Old Delhi
We viewed a lot of the monuments and
parks from the coach.
Our rickshaw experience was pretty
exciting. We'd thought Delhi was noisy (well in fact all the towns
we visited in the North were the same) with constant barrage of
hooting and shouting, and the kamikaze traffic system but once out of
the coach and in the thick of it the noise was ear-splitting.
The only rule of the road seems to be
that the largest vehicles get priority and that filters down through
cars, motorbikes, auto-rickshaws, bicyles and manual rickshaws and
pedestrians coming last. Sorry, the main rule of the road is to
avoid wandering cows who seem to go where they please.
The rickshaw ride took us through the
narrow streets which were jammed full of shops making one huge bazaar
area. One street specialised in Sari and Wedding Wear, another
books and educational items, another jewellery etc. People milling
around everywhere and heaven only knows how our 'driver' managed to
avoid catching the handlebars on passing saris etc
Some photos:
David and I crammed in a rickshaw
Power cables in the side streets
Crowded bazaar streets
Sari sorting
The street of bookshops
live chicks for sale
What has been good to see is that all
the horses, oxen and camels we've seen pulling carts have been in
good health and not skinny/sickly. In fact the indian folk push
themselves just as hard as their animals I think – just look at
some of these scenes from the Delhi Streets:
Heavy load this one!!
Then it was a dash to the airport for
those of us catching the internal flight to Cochin in Kerala for our
tour of the South. Kerala literally means Land of the Coconut.
Kera (coconut) la (land) and certainly coconuts abound here.
The flight landed at 9.10pm and the
temperature was 28degrees outside which was a huge difference to
what we'd been getting in the North.
David is posting about our experience
with the internal flight.
Forgot, loved the blue sari in the last post. It is incredible how they shift such loads on carts and bicycles. Did you buy yourself a sari? How could you ever find a book you wanted in a store like that?
ReplyDeleteWhat incredible glimpses into another culture! What wonderful photos, Sue, and I'm sure there are tons more of them.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure I'd find the rickshaw ride worth the wait - you and David don't look so comfortable! But you'll have to tell us how it was!
No I didn't buy a Sari Jo. Its so easy to get carried away whilst on holiday but I know I'd never wear anything like that at home
ReplyDeleteThe rickshaw wasn't as bad as it looked in the photo, once out in the street we could sit back and relax a bit more although had to be careful not to put elbows outside for fear of getting them knocked or hooking up on passersby.