Jeremy's Cool Travel Blog: Delhi

Catherine and I caught the overnight sleeper train from Bundi to Delhi on the night of February 13 (my first train ride in India, I should add). We were in the Air Conditioned 2-Tier class car, which has two two-tier bunks per 'room' and a curtain for the room to provide some privacy while sleeping. It wasn't long before I fell asleep to the steady rocking of the train.

I awoke as we pulled into the station in Delhi at around 6:00 am on Friday morning. Our car was soon a flurry of commotion as people prepared to exit and porters boarded the train to assist with luggage. It was cold on the platform and we hurried to get through the crowded and damp station to find a taxi. Outside of the station it was raining and cold, and the sun had not yet risen. We were immediately surrounded by taxi and rickshaw drivers offering their services and we had a hard time finding someone who would take us at a reasonable price. This was exactly how I pictured Indian train stations before my arrival in the country: very crowded, dirty and overwhelming (the atmosphere reminded me of the city in the movie Blade Runner). Fortunately, my travel experiences in India had been pretty good to date, so it was only the Delhi station that was exceptionally bad. It was also good that I'd already been in India for several weeks, so was not completely thrown off guard by the situation. Once we'd found a rickshaw, we shivered throughout the rainy ride to Catherine's friend Ryan's place, where we were staying for the next three nights.

Ryan is Catherine's friend from Australia and recently started a job with the Australian High Commission in Delhi. The High Commission provided him with an amazing four-bedroom, five-bathroom apartment in an area called West End, close to the neighbourhood where most of the embassies are located. Ryan was a good host and ensured that we were comfortable during our stay. I particularly appreciated his excellent espresso machine and the powerful hot shower.

While Ryan was at work, Catherine and I reserved our Monday morning train tickets to Rishikesh, Uttarakhand, stopped by the Burmese embassy to see about visa requirements, and bought some food for dinner. It was an overcast day in Delhi, so we didn't mind not doing any sightseeing. Later that evening I visited my friend Sreemoyi who recently started working for the Canadian High Commission. My friend Kaila had put us in touch before my departure, so I was only meeting Sree for the first time. But we had exchanged several emails and I had even mailed her a book from Toronto that I would need in Thailand, so it was good to finally meet her in person, along with her cousin and her mom who was visiting from Canada.

The next day, Catherine caught an early morning train down to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. I wasn't interested in getting up at 4:00 am to make the round-trip journey, so just hung around Ryan's apartment to take advantage of his internet to organize a bit of my trip and work on my blog. I was also saving my energy for the Inferno Metal Festial, India taking place that evening! Inferno is an annual four-day event in Norway, but this year they added a special performance of several bands in Delhi and Bangalore. It was just my luck that the Delhi show was taking place the weekend that I was in town; I couldn't wait to thrash Indian style.

The show took place in a southern suburb of Delhi called Gurgaon, at a venue called the Kingdom of Dreams. The KOD is billed as "India's first live entertainment, theatre and leisure destination". It's a bit Disney World-like and a strange place for a metal show. Indeed, upon my arrival it was odd to see the metal heads milling about alongside 'regular' folks who were dressed up nice to see other shows at the venue. Five bands were on the bill: Halakuh (India); Nekromantheon (Norway); Devoid (India); Obliteration (Norway); and Undying, Inc (India). Halakuh started promptly at 5:00 pm to a crowd of about 150, which grew to maybe 500 over the course of the evening. (Note to Halakuh: don't ever again try to initiate a wall of death when you're the opening band with only 150 people in the audience. Epic fail.) Overall, the show was like any other metal concert I'd attended: loud, fast music; predominantly young males in attendance; and lots of nice people that were easy to talk to. The downer was the audience overall, which was dead quiet after the initial applause / cheering following each song. It was eery and almost embarrassing given the amount of organization that went into this event, including bringing two bands from Norway. Notwithstanding the crowd, it was an awesome night and all the bands shredded, particularly Nekromantheon and Obliteration. \m/

With the Singh family

On Sunday, Catherine and I were invited to my friend Anika's place for lunch (my friend Abhishek from Toronto had put us in touch a few weeks earlier). We spent a wonderful few hours together at Anika's, along with her lovely parents and grandparents, and her brother and sister-in-law. They fed us some typical Punjabit dishes and even showed us how to make puri (deep-fried dough 'puffs'). They're a great family and we were very grateful for their warm hospitality.

Later that afternoon, I joined some Delhi friends that I'd met in Hampi for a climbing session at the outdoor climbing wall close to Ryan's place. In the evening, Catherine and Ryan prepared some delicous lamb chops, served with roasted potatoes, steamed beans and excellent red wine (three bottles, in fact). I hadn't had food like this for several weeks - heaven!

Very early the next morning, Catherine and I left Ryan's to catch the train to Rishikesh - land of yoga and mountains.