Amanda in...
25th Sep 2006The Panic! At the Guest House Tour Woke up this morning at 3:30 with a horrible panic attack. I couldn`t get back to sleep so I lay in the dark listening to my Mp3 player and trying to pretend I wasn`t in India. When that didn`t work I ended up trying to draw the lines from my feet to help ground myself (studio people - its that thing we do with Dale in voice class...everyone else, yeah it`s as weird as it sounds). Finally I decided that I needed to get out of Delhi. So, I went to the official tourist office in Delhi. Not to be confused with the 100 other "official" tourist offices that people keep trying to get me into. They tell me I can`t buy a ticket there but I can walk down the street to 36 Jampath and go to the ticket office there. I walk all the way down Janpath and find number 36, it has the same name and address as they`ve given me. Only it`s a shack set up on the side of the street. Seems sketch so I walk all the way back to the office and am informed that that office is not the "official" 36 Janpath. So I walk back and another km after the shack I find the building I`m looking for. I go inside and there are four travel agencies with the exact same name. I ask the guard with the big gun (Jarrett would have been impressed) and he shows me the right one. All in all, buying a bus ticket took me 2 hours. Next up, exchanging travellers cheques. I won`t even go into that. I make my way back to the guest house, check out, store my luggage etc, buy a book for the bus, etc. Now it`s 12:30 ( I left the house at 7). I try and find a rickshaw to take me to Humoyen`s Tomb. It takes 3 of them until I get one who says he`ll take me for a reasonable price. We get about two blocks and he pulls over and asks to see a map. He has no idea where he`s taking me. Another rickshaw driver gets out and starts screaming for me to get into his rickshaw. Then the two of them get into a fist fight over taking me. I start screaming for them to get off of each other. We get back in the rickshaw, the guy figures out where he`s going and starts to drive away. Now, he starts trying to renegotiate the fare because "it`s very far away." Now, I`m really, really angry. He makes offers and I tell him to pull over right now. I`m halfway out of the rickshaw before he agrees to take me for the original price. I call him my favourite swearword under my breath (the really bad one that scandalizes everyone). Then I make it to the tomb. Which is perfect. I never wanted to leave. It was QUIET. So quiet. It`s never quiet in Delhi. They don`t use turn signals, lanes or shoulder checks...they use the horn. All the buses say "horn please" on the back of them. My nervous system is shot from jumping at all the noise. I met a family from Canada and a guard who spoke really good English but mostly I just walked in silence by myself. It was the best 2 hours of my time in Delhi. Amazing. The tomb is nice too, but the quiet and the garden! Mmmmm. Next up I try and go to Nizauddun`s (sp?) Shrine. It`s supposed to be across the street, so I walk. Only, I get horribly lost. So, finally after twenty minutes of pointless wandering I get a rickshaw. It takes 7 rickshaws before I find a driver who speaks enough English to know where I`m going. I get in and he promptly hits a motorcycle. The driver goes flying but is up in a second walking. I take off cause there`s about to be fistacuffs. I find another driver, who takes me to the wrong place, then takes me back where I started and points me down a road. I go to the police station for directions. The woman doesn`t really speak English but she gives me directions. After aimlessly wandering down back alleys for another half hour I determine that the universe doesn`t want me to see the Shrine for reasons unbeknownst and that`s that. I go catch my bus.
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