Firstly...

Okay, this is my first entry and I've been in India for four very hectic days so I'm not quite sure where to begin..perhaps at the start...

I got into Delhi airport at 4am and in my excitement rushed through customs through the terminal and out into the heat towards the pre-paid taxi rank. My plan, if you can call it that, was to get a ride into the touristy bit of Delhi where all the cheap guesthouses are and figure it out from there. I went to the booth and tried to book a cab on my credit card but was met with a very stern headshake...no credit or debit cards accepted. No worries, would have had to get cash out soon anyway. So I found an ATM and stick my HSBC ('The Worlds Local Bank') card in to get some local currency - 'Unable to process transaction'. Eventually I realised I have fifteen pounds in my wallet so decide there must be a money changer in the terminal, I'll go back in and get some rupees for my sterling. The only problem is that there is a 80rupee (rs) admission charge to set foot in the terminal. So I'm outside Delhi airport at four o'clock in the morning with no money and no means of getting any or going anywhere. Eventually I find two helpfull young ladies in some kind of official uniform and explain my predicament, they get me past the guard and back into the terminal where my fifteen quid is turned into 1300rs by Mr. Thomas Cook.

I got a pre-paid taxi to New Delhi station and arrived in the pre-dawn, there were people sleeping in the open-air everywhere, on the centre island of the road, the courtyard around the station, the carpark...the most 'in your face' poverty I've seen anywhere. Cambodia was poor but everyone seemed to have a roof of some kind over thier heads, here whole families slept on the side of the road. Open sores, bare feet, horrible sounding coughs, I hadn't expected this, or this much of this, in India.

After wandering around looking lost for a while some helpful soul/potential conman asked if I needed help. I asked if there was a HSBC ATM anywhere nearby and he directed me up some stairs to the first floor of the station where somone official looking asked what-the-hell-was-I doing up there. It was at this point I remembered someone warning me that in India no one will admit they dont understand, they'll just try to be helpful and send you on your way. I was to encounter this many times in the next few hours I wandered dark semi-abandoned streets looking for this ellusive ATM which many people assured me was either right down this road or just over there up that street on the right, all the time stepping over people sleeping in the dust, or on thier rickshaws.

After a while I gave up and found a room to snatch a few hours sleep. I was desperatly tired by now (having left London at 6am the day before) and not really thinking straight. I slept for a few hours but was quite worried about my money situation. Another helpful local assured me there was a HSBC branch on Connaught Street, the main street that goes past the train station so I headed for that, but of course couldnt find it. I cant remember how it came up but I got chatting to someone else who said I should talk to the tourist office, the government folk in charge of looking after us hapless westerners. I strolled into the office after checking it out in lonely planet - apparently there are a lot of tourist offices who pretend to be the government ones but arent - and the very helpful folk there sat me down and gave me Chai and sandwiches and started asking about my plans and problems. I was even provided with a mobile phone to call HSBC in the UK (which of course diverts to an Indian call centre), alas it was closed . Anyway after much friendly banter they started sketching out an itinary for me. In my hapless state (stressed, worried and tired) I eneded up booking 10 days in Rhajistan through them for the sum total of about three times what I planned on spending on my whole holdiay (my credit card still worked apparently).

I was given a car and driver and shuffled off to a nice hotel to get a few hours sleep before being picked up and driven around the sights of Delhi - Red Fort, Ghandi memorial etc. The whole time kicking myself for parting with so much money. I was determined that this would be a independent, economical trip where I would be getting trains and busses with the locals. Spending a pound or two a night on basic accomdation and eating the local grub (without getting Delhi Belly of course). Insted I had got stressed and overwhelmed on day one and grabbed the first safety-net I had seen. A fucking packaged tour!

At the end of the day's siteseeing I asked the driver to take me somewhere I could call the UK to try and get my banking sorted. A ten-minute 100rs call fixed my ATM problem so I promptly withdrew the equivilant of about two-hundred pounds in Rupees with the idea that I wouldnt pay thoses idiots anymore overseas transaction fees. I realised how petty my logic had been when a wad of notes about half an inch thick appeared, I discreetly stashed this in my moneybelt and asked the driver to take me back to the tourist office. My plan was to try to wriggle out of the package-deal. The contract stated that there would be a 25% cancellation fee but I was prepared to forfit that to regain my 'lonely-planet'esq independence. After much waiting, haggling, phone calls to 'headquaters' and them throwing in several extras and a partial refund (in cash, 10,000rs - add those to the wad) I was persuaded to keep the deal. So for the next week I'm getting carted about the country by a very friendly driver in an air-conditioned 'Tata Indicar' with the obligitory shrine to the drivers God (He's a Sikh) on the dashboard, staying in decent 'government approved' hotels and seeing the sights.

Well, that about sets the scene. The trip I thought would demonstrate my travel experience, independence and empathy with the locals has left me with about three years worth of a locals salary in a hidden pouch around my waist, being driven around by my own chauffer and staying in air-conditioned hotels.

I'ts about dinner time now so I'm off to get another vegiterian feast (not eating meat here, partially out of respect for local customs, partially because I dont trust it). I'm in Udaipor at the moment, will be tripping around Rhajistan for the next week or so then down to Agra and from there leaving my guide and getting a night train to Varinassie (other side of Delhi, towards Nepal).

Hope you're all well,

Greg
Udaipor, Rhajistan, India

07 November 2008