"We know what you want."

On Saturday morning we left our gorgeous hotel and headed for Old Delhi's main bazaar. We got in a taxi and without thinking I grabbed the seat-belt and tried to put it on but since nobody wears seat-belts here the bottom part was missing so I put it back; on auto pilot I mindlessly did this about 5/6 more times and must have looked insane but it just felt so weird to be driving on such crazy roads with no seat-belt! Everyone here is trying to sell you something and if you think you're safe when you're travelling in a rickshaw or even a taxi then think again! At traffic lights people would shove their books and snacks in our faces and wave them around while our driver waited for the lights to turn green. Sometimes severely handicapped adults or children would hold their hands out begging. It's difficult to see and even harder to ignore but by giving them money you are perpetuating begging and all the terrible things that come with it, for example it has been known for small children to be blinded or made handicapped on purpose and sent onto the streets to beg. Whilst we spent three hours in traffic with the usual relentless horn honking I spotted signs on street lamps saying 'RAVES'; I couldn't believe they had raves in Delhi and I tried to find out more! It turns out the sign was curved round the pole and instead it said 'PRAVESH' (some kind of political event - definitely not a rave...). Disappointed. 

We got to the main bazaar and I can only describe it as extremely intense! It was raining, over 40 degrees and really humid ; the streets were swarming with people and rickshaws and the shop owners were chasing us down the roads shouting at us to try and force us into their shops and getting angry if we refused. As women alone in India we are used to being stared at but this was just another level all together! The leers and comments were constant and to be honest it wasn't the best experience. I wanted to dress like the local women as I'd heard this is respected here and can minimise unwanted attention so we went shopping for the traditional salwar kameez outfit which consists of baggy trousers, a tunic top that goes down to the knees with slits up the side and a matching scarf-shawl hybrid. The women here dress in the most stunning colours which serves as a stark contrast to the dull, grubby surroundings of Delhi - half of them wear salwar kameez and the rest wear saris. The plan was to buy the material and then get it tailored very cheaply afterwards. The shop owners pounced on us trying to fight for our business and they kept chucking the packets of material at us; I had a fair idea of what I wanted and I would describe and point to what I liked but they would not listen and continued to throw the complete opposite at us because they truly believe that they know what you want and that you have no clue. This happens a lot here. Once I finally had something I liked we went to a tailor and within two hours he had my outfit waiting for me (unfortunately I later realised that it wasn't quite right so I need to get it adjusted - photos to come!).

On the floor is the growing pile of material packets that were being launched at us.

People and rickshaws everywhere!

Aside from the outfit our only other mission to complete before we could return to the safety of our hotel was to book train tickets to the next city we wanted to go to. Booking train tickets here is nearly impossible! There is a government website that we tried to sign up for with a notoriously complicated process but we never received the confirmation email and train stations are a no-go due to the ridiculous queues so our only option is to book through travel agencies or third parties. We finally found one and sat down with a man who seemed really helpful at first but then proceeded to use scare tactics to get us to buy an extremely expensive month-long train and hotel package; he said that we had only been safe up until now because the people in the north are 'innocent' and that everyone else in India wants to rob us or rape us. He also lied about train availability and the whereabouts of stations but luckily we saw through this and left his office once he started to get angry at us for not booking the package. By this point it was dark and we were very stressed out! We went to get some food from a slightly safer part of Delhi and after a nice meal and a few Kingfisher beers we were feeling in much better spirits. We got an auto-rickshaw back to our hotel and the driver asked me if I wanted to drive myself!!! Obviously I said yes so there I was on a busy motorway in central Delhi driving a rickshaw in the dark! People driving past us were laughing and honking their horns at us.

Getting ready to drive the rickshaw!

We asked our hotel to help us arrange the 'unavailable' overnight train to our next destination and they managed to do it straight away without a problem (for a commission of course but we were happy to pay after the worry we'd had). On Monday, whilst we waited for the train, we went to a massive shopping centre that was much more like what we're used to at home except we had to go through metal detectors and get frisked before we could enter! It was so nice seeing shops we recognised for a change however we did start to get fed up with the staff in the shops who would come over to us as soon as we'd enter and follow us around the shop; stalking and lack of personal space awareness seem to be the norm here!