The trip to bazaar was bizarre. Unlike anything we ever imagined.
(Warning - lengthy post).
First of all, why are we in Delhi? It's not our final destination. But with a 1AM arrival, we would have had to wait in the airport until 11AM for a departing flight to Goa - which would have meant we'd be zombies. So we booked a hotel room in an area called Aerocity. It's a very plush business district that is super close to the - you guessed it - airport. Our driver last night told us we were in the wealthiest part of Delhi.
I didn't believe him last night. I do now.
Everything about our hotel is A.M.A.Z.I.N.G! It's like being at a resort. Very, very nice. We ventured out this morning to a mall nearby and some cute cafe's. The people have all spoken English, they've been so nice and helpful. Really delightful. So we get brave and think "Let's go visit a true bazaar and see what we can find." After all, we are in Delhi and don't have any plans to return to this area before we leave. So we call an Uber. Seems reasonable.
There's so many details to a 2 hour trip that it's going to be hard to fit it all in this post. I didn't take pictures. I was too busy clutching my bag and watching every step I took.
Bheem was our driver. His car was filthy. It smelt like gasoline had been poured on the seats. The air was turned off. And the windows were up. Google told us it was only 9.9 miles away. But then his GPS announces - "You'll arrive in 55 minutes." Wait, what?? Yep, due to road conditions and traffic, it took all 55 minutes and then some. He kept falling asleep. He didn't speak any English. I spoke the little Hindi I knew to keep him awake. Or I'd cough loudly. He hit a person with his side view mirror and dislodged the mirror. He missed a turn and BACKED UP on a 4 lane one-way street. Cars honking and hollering everywhere. He had an alarm that kept sounding inside the car that couldn't be silenced. (Side note: at the hotels or any major area, there are guards at the gates. You have to stop and pop your hood so they can check for bombs because they're normally connected to car batteries. So now you know what I was thinking....).
The drive became so chaotic that we just got out of the car. Maybe the gas fumes had gotten to him? Not sure. We walk the bazaar. It was so crowded. People on people on people. People putting things in your face. People hollering at you. Smells. People relieving themselves (we saw this once and smelt it another time). Trash. So much trash. The streets are just muddy and filthy. There's no clean surfaces. We walked for 5 minutes and gave up. We knew we had to find a way out and get another Uber home. That in itself was difficult. It's 1 thing to have the driver come to your hotel and pick you up. Quite another to find YOUR white Subaru amongst 1,000 others in the center of the city.
The gentleman was nice. No English again. Hindi only. Traffic was worse. People mill about amongst the cars tapping on your windows and begging. Our driver's gas light was on when we got in the car. 1 Hour and 12 minutes later his car was still going when he dropped us off. Must have been faulty? But his car was clean. He was awake. And it didn't smell like gasoline.
I know that was alot (however, rereading it...it doesn't sound that bad?) Here's how I described it earlier to someone: "Indescribable. Only something that can be experienced. Just....yeah. ALOT. Even feelings of uncertainty and fear for a split second. It was wild. 2 hours of ALOT of thoughts and sensory experiences - enough to honestly last a lifetime. But yet, these people LIVE it all day every day. Mind blowing."
To say this trip will be an experience is an understatement. We're still just as excited. And honestly, really thankful to have experienced what we did - though still very limited, we already have a much better understanding of what 'normal' is here.
Welcome to India.