10-15-19 - New Delhi - Crazy rickshaw ride
/Day 121. Kyle & Leanne joint blog.
What will we experience today?
Ready for India, we have promised to be ready for our guide at 815 a.m. to avoid Delhi’s rush hour traffic. That’s all you need to say to Kyle to ensure the squad is there on time.
First up, we drive to Old Delhi and on the way, we pass the Red Fort. We have been told it is uber crowded and the tour company has scheduled visits to the fort system in Jaipur and Agra. We are supposed to have a stop to take pictures of the fort but our guide says there is too much traffic so we have to settle for taking pictures out the bus window while It’s speeding by. Given our resulting pictures a blurry fort surrounding by lamp poles, other cars, trees and electric lines, we might have opted to brave the crowds instead if given the choice.
Upon reaching Old Delhi, we head to the Chandani Chowk which is a famous market that is an amazing crisscrossing of lanes and by-lanes that produces a chaotic environment of vehicles, people, shops and merchants. We take a rickshaw ride through the market which turns out as the best way to quickly immerse us in this rapid, rushing, fast -paced, fast-moving city of Delhi with its bustling green and yellow tuk-tuks that race the numerous mopeds, cars and buses.
Right out of the gate, the four rickshaw drivers (2 people per rickshaw) have to pedal us up a long hill. Kyle & Ashley’s rickshaw driver, who looks like he weighs 60 pounds soaking wet, has to stop pedaling and start pushing the rickshaw halfway up the hill. Kyle is praying the driver won’t collapse before they get to the top. We then enjoy being immersed in the chaos as we see a variety of animals wandering around the market including cows, dogs, cats and even monkeys climbing on the electric wiring running up and down the streets.
We get out of the rickshaws to give the drivers a rest and walk to a spice store where we learn about all the teas and spices of India (India produces 75 percent of the world’s spices!). Ashley is excited for mango tea, her favorite fruit. Kyle, Justin and Corey have developed into the spice boys trying progressively spicier and spicier foods on the trip. They go right for the spicy curry and hot chilly spice powders. Since we are loving Indian dishes, we stock up on spice packs of curry and butter chicken. It’s like my “authentic Indian shake and bake” for when we get home. One spice - saffron - we are showed is quite expensive - “$400 bucks for a handful” expensive. We didn’t fall for that one because we have no clue what to do with saffron.
We finish the rickshaw ride at the Delhi’s most important mosque where we all must enter wearing robe or batiks as a sign of respect. The 17th century red sandstone and white marble mosque, Jama Masjid, is one of India's largest mosques and was the final architectural feat of Shah Jahan. Completed in 1658, this beautiful structure features three gateways, one for royals, one for local Muslims and one for himself (called King’s Gate). 25,000 Muslims worship here every Friday at noon finding their spot to pray inside or out.
Next, we visit Raj Gat which is Ghandi’s Memorial Remembrance site. The grounds are expansive green fields, trees and hedges which are meticulously maintained. The stop gives us a nice teaching opportunity to remind us all of this important world figure and his life achievements. Mahatma Ghandi was born in 1869 and spent his life advocating for civil rights and equality through non-violent resistance in both South Africa and India. He played a key role in India’s independence from the British Empire in 1947 and was tragically assassinated by a fellow Hindu in 1948 who disagreed with Ghandi’s preached acceptance of muslims in India. His body was burned on this site and, by Hindu custom, ashes placed in a Hindu holy river. “My Life is My Message” was just one of the displayed quotes. When Ashley asks Kyle who Gandhi was, the best analogy he can come up with is Martin Luther King, Jr who the kids are more familiar with.
Now it’s about time for our standard-tour tourist trap -- the dreaded handicrafts center. However, the one in Delhi make the other previous experiences seem like amateur operations.
We are at this stop to “learn” about how the Kashmir Indian Loom carpet rugs are handmade. The kids are already quite wary now recognizing the classic “demonstration” line really means “hard sales stop on stuff we don’t need” but that Leanne will probably buy anyway. We are led back into the fifth room in the very back of the center (which only means we have to navigate out of five rooms to leave). We are offered saffron tea (oh is that what you do with saffron?), cold water, soda, coffee and comfy seats. The rug sales guy has learned to talk through a huge smiling grin without moving his lips or teeth, an impressive skill and we will call him Smiley Sales Guy.
He wheels over a 5 foot high wooden loom. To appeal to our empathic side, he shares that their rug sales support 15,000 needy families in different parts of Kashmir; and that this handmade rug is a dying art form supported by the Indian government. After his demonstration, the three assistant salespeople who have been lurking in the shadows now come to the forefront, grabbing three 6 x 9 rugs and unfurrowing them as they smoothly roll across the floor with a thwump. The first price Smiley Sales Guy throws out at us is the $25,000 we would pay in the US for a 6 x 9 handmade silk rug which took the poor village family four years to make with over 4 million knots.
After the classic sales technique of anchoring on a ruinously high starting price so that the almost as ridiculously high prices seem like a bargain in comparison, he informs us we would of course pay 5x the cost in the states for these beautiful Kashmir, pashmina and silk rugs (if we could even find them) but we buy one today at a greatly discounted price with free shipping for $5,000 for the silk or $2,000 for the Kashmir wool. Leanne states that she feels like she’s living in a live taping of the Indian-version of Home Shopping Club.
After we turn down the $5,000 carpet, the three lurking sales guys who’s job description must be to just keep rolling out more and more beautiful carpets. Slightly smaller each roll, while Smiley Sales Guy’s line is “and for $1700, you can have this beautiful one.” Now flashbacks of old episodes of The Price is Right go through my mind as I now see a slight resemblance of Bob Barker in Smiley Sales Guy. As the time ticks on and we continually say no, they are down to their last rug which they roll out being a dish towel size rug of an elephant for “only $170.”
Somehow, we manage to eject ourselves respectfully from the very back room but now there are many other rooms to navigate with gems, jewelry, pashminas, silk clothing, and hand carved marble vases. Everything beautiful with multiple salespeople. Each room is a separate sales operation with numerous salespeople ready to pounce. Some quick Kyle math – seven rooms times 5-7 salespeople per room puts in the neighborhood of having to battle our way through 40 – 50 sales guy just to make it back to the bus. This store must be the Indian version of an Escape Room and you aren’t getting out with your whole family until that Visa emerges from your wallet.
We are asked hundreds of times to “just come look” from every room’s designates sales guy (and I do mean “guy” because the women stay eerily quiet the entire time). I couldn’t tell if they were playing a zone or man-to-man offense! It’s obvious there is some hidden established rules between the salespeople. When one has your attention, the rest gracefully back off. Yet as soon as you look like are alone, you are pounced on like prey.
At this point, we are the only family in the “handicraft center/escape room, and these employees are pros at the “divide and conquer” sales method as well. This is one well-orchestrated handicraft center. At one point all seven of us are looking in seven different rooms with the seven exits blocked by their fellow associates but the kids fare better than we do with the hard sales tactics! At one point Kyle is thinking we may to extend our India visit as we might not get out of the escape room for three more days.
That said, Ashley is amazed with the beautiful shimmering silk and buys a colorful traditional outfit. Fortunately, we eject after two high pressure hours with one small rug, two pieces of Jewelry and some clothes. Each family member escaped one by one; Justin kept holding his queasy stomach so they let him out first. Overall, we feel satisfied though because the financial damage could have been much much worse! And we have a fun story for the blog for all of you!
Ah lunch time. The bus takes us to a swanky mall with Dior, Chanel, Gucci. The top level is a swanky restaurant to match - Setz. It’s part of our tour package price, so we order everything offered. We have a mix of Indian and Chinese dishes. Leanne burns her mouth on some vegetable something fierce, becoming her own improv comedy show as she tried to heal her smoldering tongue. Despite our varying tolerances on spice, we all manage to find something delicious - the cheesecake being a clan-favorite.
We rush over to Qutub Minar, a World Heritage Site to catch it as the sun starts to set. It’s a 12th century Hindi temple that was seized by Muslims and converted into a mosque. It’s minaret (or tower) is an architectural marvel of red sandstone and white marble that is over 72.5 meters tall. We aren’t allowed to climb to the top as it is now shut down to the public after a group of school children tragically plummeted to their death when the upper stairs gave way. There is an iron pillar from the 4th century proving the site was used for Hindu worship long before the temple was built.
Last stop (well not really a stop – more of the take a photo from the bus as it whizzes by) is to a more modern temple built in 1989 called Lotus Temple which reminds us of the architecture of Sydney Opera House a bit.
We retire to our rooms early, still full from the late yummy lunch, skip dinner and watch various YouTube videos on India.
