29th - 31st January 2011
Arriving mid afternoon we walked a short way from the station into the crowded streets of Delhi and started scouring the grotty accommodation on offer within our limited price range. We settled on a flaky room on the 5th floor, it had a big, not-too-lumpy bed, a child-proofed television so we couldn't adjust the volume or change the channel, and a slightly whiffy bathroom, heaven compared to the other smaller, grottier, smellier holes we'd been considering.
We went out for a beer in a restaurant/bar a lot nicer than the ones we usually patronise and glugged down three big Kingfishers between us in-between munching on finger chips, masala pappads and veg chow mein. A big Dutch guy with a long grey beard and glasses was sitting at the table next to us and wouldn't let the waiter take his bottle away even though it was empty, he held onto it shaking stubborn drops into his glass while the waiter was there and even then refused to give it away. We watched slightly disbelieving, of course we make sure the bottle is as empty as we can make it before surrendering the vessel it came in but, this was something special. I misheard Djalma at this point, I thought he said 'he's so weird I don't want to talk to him' backed up because he then turned to face me completely to resume our slightly drunken conversation. A few minutes later he turned round and asked the guy where he's from, we got an annoyingly enigmatic answer along the lines of, I'm from no-where, where's anybody from... and I sat there thinking if Djalma didn't didn't want to speak to this guy he's not doing a very good job.
It turned out this guy was into anarchism and different religions although it seemed that he wanted more of a way of life and a good solid moral set of conducts rather than any particular god. Fair enough. We then had a long and intense discussion about religion, the government and other topics much too serious for me to properly enjoy the light headed, light hearted effect of the beer.
We said goodbye and wandered around the streets looking for some more food, we couldn't afford to feed Djalma's demanding tummy in the bar only on the street, we found a veg chow mein vendor and he filled up there (what a pig!) and I of course lent a helping stomach. We waddled back to the hotel, up all those flights of stairs and went soundly to sleep.
We spent the next morning wandering the markets buying necessities like toothbrushes, henna, thermal pants and yoga pants, not very interesting really.
Our final day together for more than two weeks we spent huddled up in our hotel room, talking and thinking and telling each other how much we love the other, and so on before the time came to haul our already lovesick bodies (mine was anyway) out of the hotel. We got dinner together and then walked to the station to say our goodbyes. I left him outside the metro and then went to wait for my bus to the airport which almost drove right passed me.
After getting my e-ticket printed off I spent the next ten hours sitting in the airport trying to use the wifi to call Mum and Nan, trying to sleep while looking like I was reading (and so not get kicked out of Costa Coffee) and speaking to Mum who called just as I'd dropped off. I went to my gate early and napped on one of the loungers in the waiting area, got on the plane only for it to sit there for four hours before eventually taking off. I had just enough time to get my connecting flight in Bangalore and grab a bland sandwich (how can Indian food be bland?!). On the second and final leg of my flight I prayed very long and very hard that I would arrive in one piece along with everyone else, the small plane for the 90 minute flight was bouncing around in the sky rather alarmingly. Needless to say I arrived in one piece.
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