Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Back to India

All photos on this post by Eunice Chin, Singapore


There are places that I wanted to see and things that I wanted to do in Delhi that I never got around to doing. Prior to arriving, I knew that I wanted to drink chai tea, to have an ayurvedic massage, to try a yoga session, to visit an ashram, to get henna tattoos on my hands and feet, to get a bindi, to buy glass bangles, to buy a pure pashmina scarf or shawl, to get one of those elegantly embroidered jackets, to go to Jaipur, to visit Qutb Minar. As the saying goes, you can't always get what you want.

I don't recall ever having tea for breakfast. But I almost always have a cup of coffee in the morning. Sitting down at breakfast on Day 1, we were given cappuccinos and Vince had this weird reaction where I couldn't tell if he liked the coffee or not. He just said that it tasted different. When I tried it, I was like, yeah, there's some spice in it. Not quite chai, but it made for an interesting start. When we were taken to this Kashmiri arts and crafts store, we were given this really good tea. Maybe that was chai. It tasted different from what I've had at The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf and Seattle's Best Coffee. Well, duh, of course it's different. It's the real thing! So, ok, I think I had chai.

I don't know why I never got around to having an ayurvedic massage. I think it's because Yin Leng said the spa services at the Intercontinental were pricey (which started an entire discussion on spa treatments - the cheapest being in Indonesia). As a long-staying guest at the Intercontinental, I had a list of complimentary services to avail of - but I could only choose one. I was torn between a free one hour aromatherapy or Swedish massage and free use of the a hotel car with driver for four hours covering 40km. Since the spa option wasn't ayurvedic, and I really wanted to explore Delhi on my last day, I made the practical choice: I took the car.

Yoga session? The hotel had one every morning at the gym at 6.45am. No can do. All my meetings started at 8.30am. And we all know how slow I am in the morning.

Why didn't I visit an ashram? I didn't know where it was. I remember seeing signs on the highway that said ASHRAM, but never really bothered looking for it. Although I should have because Gars wants to go to one when he finally makes it to India towards the end of the year. Sorry, Gars.

Henna tattoos? No time. They would take an hour to do and another hour to dry. Plus, I always carried a daypack and wore closed shoes with socks. That would ruin the design right there.

I forgot about the bindi. I couldn't find bangles bing ehough for my man hands to fit through. The all-pashmina shawls that I really liked were expensive - INR3,000 and up - mostly because of the embroidery. I don't like plain shawls. I did end up buying one made of silk and one made of Kashmir wook mixed with something (I forget what). Cheaper options were available in the Central Market, but most of them were cotton blend.


At a shop in the Central Market with Rizka, Rajeshwar and Chad

Now if the shawls were expensive, the embroidered jackest were something else! The ones made of pashmina at Dilli Haat and Khan Market were absolutely gorgeous, although somewhat impractical. I have too many jackets! Seriously, what idiot that many coats and hoodies in a tropical country? Walking away from all those lovely pashmina coats is called "discipline" (we're working on a budget here).

We all know why I never made it Jaipur. Damn it!

As for the other "places of interest" like Qutb Minar, I simply ran out of time. What I couldn't understand, though, was why no one could bring me inside the Red Fort during the day. On the half day city tour, our guide, Mito (?) said we couldn't go in and that we could only take pictures from outside the gate. On Thursday, I gave Vince an "assignment": I asked him to get the schedule for the light and sound show at Purana Qila (which I inadvertently wrote down as "Purana Killa"). He texted to say say that the show had been discontinued, but that there was one at 9pm at the Red Fort. The taxi driver we met, Sunil, said that we were the first people he ever took to the Red Fort at night. He took us to the parking lot and walked us up to the gate (more proof that Indian men only pay attention to other men. I could have been a hundred meters behind Vince and Sunil, hit by a car, dead, and no one would know). It was a good 10 minute walk across the main road; lots of peddlers who thankfully didn't bother me; there was - to me - an overwhelming stench of piss and "that smell" (you know, the one I expected at the airport). Impressed as we were by what we saw at the Red Fort, we said we'd go back during the day. Vince never made it back, but I asked the hotel driver to take me there on Sunday after I had visited Purana Qila. He brought me to the same spot Mito did and I couldn't understand his lengthy explanation in broken English of why I couldn't go inside. I was very disappointed.


At the Red Fort with my fellow CATs


One day, I'm going back to India...when I can afford it. I mean, it's relatively cheap there, but the airfare and hotel rates are high (I like to travel comfortably). When I return to Delhi, I will do all the things I wanted to on this first trip. I also want to spend more time in Agra (we only saw 25% of the Agra Fort), maybe check out Rishikesh or Goa (right now, I'm living vicariously through Vince except that there's no way I'd be looking out at the Arabian Sea without a Kingfisher beer and The Slave Drum playing in the background), go back to the Khan Market and shop at Good Earth and Fabindia (they have wonderful stuff for the house), and spend more time at the Central Market. Hopefully, by that time, I'd have a tripod, a longer cable release, and a little point-and-shoot digital camera. Hell, I need a caddy for my camera gear!

Like they say at the end of the Chevron "Human Energy" ads on the Discovery Channel, "Will you join (me)?"



Post script: one of these days, I will blog about my trip in chronological order and post more pictures, although I doubt I will do as a good a job as Gabby (which reminds me, I need his help in posting a video clip of the Red Fort light and sound show stored in my phone). For more notes on India, come over to the house and I'll show you the source of my India blog entries - my unedited handwritten journal in La Salle (palmer) style no less!

posted by Calai @ 7:34 AM

3 Comments:

At 12:16 AM, Blogger 32 flavors said...

hey carla! sama kami when you go back! i would love to visit india someday.

more pics please!

and why is your hair up? sayang ang P_,_ _ _._ _ haircut!

 
At 1:33 AM, Blogger daddychoy said...

Interesting travelogue on India; it's not on our "places-to-visit" list (Australia's next), but now you're making me contemplate adding it.

Oh, and I asked my Indian friend about Red Fort being off-limits during the day, and he wasn't aware of any restrictions; maybe there was a security threat at that time?

 
At 11:28 AM, Blogger Calai said...

Thanks! Come, let's join us! When my office was planning the trip, I didn't think I'd like India, but now I do! I don't think you should bring the kids, though. Maybe when they're older and can fully appreciate different cultures? As for the hair, ay naku Kat-kat, NAPAKAINIT sa India, hindi kaya ng haircut at dry fit gear ko. As in.

 

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