(Bhavnagar - Delhi, India)
I think if Guy Clark had ever been to India's capital, we'd all be singing along to his '72 hit "L.A. Freeway" (although I prefer Mr. Jerry Jeff's version) with some different lyrics: "If I could just get off of this DELHI freeway without getting killed or caught..."
Our destination was about a 6 hour drive away from the capital and, it being close to 5pm when we arrived in Delhi, the majority of it was in the dark. The stretch of "highway" we were travelling on was still under construction, so much of the driving was on dirt, pothole-dotted roads with no lighting to speak of - other than the blinding headlights from oncoming traffic that occasionally pierced the blackness and gave us a fleeting glimpse of a sporadically placed hutch, vendor stand or tree along the side of the road. We were definitely in the country at that point.
Although I have to give our driver major credit for his remarkable night-vision skills and the fact that he didn't send us all to a fiery grave that night, I have to admit that it was a nail-biter. I probably would have figured the guy was conceived by a bat and an owl for his impeccable vision, but around 10pm (I know what time it was because my eyes, which were peeled open in self-sustaining terror, never left the speedometer/windshield/clock pattern they had followed since entering the vehicle) he cured me of that thought. As we were beginning to ascend a small hill, he quickly merged to the right onto what felt like a freshly paved stretch of asphalt - we can only assume he merged because he saw what we all couldn't see, so we figured he's just following the road... It was funny because we had just been on a very bumpy surface and then all of a sudden the sounds of flying gravel hitting the wheel wells --- just ---- stopped ---. It was nice and quiet - just the hum of the rubber on nice, smooth road. Then, just about 50 yards in front of us, coming over the crest of the hill, we saw the headlights. In our lane. Heading toward us. Quickly.
Our guide, who had been dozing on and off in the front passenger seat until this point was now wide awake and took immediate notice of the situation. He very quickly - and in Hindi (for our benefit I'm sure) - informed the driver of his error, but because some facial expressions need no translation, we all knew the guy was aware. Now, we're in the India-equivalent of the slow/truck lane of the west-bound side of the highway, heading east at around 110/kmh (nearly 70mph for us). Mikie and I gripped each other's legs, clenched our teeth and just watched as we zig-zagged to the left around one truck, whizzed past another, and finally all lurched to the right as he jerked the minivan back over to the left between a break in the guardrail and back onto the rough east-bound lane. If it hadn't been for the sound of the gravel again hitting the wheel wells, you'd have been able to hear a pin drop.
(Here's just a fun picture of some of the scaffolding they were using at the hotel we stayed at. You think the folks over at OSHA would get a kick out of this or what?!?!)
(Day 5)
The next day, we got to visit one of the foundries where our guide casts some of his other clients' products like aluminum trays and buckets. They basically cast these things right there using the dirt floor of the hut.
(Day 6)
With business being taken care of, our guides wanted us to see as much of Delhi as they could show us before we left India, so we headed back out very early the next morning for the big city and got to see the famous Ganges River - already teeming with people at 6am - along the way. (I'll include my picture below, which was taken from inside a vehicle going about 80 km/h - a.k.a how not to take a photo - and wikipedia's picture, probably
taken by a real photographer so you can actually see what it should look like - can you guess which is which?!)
Although the Taj Mahal was too far away to cram into the 6 hours we had before our flight, we got to see its predecessor and what ultimately inspired the architectural movement that led to the Taj - the Emperor Humayun's Tomb (1565-72 AD). It was really a bunch of elaborate structures on a huge expanse of land rather than just one building. Since being added to the UNESCO World Heritage list, the place has been under extensive restoration - check out the guys trying to lift just one of the red sandstone blocks up for replacement!
After the Tombs, we headed to the India Gate - just like the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, India Gate is a war memorial, and this one which honors the 90,000 Indian soldiers who died in WWI and the Afghan Wars, happens to be the national monument of India. Now, I grew up right outside of Washington, D.C. and I've been to the Washington Monument plenty of times - let me tell you that I've never seen as much humanity in D.C. than we saw at India Gate. And man, the stuff the vendors there will try to sell you is unreal! Mikie, the skilled pilot and lover-of-all-things-that-fly that he is, was entranced by the guy selling whirly-birds. Unfortunately his attempt to barter with the whirly-bird man was foiled by our guides who insisted that 10 for $1 was just too much. :( Boo.
Next on our host's list was Red Fort - another UNESCO World Heritage Site. I don't think we were nearly as disappointed as the Griswolds were when they arrived a Wally World to find that it was closed, but it turns out that we got an even better view of it from our last, and - to me, by far - the most interesting stop yet: the Jama Masjid Mosque.
(And we got to take a handsome cab through a traffic jam to get there!)
Our guide, who is Muslim, took great pride in sharing this site with us. He told us that, under normal circumstances, non-Muslims would never be permitted inside a Mosque - even Muslim women are generally not permitted to pray inside the Mosque with the men - they must pray at home. However, because the Jama Masjid is the most well-known and principal mosque of Old Delhi, non-Muslim visitors - men and <appropriately dressed> women - are allowed to enter, but must leave whenever the Muslims are called to prayer.
This entire trip, I've done my best to avoid any international incidents, but this was where we came the closest to one. See, although I packed "religion-appropriate clothes", we weren't told we'd be going to a Mosque today so I had on a tee-shirt. Thank God I was at least wearing pants. The guy at the entrance to the Mosque didn't care for the cut of my jib right off the bat. What gave it away was when he pointed directly at me and yelled for a long time in a different language at our guide, who, likewise, obviously didn't much care for him. Eventually, our guide was forced to give in and pay for me to wear a sari out of the "losers who didn't know you're not supposed to wear a TEE-SHIRT to a MOSQUE, hussy!!!" box. He picked out an especially ripe one for me that appeared to have some type of poo smeared along the right cuff and the velcro was faulty so I had to wear my purse underneath to keep it pinned to my body. I tried my best to ignore the poo and not be any more insulting to this man than I already had, and continued into the mosque.
Once inside, it really was an amazing site. To know that this place was designed and constructed long before a hint of the technology we have today was really impressive. We got to climb the 130-step stone,
spiral staircase to the top of one of the minarets. The entire circumference of the staircase was no larger than a London telephone booth - luckily, we have some experience packing in more than 1 body to one of those things, because they certainly weren't enforcing the "10 up, 10 down" policy!
There was quite a view from the top.
Goodbye to India - Indonesia via Singapore is next!
