AGRA TO DELHI | LETTERS & PICTURES FROM ASIA, 1988 | PART 7

In 1988, when I was eighteen years old I set off from New Zealand to Asia on an adventure. Accompanying me was my high school friend David. We were inspired by Tintin comics and National Geographic magazines. Although we had never actually been overseas before, we wanted begin our travels somewhere more exotic than the usual teenage Kiwi destinations. Our plans were vague - first Nepal, then India - then, after that, as far as our meagre holiday savings would take us. Once on the road, I wrote detailed and mostly illegible aerogrammes home, which my father kindly typed up to make readable for the rest of the family. My father also generously lent me his Pentax Spotmatic camera to ensure I got some good pictures. 

This is the seventh letter, sent after travelling from Agra to Delhi in India. Read the very first letter from Kathmandu here.

Agra, India
8 May 1988

Dear Everyone,

I won't be able to finish this letter here because we leave on the train for Delhi in 15 minutes. There are a few things that I didn't get to write to you in my last postcard. I finally ended the ongoing ordeal of trying to post you the photographs so they should be on their way. They were expensive to post but I got rid of them and I hope that they arrive. I originally intended to send them with some New Zealanders who were returning home but we couldn't find them. We tried to post them from Nepal but it seemed too expensive. It has taken two trouble-filled days to post them from here so I hope you enjoy them!

Everything is complicated here and the heat makes it even harder. I read in the paper yesterday that it was 45°C and it felt even hotter today. The post office is a long way away and we had to get a rickshaw. The sun feels like a hammer on your head and the wind is the same feeling as a very hot hair drier. In all we made four trips to the post office and two to the railway station. The rickshaws have no covers. Sleeping is the hardest; we have those big roof fans but there are about five power cuts a day and during those times you almost go insane. Even with the fans it is too hot. In a way I actually quite enjoy the heat because it is an extreme that we have never experienced before. Can you see the drops of sweat that have fallen on to this page?!

There are many other interesting things in Agra that I haven't told you about. The Taj, which I described in the postcard, is definitely the most spectacular but there is also the Agra Fort and Fatehpur Sikri, a deserted palace and city about 40km out of Agra.

The fort is a huge imposing red sandstone castle. From the outside it looks pretty big and ominous with all the battlements and roof covered with vultures. Insi-e it has many gardens and all the buildings are beautifully carved out of the sandstone. It is very different on the inside from the outside. We managed to climb through a gap in one of the barred doorways and get up into all the towers etc. which actually isn't allowed. This was probably the most interesting part of the castle. We walked back to the hotel through some lovely gardens and saw a lot of nice birds and also flying foxes. They look very strange, like baby pterodactyls - maybe they were fruit bats. Many of the birds are parrots.

We took the bus out to Fatehpur Sikri yesterday. This is a big palace and city built by the Moghuls in the 1500s and was the centre of their empire. For some reason it was abandoned and is now a huge ghost town. The heat was so intense that I found it hard to fully enjoy it, though it is obviously a fascinating place. Like all Mogul structures everything is so detailed yet so huge as well. It is situated on a hill with dry dusty plains surrounding it.

Well, it is time to head down to the railway station and jump on the Taj Express to Delhi. The trip only takes three hours. I mentioned before that we were thinking of going first to Rajasthan, but due to the heat (it is even hotter there) we are heading north. I think that 45° is my limit and after about ten days it really gets difficult. It is a pity that it is so hot because I am eally enjoying it down here. Of course it is very different from the Himalaya.

9 May 1988
Hello again. We are now in New Delhi. This morning we booked our tickets to Pathankot and from there we bus to Dharamsala. The train leaves at 9.30 tonight so we don't have much time in Delhi, which is good. It is really helpful, but a little unfair perhaps, to be a tourist as the train is booked up for two months ahead but there is special thing called a tourist quota which means that we can nearly always get on the train that we want.

The train from Agra arrived in Delhi at 10.15 last night and we climbed down on to the station into a scene that looked like photos that you see of the New York underground or something. So many people you could hardly move. New Delhi station is notorious for pickpockets and muggers so we were all really careful. We heard one story of a guy who at the station boug ht a fresh squeezed mango juice. The next thing he knew he woke up in a small room and the onIy thing that they left him was his passport, which was considerate. They had filled the juice with sleeping pills.

New Delhi is a big noisy city, hot and dusty. I haven't been into the centre of town yet but will go for a walk there this afternoon. It is far more western than anywhere that we have been to so far. There are even skyscrapers. We are staying in the old part of the city near the railway station. It is a jumbled somewhat shabby area but it is where the cheap hotels are. Actually, living in Delhi isn't so cheap; it is the most expensive place in India which is another reason why we are not staying long.

I have become quite a professional budget traveller usually only spending about $US4 a day and never more than $5. I mostly eat dhal, rice and vegetables for main meals, fruit for breakfast, and I drink a lot of fruit juice and delicious lassi. Have you ever tried it? It is made with curd, ice and fruit. I have got pretty used to hot foods like vegetable curry. There are always lots of street stalls selling all sorts of things from samosas to dosas. I don't know what most of the foods are but they are pretty yummy. It costs about 1 rupee for 2 samosas so you can get a full meal for just a few rupees. This is the Indian equivalent of fish and chips.

India seems pretty clean compared with Kathmandu. I haven't got sick here once, whereas in Kathmandu it was always a battle to stay healthy. Of course, by Western standards it is still pretty unhygienic. I seem to have built up a good resistance because since being in India I have been drinking straight from the taps, having ice, etc, and I have felt fine.

I bumped into some Germans that we met trekking and they are heading for Dharamsala on the same train as we are so there will be six of us counting the Swiss-Israeli couple. The Swiss guy reminds me of you, Roger; about the only difference is that he is around ten years younger. They are all really good to travel with.

Well, this day is running out fast and as it is the only one that we have got here I had better go and see what this city is like. Don't think that I am having a terrible time because of the heat; I'm actually really enjoying myself. Although everything that I have said about the heat is true it is not as bad as it sounds; you always survive.

Read the next letter from McLeod Ganj in the Himalaya, here.