Namastē नमस्ते (Hello), Āpa kaisē haiṁ आप कैसे हैं (How are you?)
A trip to the gods' country, India, is a really challenging one.
I went to New Delhi by flight from Kuala Lumpur. Majority of passengers were Indian. The five-hour flight seemed to be long for me, since a passenger suddenly got angry to a steward and there was a fight among passengers. Why were they so irritable? They shouted in Hindi, then they shouted in English, after they have realized that many people have overheard them.
I arrived at the Indira Gandhi International Airport on 15 November 2010, at 11.30 pm. The airport is nice. The immigration bureau at the airport is unique, since it is located inside the shopping centre.
How should I go to the hotel? How should I choose a taxi? Will I get a good taxi driver? I looked around and searched for something that can be trusted. Finally, I found a Delhi Police taxi. I prayed that the driver was good. Thank goodness, he was good. The taxi was an old Maruti Suzuki India. Its petrol tank was beside the machine, in front of the car.
Traveling through the night, alone, in a strange place was very scary for me. I had to be alert all the time. At night, there was still a traffic jam. Trucks, cars, tuctuc (similar to bajaj in Jakarta), cycle rickshaw, motorcycles and horse-drawn carriages were all on the road. Majority of motor vehicles were old and there were no vehicles without scratches or dents. Almost every driver was impatient and irritable. They tooted their horns. The motorcycle's horn was sounded like car's, the car's horn was sounded like a child's toy, and the truck's horn was sounded like a ship's. It was really noisy and deafening.
I got to the hotel at 2:10 am. The 16th of November was the only free day for me, so I decided to have a sightseeing. Agra was my choice. Agra is a city on the banks of the Yamuna river, in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Going by bus without AC was the cheapest way to Agra, and I had to be ready in five hours.
The bus started to go at 7:15 am. There were around 50 people in the bus, including children, and I was the only foreigner. The bus was unique. It had a separation door between driver and passengers.
Thank goodness, all people in the bus were nice. All speak Hindi or Punjabi. There were only two men who can speak English. I sat beside a newly wed woman. She was in her honeymoon with her husband. One man sitting behind me was sang along many Indian songs that I didn't understand the meaning at all.
Not only at night, but also in the morning there were traffic jams. Every driver was impatient and irritable. They tooted their horns. I saw some motorcycles used by four people, some tuctuc carried five passengers, camel-drawn / elephant-drawn / horse-drawn carriages and tractor carried tons of loads. The cow is considered a sacred animal in India, for religious reason, so the cows are free anywhere. Garbage was everywhere. The smell of mix of "everything" was very annoying.
It took us about five hours to get to Agra. We stopped for lunch for about an hour. We had aloo paratha, a traditional Indian flat bread stuffed with spicy mashed potato that could be combined with margarine or curry. We had it with tea (black tea+milk+ginger).
