Delhi - Fascinating history, but also the final straw(s)

We had a couple of nights in Delhi before we flew out. We left Agra on the train having bought our ticket like good little travellers at Agra Cantonment station. Once on the train we managed to sit down and start to relax..the journey to Delhi was relatively short in comparison to some of our treks across this huge country. However, then a guy comes along to check our ticket...

1 - this is the first time it's happened..
2 - he's just in normal clothes and the only thing he has that looks anything like official is a biro
3 - he tells us we have the wrong ticket and that we have to pay a 580 rupee fine!

So, being pretty seasoned travellers now, we say no. He says we have to go and see the conductor. So we leave him and try and find the conductor but without success and come back to find another seat. He then turns up again demanding money. However, luckily the conductor turns up a few minutes later, no doubt hearing a bit of a commotion. We tell him (in his conductor's uniform) that this guys trying to charge us about 6 times the price of our ticket. He then smiles at the guy and says it's ok and we can sit down - no charge! We still had a go though (and I scowled my most menacing scowl at the guy - so yeah he must have been scared!) and thought about how unfair it would have been if we hadn't been savvy travellers. Next - we met some unsavvy travellers...they'd paid the supposed fine. Luckily we helped them to get their money back...

Now in Delhi, we finally decided to break our 6 week no-meat rule here at Pizza Hut of all places. The things you crave when youre away from home eh? Thankfully no Delhi-Belly either here or through the whole trip. Also decided to treat ourselves to staying somewhere nice and not in the backpacker haven of Paharanj where the bombs went off last week. So we booked into the YWCA where we had a big room, and a hot water..although we still felt it was a bit overpriced at 1500 rupees..but it appears that that's Delhi for you...

New Delhi was suprisingly similar to London (guess that had something to do with it being built by the British) with really wide roads and lots of Hyde-Park style gardens. Old Delhi was a crammed mess though and where most of the poverty is. Dont think we will ever get used to seeing little babies sitting between traffic lights with no clothes, or little 5 year old beggars caked in dirt coming up to your rickshaw between the traffic jams. The Hindu's tell us you shouldnt give money to the kids cos it just encourages them to keep begging all their lives, but somehow its hard to see what other choices they have available to them or that they're getting any of the money donated to bigger charities...

We decided to do a half day tour around Delhi to get to see some of the main sites. We looked for the govt tourist department and were (helped) by some kid who said he'd take us there. In we get to a small office with a printed sign saying government on it. Looked a little dodgy but then, doesn't everything in India. The manager then rings up (well turns out he pretended) to check availability on the bus tour. After much animation and a very convincing act he says that there are no seats for tomorrow but...luckily we can take a private government car around Delhi for 3 and a half times the price we were going to pay originally! This being our last resort, we agreed and paid him 600 rupees to meet him tomorrow. We walked out..and then i got a dodgy feeling, the receipt didn't say government on it and the little kid had hung around outside to make sure we'd bought the ticket (for his commission). So, we go off in hunt of the governemnt office, find it and see that they do have seats available...it was an act! I'm fuming! We go back to the place where I demand our money back and call the guy a liar! (At one point he even had the audacity to say we should be careful to not get caught out by unofficial people and touts like other travellers - the cheek!). Anyway, he agrees to pay us back but not after his boy (who he's left in charge to give us the money) tries to take another cut. This was the final straw and I got up out of my seat and planted my fists down on the desk and said 'no - just give me the money' - a little shocked, (that we weren't pushovers like some others) he begrudgingly gave us the cash! We went back to the goverenment office booked ourself on the tour and had a great time!

Delhi really does have some amazing sites - The Red Fort, Humayan's Tomb and Gandhi's memorial were just the one's we saw. Whilst we've been in India we've both read a book called City of Djinn's by William Dalrymple. It was a fascinating read about one guy's year of living in Delhi. It helped to give us a bit more background and history into how this great city had formed and reformed over 8 times in the past and helped us understand and relate to a lot of what we were told on the trip. If you're coming to india, you should definitely read this book...

So here we are at the airport and its goodbye to Mother India and hello to Sri Lanka. Hopefully anyway. All airports in India have been on a state of highest alert for the last 3 days due to 'non-disclosed terrorist threats' so we'll see how we go.

Its been an amazing 6 weeks of curry, palaces, forts, chai, scammers and heat but think we're ready for the next country now. Namaska India!!!