that are part of traveling in India and which can usually be avoided with some common sense and a confident smile.

Various banks have ATMs inside and outside the terminal building and accept most international cards. A great feature of most Indian ATMs is that your card can’t get stuck in the machine leaving you stranded with no money or cards. You insert your card halfway, you remove it from the machine, and then you enter your pin and carry on with the withdrawal. Awesome!

So I withdrew some Rupees - there’s a ₹10,000 limit per withdrawal - and then followed signs to the Metro Express which is just down a walkway across from the exit. It’s super easy to find and conveniently connects the international and domestic airports to the New Delhi railway station area. Just after 11pm I caught the last Metro Express train at a very reasonable ₹60 one way. Clean, modern and user-friendly, the Metro Express provided easy air-conditioned access to a central part of New Delhi where my hotel was.

The luxury and convenience of my arrival in India came to an abrupt and sudden end when I stepped outside the very modern Metro Express station, right into the heart of New Delhi darkness. Nothing could have prepared me for the chaos and contrast of the bustling New Delhi railway station area, especially late at night. Shops and businesses might close early in Delhi, but the streets never rest.

I took a deep breath and plunged myself into the swarming masses of commuters, beggars, touts, dogs, flies, food stands, bicycle and moto rickshaws (tuk-tuks), taxis and commotion that fill every cranny and pothole of the dingy, dusty gravel roads of inner city Delhi. I jumped a few dubious puddles and oblivious street sleepers, leaped over mounts of cow dung and garbage, and finally realized that I was in fact completely and totally lost in this bustling cacophony of sights, sounds and smells.

Oh, and did I mention it was pitch dark? Not too much street lighting on this first little introductory journey. Now normally a pinch of panic might have clouded the senses, was it not for the miles of smiles, first surprised, and then the white of teeth and eyes that smiles and welcomes this lost, gaping and dumbfounded single white male to the wonders of India. I had arrived, and it was going to be an adventure!

Out came the Sony Xperia smartphone… And thank every holy cow for free GPS, Google maps and the clarity of mind to have downloaded some maps for offline use. Google saves!

I had to get to my hotel - Bloomrooms @ New Delhi Railway Station - which is at 8591 Arakashan Road on the opposite side of the New Delhi railway station. Google claims it’s only 850 meters/ 11 minutes away… well, I applaud their optimism!

Route from Metro Express to Bloomrooms Hotel

Thing is, I was on the Ajmeri Gate side of this massive, dimly-lit railway station and had to get to the Pahar Ganj side over sixteen train platforms heaving with crowds of busy commuters and all their worldly belongings. Apart from whole families - mothers, fathers and children - sleeping right there on the train platforms, there were even a few snoozing cows - Brahma knows how they got into the station!

Many people come to India to ‘find’ themselves, and there, after a few tense moments of waving the smartphone around trying to ‘catch’ a GPS signal on Google maps, I saw that little blue dot (me). Within the first couple of hours of arriving in India, I had found myself!

I aligned so the little blue arrow pointed towards Bloomrooms Hotel, and with one eye on the little screen and one eye ahead, I carved my way through the milling masses. With much help from startled but helpful locals who pointed me to an overpass, I somehow crossed the sixteen train platforms and finally found Qutab Road, which forms the edge of the Pahar Ganj area where most of Delhi’s budget/ backpackers accommodation is located.

By now, Qutab Road was a little less crowded, but still buzzing with those three-wheeled green-and-yellow auto rickshaws persistently offering their services. Again, most claimed that Bloomrooms Hotel either changed location or even burned down, but blessed is he who trusts his smartphone.

Qutab Road at midnight

It was on this last 250m stretch that I came face to face with a concentration of street dwellers that have made their home under the DB Gupta Bridge. These included crouching beggars, people with various aches & disabilities, pockets of street children, as well as anorexic dogs, crows, rats and human vagrants scavenging through the mounting garbage for a midnight snack.

Although this spectacle was seriously upsetting, the Gupta bridge residents seemed to coexist in a kind of harmonious camaraderie based on their shared depravity. I sensed an unknown acceptance and embrace of their common and fated degradation that I couldn’t yet comprehend, but that would leave a lasting impression and form the base for the little life lessons that lay ahead on this journey.

So anyway, I moved on still checking the smartphone and searching for Bloomrooms Hotel. I mean, the hotel should have been right ahead, but looking at the dilapidated buildings and crumbling sidewalks and thought those airport wallahs might have been right - Bloomrooms was no more…

And then suddenly, on the corner of Qutab and Arakashan, among the surrounding chaos and deterioration, it was there. A diamond in the rough, Bloomrooms Hotel turned out to be everything their website and online reviews promised it to be. Admittedly, it’s more pricey than many other budget sleeps in the Pahar Ganj area, but once you’ve washed away the outside grime under your ‘designer Grohe rain shower’, once you’ve sunk into your ‘custom built Cloudbed™’, once you’re safe and snug in your compact, windowless, noiseless, white-and-yellow cocoon of comfort and AC with combination lock safe for money and valuables, all remembrance of outside madness slips away… and nothing else matters...

Except, are they getting any sleep under the DB Gupta bridge?