Monday 7 November 2011

From Delhi to Darjeeling in 12hours!!!

Ok, ok, from the amount of emails I have been sent, I realise you want to know what happened with the police. And so, here it is  ... 

As you can imagine, there was not much sleep achieved the night before during the planning of our Cagney and Lacey intervention. And so at 7am we trudged downstairs for breakfast, after which, as arranged, Mr Policeman turned up at 8am at Reception - we had to ignore the persistent phone calls from the 'Tour Guide' to our new mobile phone as he he waited for us outside in his tuk-tuk,  apparently too nervous to come inside, for fear we had rumbled them.

Claude and I explained the situation to the Policeman, via a translation from the Hotel Manager, the Policeman nodded at us, then nodded at the hotel manager and followed him into the back room - to have his breakfast!!!! We waited around for about another half an hour until he had finally had his fill of tea and toast and then the three of us squeezed into a Rickshaw and went off to confront Raj and his crew - the Policeman had still not actually spoken to us.

Now remember Claudine had promised me that her new chilled out and relaxed personality was going to show itself, so much so that I was not going to recognise her on this trip. And so it was agreed in the tuk-tuk, that we would stay calm and collected, yet assertive and demanding.

We pulled up outside the so called Tourist Office and casually strolled inside. Mr Policeman took his seat behind us and sat in complete stoney silence throughout whilst we confronted the manager - Raj was out at the time. 

Now my dad had always taught me that the first person to start shouting in an argument, is actually the person that has already lost. So I spoke to the Manager as calmly and controlled as possible - aparently I have to practise on being assertive, whilst Claudine has to practise on being less aggressive?! 

Then Raj walked in.

Sorry to sound like a cliche, but it was like "a red rag to a bull". The new calm and relaxed Claudine saw him enter, her eyes glazed over and she turned on him, leaping from her seat and screaming like a a banshee at the unsuspecting fool; throwing threats at him about reporting them all to the Police Station and The British Embassy ... lecturing them about Karma and how theirs was obviously not good, accusing them of corruption and immoral behaviour. 

Raj shouted back, Claudine hissed back, Raj shouted louder, Claudine hissed harder; I was ducking from the spit flying across the room from both irate parties, whilst muttering under my breath, stay calm, stay calm ... a chair was thrown back as Claudine lept forward, glaring at the men and demanded our money back, in full. (At this juncture I should point out that Claudine is a tiny, svelte woman, no more than 5 foot 3. The image that comes to mind is a Little Yorkshire Terrier yapping up at a full grown Doberman!?)  And you know what? We got our money back, in full!! Straight out of Raj's back pocket, still folded up from the day before. 

After that fraught morning, we decided to take the rest of the day at a leisurely pace and do some touring of Old Delhi (found in New  Dehli): first on the list was The Red Fort ...




During the 17th Century, The Muhal Emperor Shah Jahan moved the Capital City from Agra to Old Delhi, (re-named Shahjahanabad) where he oversaw the construction of his palace, close to The Yamuna RIver.

Originally known as "Qila-i-Mubarat (The Blessed Fort), the building started in 1638 and wasn't finished until 1648 - though future Mughals developed more structures within the grounds. It is the largest monument in Old Delhi, with the huge grounds encompasing the slightly smaller original Fort (Salimgarh) in 254.67 acres of land protected by high walls made from red sandstone.

In 1857, during the British iinvasion, the reigning Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar was exciled by the British Indian Government and thereby brought the Mughal reign to its end.

By 1863 the Brits had destroyed many of the buildings within the walls, filled up the gardens and sold off most if not all the valuables!? (no comment!!!)

Since 2007 The Red Fort has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site and every year on Indian Independence Day (Aug 15th) the Indian National flag is hoisted up to full mast!


Next we were back in NEW Delhi (confusing I know), where we went to have a quick look at The Houses of Parliament - they were closed.

Also called The Sansad Bhavan it was designed by the British Architects Edwin Lutyen (also known for his architecural designs in Hampstead Garden Suburb near me in North London!) and Herbert Baker, work actually started in 1921 and finally finished in 1927.

The building is huge, circular in shape, based on the Ashoka Chakra, which obviously is the depiction of The Buddhist Dharmachakra! (It looks like a bicycle wheel with 24 spokes). To get a clearer idea of what the Ashoka Chakra looks like, just take a gander at the Indian National Flag below, you'll see it sitting there in the middle.



The size of the building is enormous and houses the President of India, the Lok Sabha (House of the People AKA The Lower House) of which there are 552 members and the Rajya Sabha (Council of State AKA The Upper House) of which there are 250 members and yet there has been a proposal for a new building due to an inadequacy of Space.

We passed by Rajiv Gandhi's shrine - he became Prime Minister of India after his mother Indira Gandhi was assassinated in 1984 and unfortunately like his mother, in 1991, he too was assassinated. 

Shortly after he was posthumously awarded the highest accolade in India; The Bharat Ratna (The Jewel of India).

And finally we paid a visit to The Lotus Temple (Ba'hai House of Worship). 

To say we stuck out like a sore thumb would be an understatement; whilst queuing up to go inside we realised that people were quite obviously staring at us and blatantly taking photos of us too! Children were giggling and pointing, actually I think some of the adults were doing that too? Anyone would think they had never seen tourists before and we were obviously that with our extremely pale, white skin and me with not just curly hair, but bright ginger hair too!!! 


That night we went out for dinner with one of Claude's Couch surfing friends. Couch surfing is an internet site where people from all over the world offer travellers to their town/village a 'couch' to sleep on and/or to meet up for a meal and advice on the local area. 

The food was amazing, though I can't remember what any of it was called! Unfortunately it was hard to hold a conversation due to the exceesive noise from all the cars hooting outside. I realise now that there are no strict driving rules out here in India, basically you drive where ever there is space on the road (sometimes the pavement too!) and just hoot at anyone in your way, be it another car, a bike, pedestrian, goat or cow! Actually I lie, the cows are treated with respect, no one hoots at a cow ... All traffic stops for a cow and ONLY a cow!



Thankfully our time in Dehli came to an end yesterday morning - I won't miss it - and we set off for the airport at 7 30 to catch our flight to Bagdogra. 

The flight was fine, short and on time! However, the jeep ride from Bagdogra airport to the house where we are staying in Darjeeling made up for it, it took 6 hours due to a land slide that had occured a few days ago. And so we had to take the scenic route. Well at least it would have been scenic if it wasn't for the fact that the sun had set and there was heavy rain and a thick fog engulfing us. Thank god (and various deities out here) that our experienced driver managed to circumnavigate the car around the numerous pot holes and ensure that we didn't end up flying off the edge of the long and extremely winding road around the hillside.

Eventually we made it to the house, in one piece, where we were greeted by Sharan, Sinita and the three other volunteers from the Darjeeling Children's Trust. We were served a full Indian dinner - which I have to say would have been appetizing if it wasn't for the fact that I was still feeling extremely car sick from the bumpy car ride !

By the end of the evening I was ready for an early night: Darjeeling is freezing at this time of the year, particularly once the sun has set and there is NO central heating. And so I would like to point out to those of you that told me I didn't need to pack my winter woolies and bed socks, that if it wasn't for Jess lending me her hat I would have frozen to death in my bed!!!!

Suffice it to say, today was a brilliant day ... the weather was glorious and we managed to squeeze a lot in, but for now I will have to love you and leave you because I am about to be timed out on this computer, so until next time I will leave you with a lovely view of The Himalayas ...




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