We stopped off first at a flower mart at about 7am. It was filled with hundreds of flower vendors, all of them men. There weren't many shoppers at that time, as a matter of fact, we were probably the only ones there but because of the hundreds of vendors, it was hard to notice the lopsided ratio. Rajiv warned me of the stares that I would get, but this was RIDICULOUS! I felt like Beyonce in Bahrain. Stares and glares were so severe, that when I turned my head around to look behind me, the entire market had stopped as if frozen just to watch me. This is no exaggeration. I didn't think it could ever be worse than Madrid, but I would see people stop mid sentence and tap their oblivious neighbor to also turn around to look at me. It was a bit disconcerting to say the least.Rajiv bought several flowers for Shalini his fiancee and for her grandmother. I forgot to mention that before getting there, we came across a young boy riding an elephant down the main road in Delhi and I hopped on top to experience my first elephant ride.
It was one of the coolest things I've ever done, next to cliff diving in Mexico. But riding on an elephant outside of a carnival setting is quite awesome.
They dropped me off at my hotel and I was starting to feel the jet lag kick in. It's almost like a doped up feeling. Very strange. I fought it for a while, but the succumb would not be far off. Rajiv dropped me off and after washing up and changing, I went out to attempt shopping and to locate the internet cafe I'm in now. I got lost of course- New Delhi is a chaotic circus- like Mexico City on barbituates. Being in my dopey state, it wasn't very fun. I returned to my hotel at one point, not being able to handle this urban zoo. When I did make the second attempt to go out, I got seduced by a sweet talking fellow named Veejay who kept calling me Janet Jackson. In retrospect just a few hours later, I see a big blowpop sucker where my face should be. He followed me around trying to pick up on me for the next two hours, as I pretended to be Cuban who spoke little English. He did give me some great tips, but I was so skeptical and mistrusting that I was annoyed rather than flattered by his attention. I don't know who to trust here when Rajiv is not around, and having been hustled before in a different country, I didn't want to fall prey to slicksters again.
I finally shook him off, but not after having him walk beside me for much too long. But I admit there was something comforting about walking down the street with another Indian. When I am by myself, I feel like Elvis trying to walk in a mini-mall without being noticed. Too many heads turn and its hard to just walk among the crowd without being a spectacle.
I booked my trip to Agra with a travel agent. Agra is the location of the Taj Mahal. I will also visit Jaipur in Rajasthan as part of this tour. I am looking forward to leaving Delhi as I cannot imagine being here the entire time trying to maneuver this manic place alone all week. I'm already ready for vast landscape and meditative distance from the touristy nuttiness. Jetlag has kicked in and I feel the Indian Freddy Kreuger just waiting for me to fall asleep to steal my soul and all the rupees in my wallet. I am fighting it now but got a lil chai buzz keeping me up through his blog. That and the fact that "Dontcha" by the Pussycat Dolls is playing on full blast here in the cafe.
