28-07-2013
Mais umas horinhas de sono não nos tinham feito mal depois da semana caótica que foi esta última semana antes da partida.
Estamos em Paris em casa da avó da Sara que amavelmente nos deu a nossa primeira refeição pós-partida. Costeletas de vitela com alho e esparguete. Com uns queijinhos franceses no final para rematar. O paladar até agora ainda não sofreu! Nem os intestinos!
Agora são 7h18 e vamos sair para Charles de Gaulle, para apanhar o voo para Riade e Nova Deli. A avó da Sara despediu se de nós pedindo que não fossemos para muito longe e que em Portugal é que se está bem. Não discordamos, queremos é reforçar esta ideia! =)
Off we go!
28-07-2013 to 29-07-2013
11h25. Saudia Airlines, 777. Quase cauda, fila do meio, entre uma Sra. indiana e um Sr. árabe
Strike 1 : a tv do Sr. árabe não funciona. One down, lady to go! :)
Strike 2 : ou tv da Sra. indiana não funciona ou não gosta do Di, either ways…fugiu tb! :)
Fila só para nós!!
1h de voo e vem o almocinho: arroz acarilado com galinha e caju, bolinho de canela com cenoura e chocolate branco, salada pepino e tomate, salada de salmão fumado, pão e mini mars para terminar.
Passados 2 episódios de Friends, Marine 3, Henry’s crime e Mechanic e prestes a aterrar em Riade para uma escala de 10 horas, as simpáticas hospedeiras entregam-nos duas caixas com aquilo que seria o nosso lanche.
Chamucinhas de queijo, bolinho com sabor floral e recheio de pasta de pistácio, sandes de queijo e suminho de laranja acomodaram-nos o estômago.
A espera foi cansativa, mas tranquila e bastante musical… Halaaa hakbah!! :)
Marcaram-nos os tapetes destinados à reza frequente, as imagens indicativas do WC das senhoras e dos senhores ( no bodies, only heads almost fully covered no caso das senhoras) e as malditas obras que não pararam durante todo tempo de espera.
Já passados pelas brasas, mas não mais do que breves minutos, diria, começa o check-in! Um pouco atrasados, porque decidimos actualizar umas coisas no PC à ultima da hora, mas…IN!
05h20. Saudia Airlines, 777.
Quase cauda avião. Fila esquerda, apenas sr indiano ao lado direito. Praticamente apenas indianos de olhos esbugalhados e a sra francesa que ia para Nova Deli dar aulas de inglês durante 3 semanas ( nossa companheira de voo de paris para Riade).
4 horitas de voo passadas, quase todas de sono, pequeno almoço com direito a croissant, suminho, omeleta com uma versão de tortilha espanhola à árabe (pretty close) e salsicha, tomado e eis que aterramos, finalmente, em Nova Deli.
29-07-2013
We were so tired arriving at New Delhi, with so little sleep!
We got our luggage pretty quick from the baggage claim and proceeded to the metro express straight to New Delhi station. Just followed the metro indications when leaving the airport building.
Of course we got immediately approached by a neatly dressed indian young guy that asked if we needed transportation.
It took a while to convince him to go away but we never stopped walking – best strategy!
We heard there are a lot of scams at airports, train and bus stations, where they will tell you your hotel is full and you need to go by taxi with them to go to another hotel.
Common sense should always be the rule.
The airport express to New Delhi was 150 rupees each.
Neste momento em que escrevemos sobre o trajecto a pé da estação de comboios até ao nosso hotel (Raj New Delhi), já estamos fully recovered, mas a verdade é que foi uma experiência algo tenebrosa e extenuante. Em poucas palavras: humidade, excrementos, urina, buzinas, confusão e um mau-cheiro geral pautaram esta dura caminhada.
Mas no final do dia comemos chicken curry com naan e plain rice e tudo acabou bem.
30/07/2013
We’re done with our sweet little filled-with-cockroaches hotel, so we finally made it.
We only paid for 1 night instead of 3 nights and we think the hotel is chasing us for the other two nights, cause they were calling our taxi driver! Maybe they just want to tell us we were fantastic guests (we did agree with the guy at the reception from the day before to stay one night only, but maybe the replacement guy today didn’t know about our arrangement!).
While we took care of our arrangement for the stay, we also agreed with the hotel to book a driver to do some sightseeing with us on the following morning. He gave us two prices 740 rupees (approx 9 euros) for half a day and 1040 rupees (approx 13 euros) for a full day.
We had a “heavy-level” morning with our nepalese taxi driver Dev Rana! He gave us important information like New Delhi has 14 million people and 10% of indians are good, while remaining 90% are cheaters… people are very money driven unlike in Nepal, according to Dev.
A day with Dev ended up costing us 1000 rupees but we paid an additional 80 rupees for parking (we felt this was more like a tip). But we liked Dev so much that we ended up paying for his breakfast and lunch with us!
We had breakfast at Mcdonalds and lunch of tandoori chicken at less than 250 rupees per person.
As far as the visit went, we got to visit Ghandhi’s mausoleum in a peaceful littlle park (where we had to enter barefeet), the Red Fort (being hand painted with red clay by several men, to make sure the fort keeps being red!), the amazing but dirty as hell and crazy street market of Chandni Chowk and we passed by Connaught Place (bought a couple of books and had lunch there).
As far as sightseeing goes, India can be a rough place we have to admit. But we’re sure that culturally speaking we will be amazed along the way.
Delhi is a mess. People everywhere, along with dirt, sewers and animals of all sort.
To get a clearer image of what things are like here, imagine trash and “cow-cars” everywhere, where you have to horn for your life to get around in the traffic (better yet Dev took care of this part for us).
Crossing streets by foot is an amazing challenge, you just have to sort of close your eyes and hope no cars, bycocles, cows or other animal vehicles will run into you.
The street smell gets in your nose and doesn’t get out that easily…and it isn’t necessarily the best smell you can imagine.
Also part of the adventure. :)
The ATM was pretty good though. A small 1sqm room guarded by a policeman. It was quite good but your body needs to be able to withstand hypothermic temperatures if you plan to take longer than 2 minutes inside!
You must understand that AC is really important and whenever they can they push it! Push it heavy-level!!!
So as for as humidity goes…for christ’s sake we hope to be able to endure Mumbai and Goa’s weather cause we expect heavy-level humidity there!
So now Dev has dropped us in the Old Delhi Station. We waited for the train in an AC waiting room. More like a fan waiting room, but it was ok.
We were expecting the train not to be much of a shock, but then again this is India! The train station looked scary!
Our dinner today should be only some cookies since we will only get to Jaipur at 8pm. Tomorrow we will get on a 10-hour night train to Jaisalmer.
Again…so far so good.
Our stomachs and intestines seem to be handling it pretty well so far.
Notes of the day:
“Heavy level” – Dev Rana’s expression for “really damn good”
“Better conceal than reveal” – expressão para descrever Riade
“Better conceal than reveal” – expressão para descrever Riade
“In New Delhi, you must horn for your life” – Sara’s expression upon seeing the way people drive in Delhi
Crazy people – the way Dev Rana described New Delhi residents. In his word: “Crazy people, these indians are so crazy” then he started to laugh a little crazy himself!
A lot of busy – Dev’s overall expression to describe the chaos of New Delhi
Good computer engineer – Dev referring to Diogo when he kindly taught him on to handle memory storage on his smartphone
Indiaaaaaaaaaaaaa…Incredible Indiaaaaaaa! – link
