Travel Journal - Entry 6

New Delhi 2/12/2008
Arrived Delhi this morning from Varanasi. The Scottish doctor on his 5th trip helped me find lodging - walked me past touts and into hotel row a short stroll away from the train station. I would have never known to find this street on my own. Had I asked anyone from around here where I could stay close by on the cheap, I would have no doubt been misdirected into God knows where. I haven't forgotten my last little ordeal here. Tried a place called the Krishna but I didn't have a reservation. Hah. The next hotel, the Hotel Shelton, had a nice room with a pretend balcony next to the big blue neon sign right above the street overlooking the bazaar. It's noisy but it's a bed and I brought ear plugs.

This bed is probably what you would find at the rescue mission - hard wood frame in the place of a box spring with two inch foam mattress. That's how all the beds have been in all my hotel rooms here. Mattresses have been thicker at times, depending on the area and price of the room. In Agra it seemed thicker for a less expensive room. In a quiet, garden-spot hotel that was only 500 ft from the Taj Mahal. Here in Delhi I am on a double wide bed so I put one mattress on the other.

Honking horns and loud music playing outside. This is probably the worst room noise but I'm not too worried. I have been able to sleep on loud, uncomfortable trains so I probably manage now. As it turns out I am here for a festival of some sort. Men were busily stringing lights between buildings and across roads, worships stations with different idols were set up around the bazaar area. And the morning found me listening to the droning of some ancient prayer being recited over a modern enough speaker system - loud and long. There was also sporadic displays of worship marching down the streets in the guise of boys and young men with drums and such at odd hours of the late evening, also chanting loudly.

I think I am catching cold. Oh for my Emergen-C. I was going to bring a few but opted to not. Dang.

I put some forethought into remaining healthy while I was away. I bought these little plastic ziplock pill bags and assembled four weeks worth of daily doses; Vitamin C, Vitamin B12, a multi vitamin, a garlic tablet, a pro-biotic capsule and a fish oil capsule. So each morning after I get a bite to eat (as it is inadvisable to down these on an empty stomach) I take this handful of medical assistance and swallow them like a whale eating minnows, pills jostling for position as they ride the waterfall into the deep dark unknown.

I bought several handcrafted Indian fabric tapestries today after settling into the hotel and heading back out into the bazaar. Also picked up some camel bone jewelry. Different colors. I understand the camels were finished with the bones. I also purchased an inexpensive bag to lug it all around in. No more big stuff - I'm already thinking I am going to have some trouble on the flight home.

Encountered whispering touts again wanting me to buy drugs. Also fake-accented Indians trying to lure me into their shops - they think I am Australian. Haha. Let them. I answered one yesterday in Spanish. He didn't know Spanish so I was saved.

From now on I am speaking Spanish. OLE!!