I was so excited, smiling, and blown away when I first arrived. All of the colors, crazy traffic, noise and people everywhere gave me that thrill I get everytime I arrive in a new city, only stronger than I can remember. The French call it "depayse", when you feel plunged, totally outside of your own country. Fun!
There is a special festival going on, so women are dressed in their most sparkling, brightest sarees, and there is fun Indian music blaring around the city. I saw and heard this on the taxi ride from the airport to the metro station, and when I sat in the "ladies" section on the train. This also means that all the decent budget hotels are booked full, and there don't seem to be any hostels with dorm bunks. The "one person problem" with hotels will likely be a problem everywhere in India, which may make it one of the more expensive countries so far (India is No. 8). I'm staying in a cheap hotel a few blocks away from the backpacker area. I lock my room with their big padlock when I leave, and it has a squat toilet. It's clean, no carpet, and I always draw the line at "no bugs" of which there are none. Saurday morning outside was a stinky live chicken market a block long. I don't think they do the $2 laundry service in India, but I found a Tide bar of laundry soap (they had tide solid in China, but not in Camb or Thail, the powder would go everywhere, not good for backpacks) at a small grocery store, and can wash my clothes in the bucket and it's friend, the scoop, that all hotel bathrooms in all of greater Asia have, even when there is a proper shower. I still have my string for a clothes line, and managed to lose all but 2 clothes pins.
The food is good and cheap, so is transport, so maybe it'll balance out. With so many people, I'm surprised how few restaurants there are, and they all have guards at the door. There are lots of street food stalls, but all they do is flip food around, no one seems to get anything to eat, and the line doesn't move. Also, I don't know how to order, and the locals cut in front of me, thinking I won't actually eat there or I don't count. White people must stare a lot and wander off, which is what I did because they didn't sell me any food. If I stick by the Lonely Planet, and if I can actually find the street signs, I can find places to eat tucked in nooks and crannies.
The poverty is striking, but so far not getting me down. I am constantly trying to make sense of why it's dirty and why many people are poor, begging, shoeless, sleeping in building entryways, washing themselves and their clothes in the gutter, which is filthy. Why many buildings are crumbling. Simultaneously, people are constantly shopping, buying elaborate and custom sarees, many people are clean, well dressed, well groomed, fancy SUVs are not uncommon, Indian weddings are spendy, sometimes prices are comparable to what we pay for stuff at home.
Today I visited Victoria Memorial, which is big and lovely, with a huge garden amd reflecting ponds. I also caught the "English" planetarium presentation. With the thick accent and echoing sound system, I only understood a tiny bit of it.
Off next to book a train ticket to the next place maybe on Friday. Train tickets fill up months in advance, come to find out. Wish me good luck with that.
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