Oct 17 Back to Delhi

So far this 6 hr trip back to Delhi on a bus is pure torture. The bus is not comfortable, it’s hotter than hell and this whole horn business is not ok. They honk all the time. But they don’t honk their horn to say “get out of my way” it means “I am first in line” or “ I am coming through”. HONKING EVERYWHERE. ALL THE TIME. My head would just be ringing when I was in a quiet place. They are so good at driving so bad. It’s an art I think, or maybe even a hobby.

 

So side story of the day….We are basically in Delhi and going through the toll into the city. The bus driver needed a receipt to get refunded for the toll. The printer was out of paper so the toll man couldn’t give him a receipt. Our bus driver demanded he get some sort of receipt. The toll man just told him to go. The bus driver drives just a little bit forward and then gets out of the bus. The two of them are fighting back and forth. Then all of a sudden the toll man starts beating our bus driver with a broomstick! No joke. Then you see legs and a body thrown through the air. People were running from everywhere in the toll area. Some were egging it on and others were trying to break it up. Weren’t trying too hard though. So in the process of throwing our bus driver, he had hit a car passing by and then smashed his head into the ground. He was bleeding from his head and wasn’t moving on the ground. OMG! We didn’t know what to do. Our guide D got out and was on the phone calling an ambulance and the police. All the Indians were yelling at each other and just running around. Two random people tried to move the bus and they couldn’t do it slash we kicked them out of the bus because we didn’t want to be held hostage or something. We locked ourselves in the bus. Finally the driver is helped back onto the bus and the ambulance and the police show up. In all this mess the toll man apparently ran away because obviously kicking the crap out of someone is illegal. So then the gang of guys are all in a commotion and retelling the story to the police. We were there altogether for a good hour and a half. It was just a mess but we got a replacement bus driver. Unfortunately we could only see 1 out of the 3 sites we were supposed to see that day because we needed to catch our flight back to Chennai.

 

We ended up going to LAL KOT with the QUTAB MINAR. It was a tall citadel tower built by the Tomar king Anangpal in 1066. It is the oldest place in Delhi. It has 5 different stories and the top two have been rebuilt twice once in the 14^th century and the other in the 16^th century because they were knocked down by lightning storms. There is also an old mosque with a tall Gupta iron pillar with Sanskrit inscriptions that has no rust on it at all, which is weird. It’s just as old as everything in the place. There was also a half built tower called ALAI MINAR. The king only built half a floor before he died and no one tried to complete it. There were a bunch of kids from the village schools n a fieldtrip. All the kids were saying hi and shaking hands with us. I was more popular because of my blonde hair but it was really cute. They spoke a little English enough to say “hi” and “how are you”. After we had lunch in a huge hall with a bunch of other SAS trips heading back to Chennai. Apparently we were all on the same plane…..6 groups of about 50-60 people in each. Got back to the boat around 8:20 but didn’t get on it until almost 10 because of the long lines and security checking bags. We were going to go out but just stayed in because we were exhausted and were planning on getting up early and shop our last day in India.