Yes, Delhi is definitely huge. And full of dust and smog. I'm coughing my lungs out here. But it's also the cleanest place I've seen in India so far. Not so much rubbish around. Not so smelly. It's still India of course, but not so full on... or maybe we are just getting used to it by now.
So, next day was New Delhi- Humayun Tomb (massive, hundreds of people buried there- I guess the widow when she built it didn't want his dead husband to be lonely), Tibet House (tiny museum, took us 15mins and we pottered around quite a bit) and then we went to Connaught Place.
Now, Connaught Place is the centre, the CBD, the happening area. So we first decided to chill out in a park for a bit. HA! Within our first 3 minutes of attempted chilling out we had already had men offering to sell us chips (1 even dared do it while we were both visibly eating 1 packet of chips each!), popcorn, fairy floss, chai, some wooden birds hanging from a string all tied to each other (so handy to carry around!) , shoe polish (even though I has sneakers on and Jane had sandals), shoe repair, and the best, ear cleaning. This ear cleaning is a very interesting concept. When they get a customer, they proceed to insert a long metal stick, to which they attach a bit of cotton at the end, in their customer's ear. And so they clean and clean. We saw this a couple of times being done, first time was on the front steps of the Mosque yesterday. We had a fine example here in the park at Connaught Place. There was this guy sitting in the park, holding his rice meal bowl which he has just purchased from another vendor, while he was having his ears cleaned. And he was a good cleaner! After getting the metal stick out of his customer's ear, he would clean it on his own hand, and then show his hand with the wax to his customer as proof of what a good job he had done. While the guy had his rice meal in his hand. And while we were eating our chips 2 metres away. And while another 10 Indians sat staring at us, cause us eating our chips are much more interesting than what was going on with the other guy of course. Oh, and he did get his shoes polished as well.
After this we just walked around Connaught Place- fancy shops, expensive labels, it felt like a different world, except for the street vendors and beggars everywhere. We went into a very very fancy bar and had a ridiculously ovepriced cocktail. But hey, it was happy hour, so we got 2 for 1, so we ended up paying the rip off price of $5 each for our cocktail.
Si, Delhi es definitivamente enorme. Y llena de polvo y smog. No paro de toser aca. Pero tambien es el lugar mas limpio que vi en India por ahora. No tanta basura en las calles. No tanto olor. Sigue siendo India, obviamente, pero no tan a full... o tal vez ya nos estamos acostumbrando.
Asi que el dia siguiente, Nueva Delhi- La Tumba de Humayun (gigante, cientos de personas enterradas ahi- se ve que la viuda cuando lo construyo no queria que su ex marido se sintiera solo), la Casa de Tibet (museo minimo, lo vimos en 15 minutos y eso que boludeamos), y despues fuimos a Connaught Place.
Connaught Place es el centro, el microcentro, la zona in. Primero decidimos relajarnos en un parque un rato. JA! En los 3 primeros minutos de nuestro intento de relajarnos ya habiamos tenido tipos intentando vendernos papas fritas (1 hasta trato de vendernos cuando Jane y yo estabamos muy claramente comiendo un paquete de papas fritas cada una ya!), pochoclo, fairy floss (como se decia en castellano esto??), chai (te), unos pajaritos de madera atados con hilos todos unidos unos con otros (re practico para llevar!), lustrado de zapatos (aunque yo tenia puestas zapatillas y Jane sandalias), arreglo de zapatos, y lo mej or- limpieza de oidos. Este tema de la limpieza de oidos es un concepto muy interesante. Cuando tienen un cliente, le meten en la oreja un palo de metal largo con un pedacito de algodon que le agregan en la punta. Y asi limpian y limpian. Ya vimos esto un par de veces antes, la primera vez fue en la escalinata principal de la Mezquita ayer. Y tuvimos una buena demostracion aca en el parque en Connaught Place. Habia un tipo sentado en el parque, y sosteniendo en sus manos un bowl con comida con arroz que acababa de comprar de un vendedor ambulante, mientras le limpiaban los oidos. Y era un buen limpiador! Despues de sacar el palo de metal del oido de su cliente, el limpiador pasaba el palo por su mano, y despues le mostraba al cliente, la prueba de la cera que le habia sacado y que buen trabajo estaba haciendo. Mientras el tipo tenia su bowl de comida en la mano. Y mientras nosotras comiamos nuestra papas fritas a 2 metros de distancia. Y mientras otros 10 indios estaban sentados mirandonos fijo a nosotras, porque nosotras comiendo nuestras papas fritas somos mucho mas interesante que lo que estaba pasando con el otro tipo obviamente. Ah, y tambien se lustro los zapatos.
Despues de esto, caminamos por Connaught Place- negocios caros, marcas internacionales, parecia otro mundo, excepto por los vendedores ambulantes y la gente pidiendo limosnas en la calle. Entramos en un bar muy muy paquete y tomamos cocktails ridiculamente caros. Por suerte era Happy Hour, asi que daban 2 por 1, asi que terminamos pagando el precio ridiculamente caro de $10 por cada cocktail.
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