A night or two before flying to Delhi from Kathmandu I read a few blogs about India, it’s scams and in particular the Delhi airport. We had spent over 8 hours collectively working out the e-visa and had a vertitable shit show upon leaving Nepal where they stopped us for not getting ‘stamped in’ when we walked across the Tibet- Nepal border. We barely made the plane for a USD$2 fine for each of us! I was not looking forward to the Delhi experience!
Upon arrival almost everything about Delhi surprised us! Smooth sailing at the airport including the e-visa ( the customs guys were awesome!), and our hostel pick up ( secret password – big mango!). The drive to our hostel was pretty easy and the route was lush with trees and beautiful temples (the Laxmi Narayan in particular). The only thing missing was head wobbles. We knew the backpack area was a little grim but as we wandered down the back alley all we could smell was urine and rubbish accompanied by constant shouts and honking horns. It’s true -India is an assault on all the senses….it took me a day to realise that the wall at the corner was a place for guys to pee…..
Just a bit behind and to Kaia’s left was the pee wall. Note the excellent wiring – power outages were regular. A right turn at the end of this alley it got much darker and there was our hostel…
Paharganj By Night
That night M.C. And I ventured out to the main bazaar of Paharganj. This neighbourhood is the cheap cheap backpacker area and all the neon signs are for cheap hotels. This area is intense at all hours.
Paharganj by Day
One afternoon while everyone was chilling I set out to explore the rest of the Paharganj area. Tons more cheap hotels and more little shops selling the same stuff. Also the everpresent smell of urine, cooking and garbage. Accompanied by flies…always flies. Without the family I still got looks but none approached me to ask where I was from. Perhaps I looked enough the part to get away with maybe being local….
It was gritttier – saw a dog get hit by a motorcycle, a legless man begging in the middle of a 6 lane road, cows everywhere and lots of garbage. Poverty abounded.
