Don't try this at home - a rickshaw ride through Old Delhi
Uploaded by scarfiegjc
OK, watch the above video and come back to me afterwards.
Done?
OK, the first time I took a rickshaw ride was actually in Dwarka, the Delhi satellite town where Shanaz's family live. Shanaz's brother Zain insisted that the driver go "araamse", in other words, that he take it easy. So he did take it easy.
I still bricked it. Taking it easy does not exclude going against the traffic, nor does it include avoiding potholes. So I held on to the side for dear life and prayed to the Hindu God of Rickshaws, who was "unavailable to take my prayer right now due to a backlog of incidents". Bugger.
So, the video you've just seen is in Old Delhi, otherwise known as "Hell On Earth". OK, OK, I have lots of positive things to say about India, but I'm going to get the negative things out. And I'm going to start by taking issue with the prattling load of nonsense written in The Lonely Planet. I mean, is this written by the types of sanctimonious dribbling nonces who claim "there are two types of people - those who've been to India and those who haven't"? Apparently - get this - Chandni Chawk is 'pure pandemonium' (understatement of the year, folks), but has plenty of "other-worldly charm". What a load of cock. Sorry, but I spent a little under an hour in Chandni Chowk, which is a bazar along alleyways, and it smells of pooh, it's full of flies and dirt, it's ultra-crowded, someone spat at me, I was pushed all over the place, you can't even cross the road, and, to cap it all, you get a rickshaw ride like the one you've just seen.
In hindsight, it looks like great fun, but in reality, Chandni Chowk is one of those places that should be wiped off the tourist map, in fact ALL maps, forever. And the Lonely Planet offices should be bombed for having written the drivel that convinced me it might be "interesting" to go there in the first place. Idiots.
So anyway, what you don't see is the argument after the trip between Shanaz and the rickshaw driver. He insisted that we pay a little extra, what with me being whitey and all that (OK, he didn't say that, but we got the jist), and we ended up giving him 25 rupees instead of the 50 he was demanding. To be honest, I think he owed us money!
There are plenty of places in Delhi that are worth going to - the Santushti shopping complex, for example, is one that I'll be coming back to later on. Compared to Chandni Chowk, it was heaven on earth. Dilli Haat, too, which is a paid-entrance market for crafts. Even Connaught Place, which is busy enough at the best of times, is streets ahead of Old Delhi.
Of course, I'm missing a trick - there's plenty of history to Old Delhi, but unfortunately it was closed for the day.
2 comments:
Sooz
said...
9 April 2008 at 01:26
I was silently praying to the Hindu God of Rickshaw Accidents :)
Gareth
said...
9 April 2008 at 10:18
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Scared into silence during the rickshaw ride I notice!