Aidan's Asian Blog

Delhi 7th March 06

I was going through my rucksack this morning and found two small jars of Vegemite, I’d totally forgotten that I’d bought them back in Bangkok, seems an age ago now. I’d never eaten Vegemite until a couple of months ago in Vietnam, I was with Aby and Perdy in a restaurant and they had it on the menu there. To say that the girls were delighted to see it would be an understatement! I managed to blag a taste of it from them and found it to be quite pleasant, in a Twiglets sort of way. When I returned to Bangkok my guesthouse sold small jars (40g) for 20 Baht (about £0.15 GBP) so I bought a couple of jars and chucked them into my rucksack and forgot about them. I’m really glad that I did, because I wasn’t too confident about having a spicy breakfast after my recent “troubles”. I ordered a milk coffee and toast and butter, and sat there for 15 minutes savouring the taste of the Vegemite. I messed up the first slice of toast a bit by putting too much Vegemite on it, I didn’t realise how strong the stuff was and hadn’t realised it looked like axel grease when its in the jar. Having learnt my lesson on the first slice the three slices were spread with a thin smear of Vegemite and oh how it tasted, scrummy.

I did give someone a scrape of Vegemite though after their eyes nearly popped out of there head when they saw me open the jar. Tip of the Day: If you ever want to get talking to a woman in a Veggie restaurant bring a jar of Vegemite with you! Mans best friend…..

I was feeling well enough on Tuesday to venture a little further than the vicinity of the guest house, so I decided to go and visit Bahai Temple and is open to all faiths for prayer and meditation. It is shaped like an opened lotus flower and has been compared to Sydney’s Opera House. On the map (“trustworthy” Lonely Planet map) it looked about a five mile walk, which was ok as I could plug my ipod in and plod away.

The first three miles were familiar as I followed the route to India Gate and took one of the side roads from there. I passed Delhi Golf Club, which was good because it was on my route! I then came to a two-lane fly-over, which wasn’t part of my plan, but there was a road going off to the right under the fly-over so I followed that for a kilometre or so. It then turned into a dual carriageway, which I later found out would bring me all the way to the Taj Mahal! I wish these maps would indicate that the road you were walking down is going to turn into a major road unsuitable for walking. But then again seeing as no one walks anywhere why would they? Needless to say I gave up and headed back in the vague direction of India Gate. I ended up at a ruined mosque, Qila-i-Kuhran and had a wander around there for ten minutes.

I then made my way to the grounds of India Gate and watched a couple of games of cricket. I sat under a tree in the shade and was left in peace for a full ten minutes before someone came over. The good thing about India Gate is that there are no shops around, although there are numerous vendors selling all types of crap, but I was away from most of them. Two lads came over, shook my hand and said hello. They wandered off and came back a few minutes later, took some photos of me with their camera phone and wandered away again! I had a couple of vendors try to sell me crisps and drinks, but apart from that I was left more or less in peace for nearly an hour and a half. Bliss.

I made my way to India Gate and took some photos by the “boating lake”, a small strip of water with about twenty boats all jostling for some space. I was trying to mind my own business when a couple of kids came up and asked if I could take their photograph, so I did. They were delighted when I showed them their picture on the screen; next think I know, I’m being approached by three different families who are all asking me to take photos of them. It’s not as though I’m wasting film by taking these photos so I obliged. Again, they were delighted to see themselves on the screen, but none of them asked for copies, so I don’t know what the point was. Oh well, I’m not complaining, but the photos weren’t the best as the light was pretty poor.

Didn’t get up too much else after that, spent most of the day ignoring tuk tuk drivers which I’m getting pretty good at now. It’s funny the way they drive up to me and match my speed and look over. I’ll have my sunglasses on and ipod in my ears, but I can make them out in my peripheral vision, which makes the “game” a bit more fun. I usually ignore the first four or five shouts of “hello” and either quicken or drop my pace, which forces them to do the same in their tuk tuk, sometimes I’ll stop and pretend to play with my ipod or open my backpack.

This game can last for thirty seconds, all the time the drivers are asking where I’m off to or telling me it’s only 10 Rupees to any monument blah blah. They then tend to drive off only to stop ten metres down the road and hang out of the cab. I can either ignore them or continue to walk but engage them in conversation, both of my actions have the same effect! They start up the tuk tuk and follow me down the street. It’s also fun walking up a road the wrong way, this forces the tuk tuk drivers going my way to shout across the road (making it even more fun to ignore them) or makes them do a kamikaze manoeuvre across the carriageway. Either way they don’t get a fare!