2nd day in Apocalyptic Delhi

Wed 31st October

haha a little friend called Om 

Walked to NewDelhi Station to try and buy train tickets for Agra or Varanasi but could not get past a guy who worked for the railway. He insisted that we were unable to buy train tickets here and put us in a cycle rickshaw to Conaught Place where the tourist office was. We had been told about these tricks and read about this kind of thing but were going to go to Conaught Place that day anyway so went along with it. We maged to escape the tourist office who said all the trains were booked and wanted to sell us a tour in a mini bus that would cost nearly 200 quid. Cannught place is ment to be the shopping capital of Delhi, there were all upmarket shops and fashionably dressed people, but still the whole place was covered in a layer of thick dust and dirt. Whilst here we visited the Observatory and had our first experience of becoming tourist attractions ourselves! As the days went on the constant 'One photo please' became part of the daily fabric, but at the time we were quite shocked that anyone would want to have their photo taken with us! We eventually got back to New Delhi Station and fought our way to the tourist ticket office on the second floor. The queue was huge and we waited over 3 hours to get a ticket. Trains to Varanasi and Agra were booked for the next day so we booked a train up to Reshikesh (rs 214) in a desperate attempt to get out of Delhi. We took a little detour on the way back and wandered through the back alleys of Parhganj on our way home. We went down little tiny winding pathways, too small for a rickshaw and just big enough for the speeding mopeds to beep their horns down. It was another world in there, we peered through little picture box windows into the homes of Delhi, tiny houses where women washed clothes and cooked, children played and men sat in groups smoking beedies and chewing the cud. We felt almost like we were invading something sacred, that as westerners we had stumbled into to somewhere we didnt belong, yet we didnt have any hassel down there, all our curious looks were met by were smiles and curious looks right back, deffinatly the most fascinating part of Delhi we came across