We spent a few nights in Delhi before going to Corbett tiger reserve (see http://projecttiger.nic.in/corbett.htm). I like to get the flavour of a city more than anything else when I travel (ie seeing how people live as opposed to seeing a temple or a museum). Accordingly, I did about four hours of walking around during the day for the first three days I was here. Delhi has plenty of interesting sights to see and people to meet.
On arriving, we met a German guy. He seemed friendly enough, and recommended his hotel. We gladly took his advice and followed him to a half decent budget place (which is not always easy to find). After we checked in, he told us he was going out for a beer, so Raju and I decided to join him. We went out and discussed politics, had a few beers and some snacks and then Raju and I went home to shower up. Because we were in the same hotel, this guy knew where our room was. Before we were done getting ready he knocked on our door with some food. He came in and sat down. Then he asked if he could take his shirt off. Both of us were unsure about him at that point, but what are you going to say? It's socially awkward. So he took his shirt off. Then he pulled out a little piece of folded paper, opens it up and tells us that it is "brown cocaine," my curiosity got me, and I found the following link somewhat informative on the topic: http://www.hipforums.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-113070.html.
As soon as this guy pulls out this BC, there was a knock on the door. I guess this German guy is high, and paranoid, because he reacts in an unduly rushed manner, trying to hide the mystery substance. Then we open the door, it's the hotel guy delivering bottles of water we had ordered. When we close the door, the German guy starts looking for his BC, when he can't find it, he starts accusing us of spilling it. We can't convince him otherwise. Then he spots a brown stain on our floor and thinks this might be his brown cocaine. He wants to sniff it. I actually think it was paint, or perhaps some kind of makeup that had been successfully cleaned from the tiles when spilled, but had become a permanent part of the grout. Anyway, we ushered him out of the room rather quickly, and spent the rest of our stay in the hotel not speaking and walking quickly and quietly whenever we passed his room.
In other news, Raju and I have found a 5 rupee Parantha (think naan bread, but stuffed with delicious stuff). We figure two of these would be a meal, which prompted us to begin measuring everything in parantha equivalent values. For example, I had a cappuccino that was worth 9 paranthas. I have also had a 40 parantha entree, and a 91 parantha entree in two different restaurants. I have had a 5 parantha bottle of water, and even a 5 parantha parantha if you can imagine such a thing. I also calculated that, depending on the exchange rate, my return ticket to Canada is worth about 4500 Paranthas. So I could eat for over two years, or fly to Canada once. Interesting economics.
Raju and I have determined that we should never again assume that things will be either decent or punctual within India. We have found decent things, we have found punctual things, there are even a few things that are both decent and puntual, those are rare indeed. When one depends upon quality and/or punctuality, however, one begs for disappointment. For example, were you to go into a store and explain that you only have half an hour, then ask whether they could download all your digital pictures in that time, the answer will always be yes. But "yes" itself is a term applied in only the loosest way. It might mean "yes", it might mean "we will be fifteen minutes late" (which nobody really seems to mind here). More recently, we discovered that yes might mean "we will remain pleasant and smile at you and reassure you that it will only be five more minutes every five minutes for the next three hours. Furthermore, we will hold your memory card hostage giving any excuse necessary, such is our desperation for the equivalent of two Canadian dollars." Seriously, Raju and I were in a situation where we really thought that the only way to get his card back would be to threaten them with physical violence. Since we aren't prepared to brawl over this, or in India, or really at all, our hands were tied and we waited and waited. Being upset did nothing. They just kept smiling at us.
Touts are at least as bad in Delhi as anywhere else. They have interestingly uniform sales strategies. Sales basically consists of shouting "YES! Hello my friend. You come my shop, you no like, no buy, no problem." The only variant I have found on this technique is to point at objects in your store, name them, then say "you like" or alternately "very good." For example if you sell sunglasses, the sales pitch would be "sunglasses, very good." Furthermore, the objects repeat themselves every 5 stores or so, so everyone is selling the same thing. This is true to the point that some stores even stock a shirt that says no to all of these objects. The shirt reads:
No autorickshaw
No tour
No clothes
No sunglasses
No fabric
No hash
No tout
No problem
The striking thing about these shirts is that they are sold by the very people who necessitate them. It would be like Hummer selling shirts saying "lower your emissions."
Gurgaon
Gurgaon is a suburb of Delhi. It is markedly different from the rest of India. It is the wealthiest neighbourhood in the country, and it is where Raju's cousin moved with her husband. They moved because of a fantastic job opportunity with Air India. The company puts them up in a fantastic 4 bedroom condo in a fantastic compound. We had to pass armed guards to gain entry.
Most things in India, and indeed many other places I have been, do not quite meet Western standards. Even when people try to do Western style stuff, there is usually something off about it. The apartments in Gurgaon defy this trend. They would be upscale places even in downtown Toronto. Everything is marble, water pressure is high, and the AC can get downright frigid. We also went out to a restaurant where you could order skewers and barbecue them in the center of your table. This wasn't a Western style restaurant, but it was a place I would definitely visit frequently if it was near my house. It was clean, and the service was outstanding Raju and I got our only good sleep since leaving Canada. The next day we went to a mall that could easily have passed for a Canadian mall. It was all western brands, and air-conditioned.
The only thing that didn't really conform to western standards was the fact that support staff were necessary for such a place and such staff are obviously going to be poor. From my bedroom window, I could see construction of a massive new luxury building, but I could also see a shanty town in which the building's workers were living. So I guess Gurgaon represents and example of what India could become, not what it has become
Corbett
We went to Corbett Park hoping to see a tiger. So did everyone we met. Although this plan fell through, as an animal lover I don't understand how anyone could dislike this experience. We saw wild monkeys (two species), deer (three species), owls, hawks, countless tropical birds with vibrant colours, a mongoose, garials, crocodiles, lizards, and... WILD ELEPHANTS! If you don't know how happy that makes me, I guess you don't know me too well. It was awesome. The best part of the day was sitting in Savannah at the bottom of a shallow valley. We were next to a man-made lake, and I counted 21 elephants slowly making their way toward the water. It was one of the best things I have ever seen. I personally feel sights like this simply put the Taj Mahal to shame.
The closest we came to seeing a tiger, was seeing their footprints. Jeeps are only allowed into the park at certain times. The earliest is 6 am. We saw the footprints of a tiger over one of these tracks at 7:15 am. That means that I missed a tiger by at most an hour. Possibly only 5 minutes. This has inspired me to try one more tiger park before leaving. They are WAY more expensive than everything else in India, but a. I want to see a tiger and b. the proceeds go to conservation of one of the 5 coolest animals in the world so I don't mind spending 760 paranthas worth on such an endeavour.
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