Wednesday

Delhi
First day in the capital of India.. lots of things to see lots of things to learn...
Started our day walking half a mile to a local stall.. had some really nice food... some rice kind of stuff and samosa.. and there is some south indian food too.. not as great as in south india of course.. but somehow, food here seems to be less spicy and more enjoyable... anyway, hot food on a cold morning is always welcome...

next, we walked to some ancient observatory, which i forgot the name...
huge structures were standing there.. looks really mysterious..
guess i'm not much of a scientist.. or astronomer, or architect... anyway.. dunno how they work... it seems that they are used to measure the position of the earth and its relations to the sun, moon and individual stars...
one of it was a 5-storey high sundial.. which of course tells time... why is it made that huge?.. no one knows...
then there is the auxiliary globe shaped structures which help correct the time according to the seasons where the length of days and nights vary...
i thought about the whole thing of why they built such things... came up with a theory that the scientists of that time loved astronomy and recording it.. but due to lack of funding.. they told the kings that the stars and their movements direct the fate of men.. and that by observing they can predict the future... so ka-ching... jackpot from the royal coffers!!

anyway... we went on to visit the flea market.. which was called janath - something...forgot..
anyway.. its like Petaling street with lots of carpet vendors... loads of clothes and baubles and weird stuff... then there are these crack sales people who sell some fake rayban glasses and "genuine" leather woodland and gucci wallets.... the crazy thing is their persistence and extremely unpredictalbe prices.. leaves me wondering what it actually costs.. they go like rs500 to 250 to 100 to 50 to 20...

then we tried out the malls... took some time really...
coz we didn't know where to find them.... and we realized that the indian gov does not approve and thus the absence of any of those super giant wholesale markets like tesco or jusco or cold storage or carrefour...
and we realised that malls are pretty much the same everywhere in the world and theres really not much point in visiting them unless you some really special thing you need to get thats only available there...
so.. yeah... when we realized that, its time to head home...

One nice thing about india is that you get veg food everywhere.. yeah... they even have veg zinger burger in KFC... which we tried it out... they don't have whipped potato though... and the pizza huts don't have a salad bar... sad...

tuesday

Tuesday morning

Well, i'm not sure if its late monday night or tuesday morning.. but i froze over.. like literally.. i underestimated the climate when i went to bed without socks..
somehow survived till morning.. and they tell me it'll go down another 15 degrees before we reach Delhi... o.0"

now there are really nice sloping hills and grass fields outside... we passed a river and more fields.. different crops though.. more lush green and yellow stalks...
tried to watch the scenery through the train door.. but was beaten back by the icy wind...

had a pear for breakfast.. and some biscuits... feeling hungry now... hope to get some food in the next station...
which is Agra..




Tuesday afternoon

Finally, Delhi!! no one can say I haven't visited the capital now!! bwahahaha...
first look at the place, dirty, busy, large buildings.. i'm really in a city..
we boarded in the church union guestroom.. very beautiful building..
our church seems to have a knack at getting posh places for their union offices.. :P

Met a traveling africano sharing our guestroom.. Herbert from Uganda.. he has a really impressive traveling log book. traveling solo to so many different places as a NGO volunteer.. Nice to have him around since he has already explored Delhi for 3 weeks..

Mission number 1... to meet up with our fellow Malaysian E who is stuck in Delhi with severe food poisoning in his friends place..
We decided to meet up in central market... mode of transport: metro!!
Can't believe it!!.. the metro is a subway system which connects all the important places in Delhi.. Consisting of some 6 lines it maps out something really really similar to the singapore mrt..
In fact, its so similar to singapore that i had a temporary flashback...
until the crowd part... which really hit me. that singaporeans are really disciplined people... hmm...
but it was impressive..
the rest of the night showed me something better than KL.. as i remember it..
the weather, the buildings, .. and to some extent, the people... yeah.. there is such varied forms of people.. and all of them have such beautiful eyes!!

Had something like fried noodles, and eg roll, something like the huger version of popiah... all from roadside shops which really reminds me of Petaling street..
yes, we are a bit adventurous for eating in these places, especially one of us already had diarrhea.. but, yeah... we enjoyed it.!!

Monday

had a wonderful sleep... woke up around 9:30.. the first thing that greeted me was the blaring of the train horn.. guess I'll get really used to that after a while..

had a small devotion together with the guys... then breakfast time!! Have I ever told you how cheap Indian food can be?? We got some lime rice, and briyanis and an omelet less than Rs100!... and there s enough enough for lunch too.!

the guys friends of the girls we were sharing berths with arrived.. it seems that they are traveling in a different coach.. one of them, J studied in a SDA school previously... had a casual chat...

India is beautiful! there were acres and acres of farm lands and its harvest time! the golden fields are really golden!.. and the laborers are cutting the rop by hand and piling up the hay.. i think...

weather is becoming cooler too.. something that reminds me of our northwardly journey..

today is the day of names... counting the names of the stations we pass by... Chitor, Gugha, Nellore... tongue twisters all of them.. try Balharshahah..
anyway..

forgetting the names.. we had a great time talking.. then playing cards... then the guys had to study.. so i went to find a friend who was also traveling in the same train.. talked to her and her dad... then spent a bit of time watching a movie too..

in the night, we said goodbye to our new friends who's getting off at nagpur... and they gave us a rose..??

Sunday night

Finally boarded the train... preparing for a restful sleep and a long journey northwards.

Can't believe it! Finally on my way to fulfill one of my dreams.. to see snow!!
It will be a long long ride but the excitement that awaits at the end of the road lifts my spirit up...

Was a little unsettled by the setback yesterday... didn't get reservations for our train.. luckily, we had the foresight of double booking on the next date.
but it would mean a small change in our initial plans.. a side trip to Agra and the legendary Taj, might be cancelled depending on the availability...

but sitting here listening to the creaking of tracks and humming of the engines sort of reminds me of the importance of the trip itself rather than the destination..
It would be one that will add to my experiences in life.. after all, it is my first time traveling 2 days by rail, that too the Indian rail...which is supposed to be the pulsating aorta of indian transportation... cessation of the rail would cause the immediate arrest of india's economy...

we got in a berth with 2 girls traveling to Nagpur and a gentleman to Delhi...
hmm.. maybe we'll make friends tomorrow!!