Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads - Back To The Future (1985)

Descended into Delhi during an amazing thunderstorm - was bizarre to see lightening from above, the clouds would flare up like strobe lights and back down again till you thought you were seeing things. I suppose that set the tone for what we'll be seeing in India...

Delhi Hotel Bathroom

Arrived to Delhi and got to our less than luxurious hotel (have a look for yourselves). We slept okay for a few hours but ignorance is bliss and when we came back to our room a few hours later there were about ten cockroaches there to greet us. We slept with the light on that night and got about 4 hours sleep between us. Took a tour of Delhi the next morning - was great, we saw where Gandhi was martyred and being the ignorant Westerners we are we defaced it. We didn't realise you had to take your shoes off and were pretty much kicked off the area where his monument was. 24 hours in India and already we were defacing national monuments...

Gandhi Memorial

One of the highlights of our day was a trip to the Hare Krishna temple. By highlights we mean lucky escape - be thankful we're not emailing home to tell you we have found inner peace and all it took is bright orange clothes, a shaved head and the contents of our bank accounts. We were brought in to a 3D show (we were expecting Avatar meets Passion of the Christ, was more like a melting Madame Tussuad's). The room was pitch black and we were told to stand against the wall. A booming voice over starts telling us about Krishna, while the disco lights illuminates a battle scene with some very freaky mannequins... 3 pitch black/mannequin filled rooms later we learned all about the soul, how it is wrong to think of yourself as only a body and how evil it is to look after the body and neglect the soul, when we are brought into a room that can only be described as something from a ghost train ride. There are bodies coming out of the wall, grotesque faces, demons and ghouls and then the serene faces of those who have chosen Krishna. The voice-over is on overtime saying how eating meat, having carnal relations and drinking alcohol invites evil spirits into the soul where choosing the divine path of Krishna (celibacy, sparse vegetarian diet and meaningful work) is to be saved. At this stage the lights are flashing on and off, people are screaming in the background and the UV light is giving everything a demonic sheen.

Oh did we mention that the entrances/exits were locked dungeon gates?

Elaine's secret message


When the guide/guard came to bring us into the next room we told him we wanted to leave so we missed the last few rooms. By the time we got out we were disorientated and thoroughly freaked out. We were told the temple had a restaurant, book shop and a guest house if we would like to take a look. Undoubtedly, had we stayed for the whole show there would have been someone to talk with at the end, maybe we would have been invited to stay for dinner and then perhaps the night? Then you would have gotten the email about our new found peace. Needless to say we hot-footed it out of there...

We weren't that all that enamoured with Delhi. It's loud, smoggy and full of touts. We only had 2 nights there so were pretty happy to leave. Took a 6 hour train to Jhansi and then a car to a place called Orchha which is gorgeous - very serene and relaxing. Just the perfect antidote to crazy Delhi life.

Elaine (26/9/10)

On a side note there was a lot of talk about the 2010 Common Wealth Games while in Delhi - both from the media and the people we spoke to. On one hand the people are very proud and excited to be hosting it but on the other hand they realise they are not prepared, that the facilities are not ready and they are getting a lot of criticism for it. The streets are all dug up and there is a constant flow of construction day and night but the authorities say it will all be done on time. Over 100 wild dogs have been taken out of the athletes village - some were sleeping in the dormitories, while there are photographs in the newspapers of mouldy showers and dirty mattresses. It will be interesting to see how this pans out...

Welcome to India