Sick of Having to Fight to Get Anything

I'm beginning to get really fed up with having to haggle for some of the very basic things one would need living in this country. I can recall an incident recently about getting a cab when I was in Delhi. So we were traveling from Dharmasala, which is at the very northern (west) tip of India, to Delhi and the trip took 5 hours on the bus followed by 14 hours (overnight) on the train. Needless to say, we were all very very grumpy when we arrived at the Delhi Train Station. We get out of the station, right away there were about 5 rickshaw/cab drivers offering up their services. We had to get to the airport to catch our flight to Hyderabad (back to ISB!) and since we had spent 5 days in Delhi the week previously, we knew the ride would not cost anymore than 300 Rs. (~$8 cdn) for a 15 km ride. So the first cab driver says "750 rupees"...... I didn't even look at him and I just kept walking. Next guy goes "500 rupees"..... so I kept walking. As we were walking to the pre-paid taxi booth, which was about 100 m away, we came across this one guy who was very serious about getting our business but he was offering 350 Rs so we continue walking to the pre-paid booth thinking we could do better. As we fish for better deals among the sea of rickshaw drivers and I noticed all of them were hesitatant to even negotiate with us. Then I noticed the same dude was shouting something in Hindi everytime we would try to talk to a driver. It hit me that this guy has been calling everyone else off because apparently we were "his". We finally get to the pre-paid booth and my friend Bram asked for a taxi to the airport. For some reason, the man behind the booth told us "no taxi, no taxi"... and this was about 10 o'clock on a busy Sunday morning. We looked at the price list posted just above the counter and it clearly said "10-20 km.... 98 Rs." So we were like what's the deal? After a few more minutes of communication with broken English and no results, we gave up. So with no other options, we turn to the same punk who has been calling the other drivers off and finally settled on a ride for 250 Rs.

It was especially frustrating because EVERYONE, including the "official" Delhi Station pre-paid taxi, around the station was in on ripping us foreigners off. It's not unusual to go through something like this 4-5 times a day, especially when you travel through India like we did. This is just the reality when you're a foreigner in a country like India. Maybe I'm a little burnt out from all the traveling in the past two weeks but I'm pretty fed up with it. Talking to a few of my exchange friends, I found out many of them feel the same way.

~ Hoping to have more patience for this nonsense,

WaLLy

More Delhi!

On the second day of Delhi we visited Old Delhi. We took our first ride in the Delhi Metro to Chandi Chowk. The Metro is new and fairly well kept. The city is overhauling its public transportation system for, I suppose, the Commonwealth Games in 2010. Most of the city should be connected by then.

Above: Axel studying the Delhi Metro.

The first monument we visited is the Red Fort (Lal Qila). Completed in 1648, this massive fort extend for 2 km and vary in height from 18m on the river ride to 33 m on the city side. The Red Fort dates back during the peak of Mughal power. However, the Mughal reign did not last very long as Aurangzeb was the first and last Mughal emperor to rule from here.

Above: Lahore Gate is the entryway into the fort.

Above: Joeri (newly arrived from Netherland) and I being silly.

Next we visited the Jama Masjid, India's largest mosque and the final architectural piece of Shah Jahan. The mosque is so large that it can hold 25,000 prayers! The square has three entrances and 2 towers standing 40m high. We went during a less busy time and it was about 2 hours away from the next prayer, which is too bad because it would've been quite the sight. There were countless pigeons feeding in the square and with a loud bang, they all flew away.... I managed to caught a decent picture of it.

We decided to take a manual rick-shaw and I have to tell you, I'm impressed with our driver. He was able to pull 4 good-size guys up the street for about 1-2 km. He starts off slow but once he kicks into 4th or 5th gear.... we actually at a decent speed. But you know... red light is a b**** :) Check out the video below.

The Lotus Temple is probably the most simple, yet pure, monument I've seen so far in India. As the name suggests, this temple, in a shape of a lotus flower, invites people of all religions to pray. Similar to its exterior, the temple's white marbles inside gives a sense of peacefulness and purity. This is a really nice and quiet sanctuary in a busy city like Delhi.