Aidan's Asian Blog

Revenge of the Curry
4th March 2006

I had an early night yesterday, as I wasn’t feeling to well. My nose was rubbed raw by all the sneezing and sniffling that I had been doing. I’d gone out for a coffee with one of the shop owners here, he’s long given up on me trying to sell anything to me, but as I was walking by his shop he asked me if I wanted a cuppa. I was doing nothing else so I sat down with him and we had an interesting conversation about Ireland, religion (he’s Muslim) and Kashmir.

As I was sitting there I started to feel like sh1t, my head felt all fuzzy and I had stomach cramp, added to my already blocked up head. I made my excuses and headed back to my guesthouse and crashed out on the bed, it was a little after 22:00. I woke at 01:40 in a cold sweat and my body felt as though it had been run over by a rickshaw, I had absolutely no energy and all my joints were aching me (especially my still recovering ankle). I managed to get as far as the toilet where I said hello to Delhi Belhi for the first time on the trip. I was back and forth to the toilet all night and was glad that I had a bottle of water in the room to ward off dehydration. I couldn’t get out of bed this morning or in fact this afternoon. I kept drifting in and out of sleep and anytime I sat up my head went into a spin.

I had to get up just after 17:00 as I was running out of water and had to get something light to eat, as I hadn’t had any food in nearly 24 hours. Luckily the roof top restaurant is about ten feet from my room, so I made my way gingerly there and flopped onto a chair. I got myself a milk coffee and a cheese sandwich; hopefully they’ll settle the stomach a bit. I had a newspaper with me, but although I was reading it the words just weren’t going in. I’m back in bed now and hopefully I’ll feel a bit better in the morning.

5th March

I went out yesterday, as I was feeling a bit better, the wooziness in my head had gone, although I still had stomach cramps and was aching a bit, but I had to get out of my cell. I decided to take a walk down to Connaught Place, which could be a really nice area. It is part of New Delhi and is basically a big traffic circle, which has seven roads leading off it. It’s surrounded by Western shops and would be really nice if it got a face-lift. Unfortunately, the only parks you seem to get here are car parks!

I had my Anti-Hassle Device™ plugged in (ipod) and Masterful Disguise © on (hat and shades), and ignored every tuk tuk driver, beggar, food vendor, shoe shiner, tout, cycle rickshaw rider and taxi driver etc. etc. that I came across. I don’t even feel guilty about this now, I know that I shouldn’t cut myself off from the “locals”, but they aren’t local. Most of them are Kashmiri and their role in life is to batter you into submission. Don’t let the ba$tards grind you down!

I came across a McD*****s and much to my shame I went in and had something to eat. I don’t know what was better, the “fillet” of fish burger or the McShit that I had? It served a purpose though as I didn’t want to try any spicy food the way my stomach was. The place was packed with locals though, which was a shame to see. It’s funny the more you travel, the more you realise that everyone is the same at the end of the day. I could have been in any fast food joint in London / Dublin / New York / Moscow / Bangkok etc. as you had the same groups of people doing the same things. Teenagers on mobile phones, stressed out looking parents with kids and guys trying to look cool and impress the girls whilst sucking on a straw!

I then managed to find an area of green grass, right in the middle of Connaught Place, so I picked a spot under a tree in the shade. I hadn’t got halfway through the first song when one of the locals flopped down on the grass besides me. I pretended not to see him and that worked for about twenty seconds as he kept on trying to talk to me. I gave up and dealt with the usual questions, I even tried to answer them as though it was the first time I’d heard them! It didn’t come in the first couple of minutes, or indeed the next five minutes, but surely it was going to happen. I wasn’t disappointed; actually I was as the question eventually did come;
“Do you want to go to shop?”
“No thanks”, I replied, “it’s Sunday and in my country all the shops are closed on Sunday and it’s a time for relaxing”.
“Just one shop, I get money if you go”
“I know you do and normally I’d go to a couple of shops a day, but I can’t because it’s Sunday”
“Just one shop”
“I’d like to, but it’s Sunday. Did you ever see the Big Lebowski?”
“No”
“Well it’s a really good film, but one of the characters in that can’t do anything on Saturday because of Shoma Shabis, and Sunday is a bit like that for me”
“I don’t understand”
“No, either do I, but I can’t do anything about it. Shoma Shabis”. I was taking the p1ss a bit at this stage!

Needless to say, he didn’t hang around but next thing I notice is that I’ve now got four other guys sitting close to me, they were like sharks surrounding an injured swimmer, so much for a relaxing sit down in the shade. Needless to say I beat a hasty retreat before I got mauled. Being stuck in Delhi has been the worst bit of my trip so far, no doubt about that. I can’t wait until my motorbike is ready in a few days. I’m going to the shop tomorrow to see how they are getting on with it. I’ve been planning my route for the last couple of days and will probably stay up North on this trip rather than try and fit the South in as well.

I checked my email in the evening and had an email from WarehouseExpress.com the crowd who I’m buying the lens for my new camera from. Turns out the lens I ordered is not in stock at the moment and they didn’t give me an expected arrival date. So it looks like I’m going to get a brand new camera and not have a lens to put on the front of it. It seems to be one step forward and two steps back with cameras and me at the moment! I’ll have to email someone in England and see if they can pick me up a 50mm prime lens until I can get hold of the one I ordered. It’s a real pain though as I have two friends coming next week and I’ll have to wait another month until some more friends come over. Oh well, could be worse I suppose, I could be stuck in the snow in London.