Days 2 & 3: Delhi and Agra

We arrived in Delhi at 2am on Monday. I was really grateful that I'd taken the time to arrange a car ahead of time to drive us to the hotel. Our 3am drive through the streets of South Delhi initiated us into the world of Delhi driving - which I was not prepared for. I really can't describe what the driving is like here in a way that does it justice. You have to see it to believe it. Lane markers are mere suggestions, and the road is likely to be crowded with everything from ox-driven cart and bicycle-rickshaws to throngs of pedestrians and BMWs. Everything flows together into a crazed mix, somehow inching forward, only at the prodding of incessant car horns.




I have to stress that this introduction to Delhi was not negative - it just took me aback. And as the next couple of days would prove, I really hadn't had the imagination to conceive of how different life can be in a place like this. We were certainly very sheltered from it - in a nice hotel and driven around in an air conditioned car - but it had a powerful effect on me.

After spending an abbreviated night at the Intercontinental Delhi Nehru Place in southern Delhi, we woke up to head out to do some basic sightseeing. We learned from the hotel concierge that the Red Fort and most of the other major attractions were closed on Monday - just our luck. But it turned out to be just fine. They set us up with a good driver (an indispensable asset as we had learned the night before) and we headed out see some of the city highlights. Again, the most striking thing here was what it was like to drive through Delhi -- an even more intense experience during the day. The sheer mass of people, and the chaos was overwhelming. But it was also incredible to see the way that it all somehow worked - people got to where they needed to go, thought whatever means of transportation they had.



We went first to the India Gate, and then drove across a large public park (really a big lawn) to the parliamentary and presidential complexes. We then drove up towards the Red Fort area, and stopped at the Jama Masjid mosque, opposite the fort. A friendly seeming tour guide came up to us, and despite my best instincts to stay away from uninvited strangers, he seemed knowledgeable, so we let him lead us around. He explained quite a bit about the arrangement of the mosque, its history, and how 25,000 plus people still come on a regular basis to pray there. At the end, predictably, he asked for an exorbitant fee for his time, but we were able to negotiate him down to about 500 rupees, or $10.




After leaving the mosque, was decided it was time to look for a place for lunch. I'd originally planned to have us go to Connaught Place, considered the center of New Delhi, but we were running out of time with the 4 hours we'd booked with the driver, so he took us to a restaurant back near the India Gate called Pindi's. The food was pretty good for my first real Indian food in India - but the Chicken Tikka Masala was different from what I'm used to in San Francisco -- less saucy and more oily. I later learned that the butter chicken here is more like tikka masala back home.

After lunch, we headed back to the hotel. In need of some rejuvenation after the hectic first day of sightseeing and the late-night arrival, I headed to the fitness center, while Dad took a nap. Earlier, we had arranged plans to meet up with the daughter of a friend of Dad's named Alison. Alison has been living in Delhi since last July and was very nice to come pick us up a the hotel, and go out to grab dinner and tell us about life in Delhi. I really admire her for picking up and moving here -- it's an intimidating place to live. We learned a lot about what it's like to live here as an expat. Not something I'm eager to do, but definitely sounds adventurous. We ate at a place called Moet, which was a good Indian restaurant in a cool little area (though still only accessible by chauffeured driver -- Delhi is not pedestrian friendly for foreigners). Here I had the butter chicken I'd been craving, as well as excellent Roti bread.

We headed back to the hotel to get some sleep before an early morning departure for Agra. We'd arranged with the hotel to have a driver take us to Agra in the morning in order to visit the Taj Mahal in the afternoon on Tuesday. The drive would take about 4 hours, with a brief stop in middle.

Once again, the journey by car and it's associated adventures dominated the day -- only slightly overshadowed by the Taj itself. On the drive, we passed town after town, intersection after intersection, crowded with people on all kinds of vehicles. Adding to the craziness was that Tuesday was the day before a major Indian holiday festival called Holi - a festival of colors. We saw many people running around covered in bright blue, green paint, and preparing large piles of sticks, cow pies, and other flammable materials for huge bonfires that would be lit later that night.

From Delhi & Agra

We stopped briefly at a rest stop, where a man with a monkey approached the car. He was doing some kind of small performance with the monkeys, and had one of them jump on the car. I couldn't resist taking a picture. That was apparently a mistake, because the man immediately demanded payment for my having taken the picture. We ignored him long enough until he went away, but I'll be more careful about taking pictures of monkeys in the future...

From Delhi & Agra

After four hours, we arrived in Agra - which wasn't that much different from most of the run-down but crowded looking towns were has passed on the way. We made it to our hotel, and the driver let us know he'd arranged for a tour guide to take us to the Taj and Agra Fort - and that this was included in the fee we'd agreed to. I was suspicious, but as long as he wasn't demanding more money, it seemed okay to go along with.

After having lunch at the hotel, we met up with our driver and the tour guide, Bindu, a nice 20-something Indian girl who did seem pretty knowledgeable about the monuments. We took a tour of the Agra Fort, which was impressive for it's combination of Muslim, Hindu, Christian and other architectures. Seeing it gave some insight into the region's Moghul past.

From Delhi & Agra

Around 3pm, we left the fort to head over the the Taj. Even though it's the most heavily visited tourist destination in India, it was still surprising to see the relatively haphazard means available for getting there. We drove up within about a half mile, and then took an auto rickshaw the rest of the way, and were accosted by hawkers selling wares for the last 5 minute walk. It was actually good to see that these types of tourist destinations aren't completely sanitized -- though the experience is obviously still very sheltered.

We made our way through to the main gate of the Taj grounds, and then saw the monument itself. It certainly makes an impression for the style, symmetry and level of detail. It is one of those sights that seems to overdeliver on the hype. Bindu did a good job leading us around and giving us insight into various aspects of the place.

From Delhi & Agra

After vising the Taj, Bindu and the driver took us to a place to see a "demonstration" of the marble inlay techniques similar to those used on the Taj Mahal. It predictably turned out to be a high-pressure sales tourist trap, and we thankfully made it out without dropping too much cash. We bought a couple of small pieces as souvenirs. The experience soured my day a bit, but I understand the economy here around tourism and the need for guides like Bindu to earn commissions.

We headed back to the hotel, and where we had another good Indian dinner - this time a bit more Moghul-influenced food.

I'm finally caught up to real time on these posts, and I'm about to head to bed. We're getting up early to be on the road by 7am to get back to Delhi and connect with Jai's father's driver to take us to Chandigarh. Our driver here told us we'll need to get an early start to get in front of the Holi celebrations, much of which are concentrated in Mathura, a town about 50 km outside of Agra on the way back to Delhi. I'm looking forward to seeing the Holi celebrations, but I'll bet they won't be good for traffic.

Day 2: Hong Kong

I'm writing this from our Delhi hotel after a day wandering around Delhi (which I'll write about next).

After a restful night's sleep, we woke up and ate breakfast at the hotel. It was in interesting mix of western style food (eggs, cereals), European (meats, cheeses, museli), and Chinese foods (dumplings, fried fish, noodles). I couldn't bring myself to have more fried fish after last night, so I stuck with the dumplings and western stuff.

Unfortunately, it was still foggy and drizzling outside, so we weren't going to be able to go up Victoria Peak to get an overview of the city -- missing out on the top tourist attraction everyone pointed us to. Instead, we headed down to the harbour front again to take the Star Ferry over to the central district of Hong Kong island.

Normally, the ferry provides a spectacular vista of the harbour and skyline, but the fog diminished that too. Nevertheless, it was good to see what we could from the 60 year old ferries that make their way across the narrow passage between the peninsula and island.

From Hong Kong

We arrived at the Central terminal to find a massively crowded footbridge carrying pedestrians over to the central part of the city, near the base of the Bank of China tower. As we got closer to the downtown, we passed a large gathering of Filipino women. They appeared to be there both to remit money to the Phillipines at check cashing storefronts, while also taking part in a protest. Some of the streets were shut down as they sat in the road.

From Hong Kong

We made our way south to Hollywood Road, a recommended walking path through the city. It was a narrow, winding road, up many flights of stairs, that passed through both Chinese stores selling spices, mushrooms and fish, as well as chic western-style restaurants.

From Hong Kong

After walking for about an hour down Hollywood Road and back up some other roads closer towards the financial district, we made our way back to a restaurant we had passed called Wagyu. They ended up being full, but we were directed to their sister restaurant, the Wagyu Lounge, where we had a Wagyu beef burgers, which were okay, but not spectacular. The interior of the restaurant was very cool though, and we struck up a conversation with an American guy who had lived in HK for the last four years working for JP Morgan. The mood right now in HK given the financial turmoil, he said, was not great.

We spent a bit more time walking around the island, and then headed back to catch the ferry. Along the waterfront on the Hong Kong side, the city is constructing a massive public promendade to rival the one on the Kowloon side. It'll be interesting to come back and see what it looks like when it's finished.

From Hong Kong

After taking the ferry, we walked around some more on the Kowloon side, and visited the Kowloon Park, which has a very large mosque on one corner. By that time, with the jet lag, and a long flight ahead of us that night, we decided to head back to the hotel, get our stuff, and head over to the airport early. I wasn't too disappointed to leave the city early in part because the HK airport is a sight to see itself.

Getting to the airport was incredibly easy this time -- and frankly, the HK airport express train puts all other public transport systems to the airport to shame. It is incredible. You can even check into your flight and check your bags right in the station - miles from the airport. On arriving at the airport, we entered into a main hall that at least felt like the largest open interior space I've ever been in, with huge white vaulted ceilings that look like sails.



Overall, with only two days experience, I enjoyed Hong Kong, and was impressed by the scale and density of the city. It felt amazingly cosmopolitan, with people and cultures from all over the world intersecting - yet decidedly Chinese too. Yet it also did not feel foreign -- rather like the epitome of western consumer culture. We only saw small snippets of the city, and I can't imagine what it's like the parts that sprawl and sprawl. It seemed like you couldn't look any direction without seeing an island or piece of land jutting out into the sea covered in high rises. Definitely a worthly stopover -- and now, onto Delhi.

Day 1: Hong Kong

Finally getting around to starting this blog. Dad and I are in the Hong Kong airport, waiting for our flight to Delhi. We just finished our 1 night / 2 day time in HK. It was definitely worth the stopover, despite the foggy and cloudy weather throughout.

Here are a few choice memories and moments from the first day:

We arrived early Saturday morning, and took the airport express train into Kowloon. The train drops you off at what we'd soon learn would be one of the hallmarks of Hong Kong -- and enormous mall. The mall appeared to be about a half mile from our hotel, the Marco Polo Gateway, so I decided we could walk, if we could just find an exit to the street. After wandering around for 15 minutes, finding no exit, we finally found our way to a footbridge that took us outside. You couldn't see much from the footbridge, but I got a glimpse of a pretty impressive driving range facility -- which explained why two guys we had seen earlier in the mall were carrying

From Hong Kong

Once we got off the footbridge and onto the street, we discsvered that half mile to the is not the most pedestrian friendly stretch of roads, and we found ourselves mired on busy streets full of speeding buses and cars. We spent at least 30 minutes making our way, tired and carrying baggage after the 15 hour flight, through crowded streets. If only I had read that there was a free shuttle bus that takes you straight to the hotel. Not the most relaxing introduction to the city, but definitely a way to get our feet wet.

After arriving at the hotel and freshening up, we made our way out into the surrounding area which, predictably, was dominated by an enormous mall -- Harbour City. Dad and I wandered around in the mall, looking for a good place to grab a late breakfast/early lunch. Opting not to start the day with octopus, or other local delights, we had wraps at a chain sandwich/smoothie place called Mix.

When we finished lunch, Dad went back to the hotel room to take a nap, and I wandered around the Tsim Sha Tsui neighborhood of Kowloon. It's probably the most touristy part of Hong Kong. The streets are packed with stores selling electronics, Louis Vuitton handbags, and Indian guys trying to sell you tailored shirts and suits. The streets were packed with pedestrians, and you almost had to push to get through.



The buildings in the area ranged from ultra-modern, glass skyscrapers to dilapidated apartment buildings, 20 stories high with rusty air conditioners hanging out of every window. There was also a lot of construction and renovation going on in the area. One odd thing I noticed was that all of the scafolding for the buildings under repair was built from long bamboo shoots, tied together with plastic string. When I first saw it on one building, I thought it was a makeshift (and dangerous) work-around for that one building, but then I began to see it everywhere. That, combined with the construction going on right out on sidewalks, welders welding with sparks flying towards pedestrians, made me realize that the city ordinances here around construction safety probably aren't like those in American cities. That said, no one around seemed phased.



Once I had gotten enough of the TST neighborhood, and Dad and I headed out on a walk down to the harbour front. Kowloon is a peninsula that juts out from the Chinese mainland and sits right north of Hong Kong island. The harbour that lies between the peninsula and island makes for a spectacular vista of the Hong Kong skyline from Kowloon. The city has taken advantage of this by building a promennade along the waterfront. Along the walkway are a series of cultural centers and hotels, as well as a Hong Kong cinema walk of fame, with cement handprints of famous actors.



After walking along the waterfront, we wandered back to the hotel up Nathan Street, also known as Kowloon's Golden Strip -- where we were offered yet more tailored suits and Rolexes. We then went back to the hotel, and I took a nap.

Around 7pm, we decided to go grab dinner at one of the nicer looking dim sum places we had passed in Harbour City, called Crystal Jade. It was packed, crowded with locals, and we had to wait 30 minutes to get a table. We ordered a variety of dim sum, a La Mein dish (which must be where SF gets lo mein), and a fish dish the waitress insisted we try. The fish was deep fried to the point of being almost unrecognizable as fish, except for the head and the tail on the plate that were obviously from a fish. It was smothered in an orange sauce. It was okay, but my favorite dish were the steamed dumplings, which were filled with both pork and a broth, which was held inside the dumpling until you bite into it. Really delicious.

Our objective for Hong Kong was largely to relax and adjust before heading to India, so we headed to bed early.