Well let's start with the end of day one: after about three hours' sleep I got up and moseyed around, checked things out. I took a look at the pool. Miles too cold and nobody else looked interested so I contented myself with touching the water, as if to confirm my suspicions that the water was cold, off-puttingly cold.
There are two restaurants here at The Park: Fire, which is the Indian restaurant – and by this I think they mean the place where the Indians like to eat, or possibly the place where you can get proper Indian food – and Mint, which is more mainstream, but still offers Indian food. Mint is where breakfast is served.
Prior to any of the above taking place, I had an amazing rain shower. Not as invigorating as the one I took in the Act Hotel in Japan in October, but invigorating enough to make it excellent. Later, after everything that has happened in these three paragraphs, I headed outside. One thing I do know about India is that wherever I go, I'm hassled. Taxi drivers, auto rickshaw drivers, people trying to sell me something, it's non-stop. While walking, however, I met a nice guy, whose name I can't pronouce now, but he worked at the hotel at which I was staying, the aforementioned Park, as a cleaner. Seven hour days and he's happy. He lives in Delhi, has a wife and two children of school age. He likes cricket. He walked with me and at first I thought he was after something (money) but he wasn't, he was very friendly and took me to an emporium where I bought a small elephant and a fridge magnet. He gave me directions home, but I was soon lost and had to resort to the iphone's GPS (God knows what I would have done without the iphone).
One thing that amazes me about the Indians is there ability to put themselves in danger on a daily basis – simply by crossing the road. You must remember that here in Delhi (and in other big Indian cities) there is a lot of traffic and no rules of the road. People simply get behind the wheel and put their feet down. It's down to the pedestrians to keep out of the way (as I found out last night when I was nearly run over). I swear the guy accelerated, but there you go. This new pal of mine simply stepped out into advancing traffic and advised me to do the same. "It's alright, it's alright," he said as I bravely followed. And he was right. They have nine lives or charmed lives or both and yesterday it seemed that I did too.
I'm pleased with my elephant and fridge magnet and have put them in the hotel safe as somebody I know claims he stayed in this very hotel and had a pair of sunglasses stolen from his room. Whether that's true or not, I don't know. In fact, the hotel is very nice and so are the people that work in it. Mind you, all Indians are nice, they're all very polite and helpful, especially my friend from yesterday who I hope I'll meet again some time over the next few days.
When I got back to the hotel I had dinner. I'm a little paranoid about eating and drinking here as so much has been said about not drinking the water (I only have bottled water), cleaning your teeth with mineral water (yes, I did that yesterday and will be doing it again very shortly) and washing your hands all the time. Well, yes, I've been doing that too. I've had two rain showers in under 24 hours and washed my hands too and I'll probably wash them again in a second.
The food here is amazing. I opted for the Mint restaurant and it's one of those self-service buffets offering wonderful food: cooked vegetables, curry, rice, such an array of stuff that I can't remember exactly what I had to eat. Suffice it to say that I ate well, washed the lot down with bottled water and then went back to my room. I hit the sack at around 2200hrs (certainly no later than 2230hrs) and while I woke up around 0200hrs I got back to sleep and woke up at gone 0800hrs. Outside the fog was so thick that I could see nothing from my hotel window. It's clearing a little bit now at 0943hrs, but the air quality here is very poor (it even says so on my iphone).
I had a shower and shaved and headed down for my first breakfast at The Park. Brilliant. Everything I dream of: curry for breakfast and again I can't remember the names of the dishes, but some kind of potato-based curry, fresh vegetables and vegetable strudels, little ones, like mini sausage rolls but hot. I also had porridge, which tasted like porridge – and by that I mean it tasted like the porridge I remember from when I was younger. Somehow the porridge I have at home is thicker and less 'oaty' in taste, but here in New Delhi, while the porridge is a little more runny that I like it, it had taste. There were some incredible pastries: mini ring doughnuts with icing, croissants, pastries, mini muffins (I don't like muffins, although oddly I dreamed of eating a chocolate muffin either last night or the night before). I had some weird 'root remedy' tea, which was nice, plus a couple of slices of toasted brown bread without butter (I couldn't find any butter). Mint is a buzzing place full of people, mainly Indians because, hey, I'm in India, but a few westerners. In fact there are a lot of westerners here and you know what? I hate it when I see a western person with one of those red dots on their foreheads. It's not a good look! Unless you're Indian. Talk about 'cultural appropriation'!
I've watched a bit of Indian television and it goes without saying I can't understand a word of it, but who cares, it's just for background at night and first thing in the morning. It's the same as British TV except that it's Indian, get over it. So now I'm back from breakfast and a little annoyed that I haven't managed to see the Taj Mahal, which is something like three hours away by car. The problem is money. Yesterday none of the cashpoints wanted to give me any money and I'm going to need some for tomorrow. Without money I was unable to pay for a trip to the Taj Mahal and as a result I've felt rather despondent about things. I went to bed feeling depressed and anxious, but feel better today. I put my inner misery down to being away from home and also being so far away from home, but also the jet lag, although I'll be honest, I feel fine this morning, much better than I felt when I was in Japan. In Tokyo I was tired and sleepy virtually all the time. Here I feel better, much better. In fact, shortly I'll be heading outside to sort out the money situation and then I'll check out other places to visit, like the Red Fort, although time is not on my side, but I've got to do something, see something, go somewhere other than just my planned meetings tomorrow.
At night all I can hear is the sound of train horns. During the day it's car horns. The sun is trying to break through the mist (or the smog) and I'm ready to hit the road, sort out the money and go somewhere 'touristy'. Or perhaps I'll just mooch about. The iphone's fully charged if it's needed, but if I have money I can always get a cab, although I don't really want to do that if I'm honest, I don't like being ripped off and while I'd imagine the taxis are metered, the rickshaws aren't and I remember in Bangalore getting into disputes with the rickshaw drivers.
Incidentally, there is a bike share scheme running here in New Delhi, but if you saw the traffic on the roads you'd steer well clear, I can tell you. Photos to follow...
There are two restaurants here at The Park: Fire, which is the Indian restaurant – and by this I think they mean the place where the Indians like to eat, or possibly the place where you can get proper Indian food – and Mint, which is more mainstream, but still offers Indian food. Mint is where breakfast is served.
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| The pool at the Park Hotel, New Delhi... |
One thing that amazes me about the Indians is there ability to put themselves in danger on a daily basis – simply by crossing the road. You must remember that here in Delhi (and in other big Indian cities) there is a lot of traffic and no rules of the road. People simply get behind the wheel and put their feet down. It's down to the pedestrians to keep out of the way (as I found out last night when I was nearly run over). I swear the guy accelerated, but there you go. This new pal of mine simply stepped out into advancing traffic and advised me to do the same. "It's alright, it's alright," he said as I bravely followed. And he was right. They have nine lives or charmed lives or both and yesterday it seemed that I did too.
I'm pleased with my elephant and fridge magnet and have put them in the hotel safe as somebody I know claims he stayed in this very hotel and had a pair of sunglasses stolen from his room. Whether that's true or not, I don't know. In fact, the hotel is very nice and so are the people that work in it. Mind you, all Indians are nice, they're all very polite and helpful, especially my friend from yesterday who I hope I'll meet again some time over the next few days.
When I got back to the hotel I had dinner. I'm a little paranoid about eating and drinking here as so much has been said about not drinking the water (I only have bottled water), cleaning your teeth with mineral water (yes, I did that yesterday and will be doing it again very shortly) and washing your hands all the time. Well, yes, I've been doing that too. I've had two rain showers in under 24 hours and washed my hands too and I'll probably wash them again in a second.
The food here is amazing. I opted for the Mint restaurant and it's one of those self-service buffets offering wonderful food: cooked vegetables, curry, rice, such an array of stuff that I can't remember exactly what I had to eat. Suffice it to say that I ate well, washed the lot down with bottled water and then went back to my room. I hit the sack at around 2200hrs (certainly no later than 2230hrs) and while I woke up around 0200hrs I got back to sleep and woke up at gone 0800hrs. Outside the fog was so thick that I could see nothing from my hotel window. It's clearing a little bit now at 0943hrs, but the air quality here is very poor (it even says so on my iphone).
I had a shower and shaved and headed down for my first breakfast at The Park. Brilliant. Everything I dream of: curry for breakfast and again I can't remember the names of the dishes, but some kind of potato-based curry, fresh vegetables and vegetable strudels, little ones, like mini sausage rolls but hot. I also had porridge, which tasted like porridge – and by that I mean it tasted like the porridge I remember from when I was younger. Somehow the porridge I have at home is thicker and less 'oaty' in taste, but here in New Delhi, while the porridge is a little more runny that I like it, it had taste. There were some incredible pastries: mini ring doughnuts with icing, croissants, pastries, mini muffins (I don't like muffins, although oddly I dreamed of eating a chocolate muffin either last night or the night before). I had some weird 'root remedy' tea, which was nice, plus a couple of slices of toasted brown bread without butter (I couldn't find any butter). Mint is a buzzing place full of people, mainly Indians because, hey, I'm in India, but a few westerners. In fact there are a lot of westerners here and you know what? I hate it when I see a western person with one of those red dots on their foreheads. It's not a good look! Unless you're Indian. Talk about 'cultural appropriation'!
I've watched a bit of Indian television and it goes without saying I can't understand a word of it, but who cares, it's just for background at night and first thing in the morning. It's the same as British TV except that it's Indian, get over it. So now I'm back from breakfast and a little annoyed that I haven't managed to see the Taj Mahal, which is something like three hours away by car. The problem is money. Yesterday none of the cashpoints wanted to give me any money and I'm going to need some for tomorrow. Without money I was unable to pay for a trip to the Taj Mahal and as a result I've felt rather despondent about things. I went to bed feeling depressed and anxious, but feel better today. I put my inner misery down to being away from home and also being so far away from home, but also the jet lag, although I'll be honest, I feel fine this morning, much better than I felt when I was in Japan. In Tokyo I was tired and sleepy virtually all the time. Here I feel better, much better. In fact, shortly I'll be heading outside to sort out the money situation and then I'll check out other places to visit, like the Red Fort, although time is not on my side, but I've got to do something, see something, go somewhere other than just my planned meetings tomorrow.
At night all I can hear is the sound of train horns. During the day it's car horns. The sun is trying to break through the mist (or the smog) and I'm ready to hit the road, sort out the money and go somewhere 'touristy'. Or perhaps I'll just mooch about. The iphone's fully charged if it's needed, but if I have money I can always get a cab, although I don't really want to do that if I'm honest, I don't like being ripped off and while I'd imagine the taxis are metered, the rickshaws aren't and I remember in Bangalore getting into disputes with the rickshaw drivers.
Incidentally, there is a bike share scheme running here in New Delhi, but if you saw the traffic on the roads you'd steer well clear, I can tell you. Photos to follow...
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