The First Steps A Doozie...

That's how the saying goes and right now I couldn't agree more. After 20 hours of being on an airplane, eating an entire days worth of prepackaged air meals and sleeping in the most uncomfortable positions imaginable, I had finally arrived in Delhi. As I stepped off the plane I took note of where everyone was walking and followed them to a huge line of people were a gigantic mosaic of copper bowls and large metal hands folded into a peace symbol was situated. I was very mesmerized as I walked to the terminal to enter the country but what would happen to me in the next 18 hours was the farthest thing from mesmerizing. I had made a 4 night reservation in Delhi a month before I had left and emailed the Hotel that I would need a taxi person to come pick me up from the airport on the 9th of November, however I did not calculate the fact that id actually be arriving in India on the 10th due to the time change from American. This is the realization that crossed my mind as I sat outside the busy airport in Delhi waiting for my taxi. At this point my phone was nearly dead, I had no service (international rates are ridiculous) and needed to get an Indian SIM card to make any calls. I had made an effort to borrow a phone from a person that I became friends with during my flight but couldn't find him among the hustle and bustle. The thing about the Delhi airport is once you pass the lobby threshold that's it your not going back in unless you have a flight to catch and there are army guards at every entrance to make sure that it stays that way. As I walked out of the lobby there was a line of people holding up signs with names, "the driver must be here somewhere" I thought. Nope, after pacing back and forth 3 times I realized that the driver was not here. Behind the first line not to far away was a second line waiting for me. I thought to myself "Surely he must be there, after all I talked to the hotel and made arrangements and everything." After a few minutes of looking at the signs I couldn't find the driver. "We'll this sucks" I thought to myself "What do I do next?" Looking down at my phone hoping that I would miraculously get a wi-fi connection somehow and give the hotel a call. No such luck. I was without a ride or a way to contact the hotel in one of the craziest cities ive known.. Literally. I was weighing my options. It was 2 AM and I had random people coming up to me asking me if I needed a taxi or they'd just say "taxi taxi" as if asking a question. I kindly declined and said I was waiting for someone. Eventually I just decided that I would take my chances and get a taxi driver to take me to the hotel where I could surely speak with the front desk person and tell them what happened then everything would be fine. Well that's not exactly what happened. So after going up to what seemed like an official government taxi service I told them that I needed to go to Hotel Ajanta where I was staying. "Yes" he said. "Do you know where it is?" Once again he said "Yes" which I knew he was saying just to be polite as the custom goes there, they dont want to say "No" because its deemed impolite and after that I had a taxi person escort me to a small white car. This was quite an interesting experience because after I was taken to one taxi and sat down I was then told to come to another taxi where that person would take me to my hotel. This change of hands happened about four times until finally I found myself in a taxi with a driver who only knew how to say "Yes Yes Yes". Still a little bit confused about the whole situation I started to ask questions like "Do you know Hotel Ajanta? I need to go there, here's address." Unfortunately I couldn't understand a word of what he was saying and we were driving away from the airport. Now I was a little worried. I kept bugging him insisting that he tell me if he knew where we were going pointing to the piece of paper I had with the address of the hotel. I was going to get an answer I could understand. Within 5 seconds he stopped the car in the most busy part of the street and started calling someone on his cell. I was a little more then worried and my survival skills kicked in. I grabbed my knife from my bag, put it into my pocket and started to get out of the taxi. The taxi driver was saying something in Hindi as I stepped out of the car, but I didn't care at this point. But when I got out there was a person that was waiting outside whom apparently the taxi driver was talking to, he could speak English (well better then the first taxi driver atleast) and was going to drive me to my hotel. I told them I was just going to walk back to the airport and try and catch a bus or something there instead. He reassured me that he could take me to where I needed to go and even showed me proof that he was a legitimate taxi driver, certified by the Indian government and all. I figured that he would be more understanding and could get me to my hotel safety. Well we finally got to New Delhi and drove around for a bit before I realized he had no idea where he was going. I will just say real quickly that Delhi at night is not the kinda place that I would want to find myself walking around in especially with a backpack on, that's an open invitations to get jacked or beat up or even killed. Seriously. Think of Oakland but without guns. Anyways here I am in the ghetto of Delhi at night in this taxi with a driver who is clueless on where we were going. So needless to say I was very worried. No shelter no food no phone and no way back to the airport. He then tells me that he is going to ask someone for directions. This threw up a red flag. "No! Don't stop just keep going" not wanting for someone to run up and try and rob us. He insisted. "We must ask someone who knows". We drove around the slum for a few more moments passing piles of trash, people sleeping on the streets and ghettos before he found someone. Thats when I had one of those wtf am I doing here moments. The driver stopped and spoke with him to which he told us that there was a tourist center close by. "Great!" I thought, they can help us." We got there walked in side and talked to someone named Raj. He was a smooth talker and said that everything was fine. He even called the hotel for me but was told that the hotel was all booked (which I would find out later is a common scam in India to make the people think you need to book an expensive hotel with them). Impossible I thought, there's no fucking way that I spent $150 on a room and they booked it for someone else. There was a festival going on Raj said so that's common. "Bullshit" I demanded to speak with the person. He dialed a number and said something to the person on the other line. I was very suspicious and asked him what number he was dialing because it wasnt the hotels number, "Its the Indian phone operators number, it will direct the call for me." I didnt't know if I should have believed him or not, but it sounded understandable so then he handed over the phone. "Hello is this Hotel Ajanta?" "Yes it is sir how may I help you?" I explained my situation and told him my reservation number. "No sir unfortunately we booked your room." I couldn't believe it. I hung up the phone without saying a word. Here I am alone without a hotel at night in a huge city, what should I do? The smooth talking sales man gave me a few options all which were over £240,000 ($500). "No way im not paying that much!!!!" I asked that he check out the train station to see if I could somehow get a train to Shimla within the next 5 hours. Negative. "You need to reserve a train seat at least 3 days ahead, same with hotels due to the festival" Raj said. All I knew was that if I couldn't stay in a safe place in Delhi then I wasnt going to stay there at all. I sat down on his red suede couch weighing my options. I said my thank you's and walked out of the door to the taxi. The taxi driver whos named I would later find out was Kumar asked me where to go. I wasn't even sure where I was so how the hell could I tell him where I was going. I need to find a place, I need to be somewhere safe. That thought replayed in my head over and over again. I didn't know what to do. I told the taxi driver that I needed to get to Shimla which is 5 hours away. "Shimlas very far my friend, how do you plan on getting there all the trains are full? He was right, I had no choice but to ask him if he would. "I'll give you $300 if you drive me to Shimla. "What" he said? I'll give you £15,000 rupees right now if you drive me there" I exclaimed. "You know that's 5 hours away right". I told him yes, however he knew that he had me by the ball sack. Either I got to Shimla today or he could drop me off at some corner in Delhi where God knows what would happen to me. "Make it $320". "No way $300!" As if it wasn't enough money but he wouldn't budge. I eventually gave in and agreed to his unreasonably steep price. He made a phone call then flipped a bitch (which is making a U turn for those of you who aren't savvy on the hip lingo) and told me that he was going to change drivers with his "brother". Oh no not this bullshit again I thought to myself. I told him that I wanted him to drive me there instead. "What? $50 extra then." Okay this is getting ridiculous I thought to myself but decided that I'd be better off then having someone who doesn't speak English and could get lost driving instead. "Fine", and we agreed on 18,500 rupees ($370). After that it seemed almost easy for him to find the freeway to Shimla and we were on our way (I hoped). Quick lesson of India: Indians don't give a shit about driving laws or other drivers. Kumar my driver got on the freeway and it felt like a weight was lifted off my shoulders, I could finally relax.... Guess again. My driver started to speed up and swerve in between cars and trucks. Honking and swerving is basically the norm in India and from what I recall he was doing so at 110 mph during most of the way. Seriously. Never below 90 which was the speed limit on the freeway. I was too tired from the flight. I told him he should slow down to which he told me not to worry my friend. At this point I was contemplating doing a tuck and roll out of the car GTA style but knew the impact would kill me for sure. The road was packed full of tiny cars and huge trucks that all looked the same. What did I get myself into? My mind wouldn't stop running at 1000 words per minute. I began thinking of all the things that had happened and could happen to me but my body was weak from my trip and I was very tired. Kumar could tell and suggested I should lay down in the backseat and rest. "Are you kidding me!?" I thought to myself as he sped up and resumed his honking. I was too worried that he was going to take me to some far off place in the cuts and hold me ransom or something plus who could sleep like that? Looking back on the event I realized he wasn't actually a bad person just greedy which lots of people take advantage of. Anyways I tried staying awake and eventually we got to talking about my journey. After I told him why I wanted to go to Shimla he told me that it wasn't going to be what I thought it would be like and instead I should go to Manali which was 10 hours away from Shimla by bus. As if I didn't travel enough for one day but he insisted that it was way better then Shimla. At that moment I was skeptical of every person in India especially my driver. However I decided to take a look at my travel guide just to see what it said, maybe id check it out later on my trip. As soon as I started reading the paragraph out of my guide I was intrigued. Could it really be that great? Being skeptical of even my Lonely Planet guide. It sounded pretty amazing and I looked at all the accommodations and restaurants which passed the test. Shortly thereafter I recalled reading something once on an India forum about Manali having a reputation of being a Honeymooners Mecca and a backpackers paradise to which people had mentioned how nice it was. After spending about 20 minutes contemplating my choices I finally decided to take a gamble on Manali. Once again Kumar gave me his shpeal about it exclaiming "Yes Manali good, you like more then Shimla, Shimla too crowded, not good family place but Manali very beautiful." He even agreed to buy my ticket for me which after having been swindled out of $375 i'd expect him to fund my entire stay there however that was not going to happen and I knew it. So it was settled, I was going to Manali and with that said we headed to the nearest en route of a bus station in Ambala. I really didn't know what to expect at this point. Already I had lost my hotel (or so I thought), I lost $375 to my crazy taxi driver, and I had lost my ambition for India. There was still a long ways to go which meant more unbearable and ungodly driving at speeds that are almost unbelievable but its all true, I couldn't make this shit up. As I sit in the back seat of this mans taxi with my heart racing like Seabiscuit I start meditating to calm myself down. I contemplated my life and all of the things that I have been blessed with so far then began to make peace with my death, thinking how dying in a car crash would probably be the least painful way to go. I even thought to myself "Wow, if I die from sudden impact it would be nice and quick" My heart beat started to slow very gradually and my mind cleared, I tried to lay down in the back to rest my body but due to the constant honking and jolting there was no way that I would find such solitude, not yet. I shifted my focus to all the small but rundown towns sprinkled along the freeway and said to myself "Thank God I'm not walking from town to town, there's no way I'd make it." Most of these places are over crowded ghettos decorated with crumbling buildings and huts made from mud or sticks. There are huge piles of burning trash, shit and even bodies as is tradition in India to cremate most of the dead to prepare them for the next life. The stench that wafts from these shanty towns makes your eyes water and nose burn, with each breathe you can feel the toxins accumulating in your lungs. Sometimes your gag reflexes kick in and you feel like vomiting, the smell is that bad. Natives don't seem to mind to much though. Lol. As you pass these ghettos essentially you begin to realize how truly impoverished India is. Children walking barefoot playing with shit covered Coca-Cola bottles, homeless dogs that look like they haven't eaten in days sleeping on the side of the road with flys attacking their wounds, and lots and lots of trash. More then you can imagine. So why the fuck was I here again? Well I will say that I think it's important for everyone to see India at least once in their lifetime so that they may realize how truly amazing we have it in America or wherever you live. Yes I'm plenty sure people are going to read that (if your still reading that is) and say "Fuck that" but I guarantee that it will expand your appreciation for such places if nothing else expand your heart. With that said I will also say that even though I'm making India out to be hell on Earth there is still plenty of beauty (with the exception of Delhi, I was only in Delhi for a couple of hours but I will trust my gut on this one [or my Delhi Belly] and declare Delhi to be a complete and utterly miserable shit hole of a city for which unless forced I will only visit again to catch my flight back to America) out here, you just have to find it. But back to my story... So I'm still in the taxi with Kumar and he is driving like a maniac. As we approached Ambala the sky began to get brighter and the thick clouds of smog that surrounds all of Delhi soon dissipated. It was no longer dark and eerie thank Jesus. I could finally see far off in the distance as before all I could see was nightfall and cars. My perception of the area began to take shape and my stress level lowered a notch or 2. We got stuck in traffic a couple times which is basically a bunch of cars, buses and semis bumper to bumper having a honking party as if they had never used them before. My driver was smart enough (if you'd like to call it that) to take a scenic shortcut on the unpaved dirt shoulder on the side of the freeway and pass all the congestion. Once again India drivers don't give a you know what about speed limits or lanes. When we eventually squeezed our way in between two cars we would pass what was causing the traffic which most of the time was a serious car crash. This made me grip my arm rest even more as we sped away from the mess. After asking for directions from multiple people who all pointed in different directions we finally found the bus station. This was interesting as well. Think of a busy bus station with about 20 buses at any given moment and lots of people haggling over tickets for these buses like it was the Super Bowl and your putting all your money on the New England Patriots. Ya. So it was of course very loud and very crowded. Had Kumar not paid off an official at the station for me with £1000 rupees I probably wouldn't have gotten onto a bus for 8 hours. It was kinda funny actually. I followed him around as he bribed the official which was a lot of back and forth between the official, the head authority of the bus station and us. When the official would go back to the office to talk Kumar would tell me that this is the only way to get a bus this soon and gave me the universal sign of money by rubbing his fingers together as if they had grease on them. So here I am waiting for this official to bribe the other official to get me a seat on a bus to a place that I had never been too. What a way to travel. When the official came out of the office he gave us a look and started to walk in a very polite but stern speed waltz. This way he told Kumar. We followed him and found our selves surrounded by all the people trying to buy tickets. I mistook the ticket desk where everyone was gathering around as some sort of chicken fight. So many people in one place yelling and waving money around this deck just to get from point A to B. I stood there baffled for a few moments before Kumar pointed me in the direction of my bus. "I thought that it was going to be a 1st Class bus." He said that this was the only one the official could get and it was leaving in 5 minutes. I struggled with a decision for a split second before realizing that I'd rather take the shanti bus now as opposed to waiting to take a bus in 8 hours when it was dark again and I couldn't find my bearings. He said the ride to Manali was 8 hours long but what he didn't happen to mention was how crazy that ride was going to be. I hopped on the bus before handing over the rest of the rupees to Kumar which was very difficult for me to do considering it was almost $400! But I was very grateful that he had got me this far in one piece thinking to myself how much worse it could have been if I had attempted this feat alone. We said our goodbyes and he gave me a hand shake and watched him walk back to his white taxi car for which he will probably drive to Delhi in a speedy manner. Now before you give me shit about blowing $400 dollars on a taxi and bus ride I will say that I was quite aware that I was being scammed for the most part but considering my situation I'm very happy that I did it. Would I had done something differently if I had service and could contact the hotel myself. You better believe it. But also it was a very important lesson for me. It was my initiation into India and I had passed, well almost. I still had 10 hours of bus travel left on what would be the most scary bus ride of my short life..... [to be continued]