In the airplane, as we started our descent into Delhi, there was an announcement that photos are not permitted from the air. Curious.....
India is intense. It is very hot, the poverty is wrenching - and we are keeping a grueling schedule - but loving it.
We arrived at the hotel in Delhi around noon and met at 2 PM meeting to receive the list of scavenges. We learned that although we checked into the Delhi hotel for 4 nights, we actually were not going to be staying there very much. We had to figure out how to get ourselves to Jaipur and Agra; and further, we must go by train one way for each of those legs. In other words, we had to plan to bolt pretty much right away. We teamed up with 4 other groups and mapped out what we had to do. It took us about 3 hours to work the train schedules and figure out how much time was needed for travel and to do the scavenges. Having established that we need a 4:45 wake up call to leave to catch a 6AM train (and having started the day with a 4:45 wake up call), Alex and I set out for old Delhi to do a few quick scavenges, have dinner and go to bed. Some of the others went out for a mandatory food scavenge in a restaurant in New Delhi, near the hotel. Alex and I got in a taxi at the hotel and were told that the taxi could not take us all the way in to the old city but he would help us get into a rickshaw which could. We had to take a rickshaw because the streets are small and crowded to a level of intensity that the word "crowded" can't begin to describe. The area around the Red Fort and the mosque were teeming with crowds, filth, mopeds and street life. Although we were seated in a rickshaw (the kind that's powered by pedalling a bike; NOT the kind which is motorized and parially enclosed). Ours was the real deal. The seat was filthy, cracked, slanting forward making you slide off it so you have to keep pushing yourself back into the seat, but there wasn't much of anything to hold on to. The crowds of people, motorcycles and mopeds and animals - cows, dogs, etc. - make the rickshaw ride very slow. When it stops, people come and beg. They touched me, pushed their babies into my face, put their open hands right in front of me, gently tugged my clothing, looked at me with deep mournful eyes. The sun was low and the light fading, so the images were stunning. I snapped a rapid-fire stream of digital photos and mental pictures. People laying on the street side sleeping in filth, an old man standing with one healthy leg and the other twisted and shriveled as he balances himself with a stick, an old wooden pushcart piled with bags of flour slowly rolling along the street, moped drivers honking furiously and weaving in and out of the congestion, some women (probably Muslim) with their heads and bodies covered in black flowing fabrics and others in saris of breathtakingly beautiful intensely colored saris that look clean and pristine - some with beautiful sparkles, a wrinkled stooped old man with a long beard and a white cloth swaddling his legs like a diaper, storefronts like a bazaar lining the streets - selling dusty wares, meager packaged foods, tires, street food, twisted junk metal; and a cow grazing in a pile of trash about 2 feet high. So much chaos, so fast. When the rickshaw driver found an opening, he we lurched forward and we jostled and tried to hang on.
We arrived at the Jama Masjid mosque, the largest in India, and we communicated to the rickshaw driver by a few words and hand signals that we were getting out to take a quick look. Even though I had dressed to enter a mosque (long sleeves and long pants - in this heat!), a guy standing at the entrance wagged his finger, shook his head and grunted negatively at me. He produced a big cloth with velcro closures like a barber's apron and wrapped it around me. He also pointed to our cameras and an official looking sign with prices - apparently the cost for entrance and the right to talke pictures. We paid (later learned that there is no fee to enter - scam artists stand in front of the entrance, block your way, and extract fees from unsuspecting tourists - a disadvantage flowing from the rule that you can't get guidebooks until the leg starts; it was Sunday; and the hotel didn't have a shop that sells guidebooks). We entered a large courtyard with a sense of serenity. People milled quietly and the glowing fading sunlight made for a lovely scene. Back to the waiting rickshaw, to the big Red Fort which dominates Old Delhi. We quickly did the scavenges and the waiting rickshaw took us back to the spot where our taxi was waiting to take us to the restaurant so we could do a mandatory food scavenge, eat something and go to bed. We had chosen Karim's in Old Delhi. The driver said he could take us close and we could walk the rest of the way. Very slow going - this time in an AC cab, until he could go no further and pointed down the alley where we spotted a nice electric sign with the restaurant name. It was in a courtyard and was pleasant, tasty and cheap. As we finished eating, I had that feeling you have when you are inside during a torrential downpour and you know you must go out but you just hate to get started. By now it was pitch black.
Knowing this might go nowhere but worth a try, Alex asked the waiter if the restaurant could call a taxi to meet us. Answer: "No". But, we found, as happens to us constantly, by asking in English for help, an English-speaker within earshot approached to offer his help. He is a 20-ish year old Indian, having just finished his dinner with a friend from college. They were planning to attend the sound and light show in the Red Fort that was scheduled to start in about 15 minutes. He offered to walk us out to a point where we could find a taxi. As we walked, beggers swarmed. Interestingly (he even commented to us), they bothered him and his friend even more than us. In between ducking darting mopeds, we chatted. He is an engineer, recently started as and analyst for the India office of a private equity firm in NY, and used to work for Microsoft. Having led us to a street where we could find a taxi, we parted ways.
A quick taxi ride back to the hotel, and to bed for another early day. Before turning in, we had to pack for an overnight - but take very little stuff, to allow us to maneuver the Delhi train station and a long, full day of sightseeing. Challenging, but possible. PLUS, because of the rugged travel conditions, we had to think through including essential things like hand wipes, kleenex (no toilet paper in any public bathrooms), chargers and adapters...all in a light day pack. But, we did it and crashed for the night.