A taste of India

I’ve been to chaotic cities in the past, like Beijing or Bangkok, but what I lived in India is something incomparable…
I flew from South Africa to Abu Dhabi in the Emirates and took a connecting flight to India’s capital New Delhi. There was a pretty awesome train from the airport connecting to local subways that made it easy to reach the apartment where I had my reservation. The subway system in New Delhi really looks like something taken from another world, in terms of effectiveness, cleanness and modernity. I was staying at a neighbourhood called Pul Bangash not to far and not too close from most attractions, but indeed the busiest and most chaotic place I’ve ever seen in my life. The insane amount of people on the streets going on any directions in motorbikes, tuc-tuc (moto taxi), cars and buses mixes with plenty of cows (yes, cows and very big ones) everywhere plus lots of street sellers placed also at the border of the street. Everything is quite dirty, people throw every waste also to the street so you also have to keep an eye on where you step.
Apart from the city chaos, Delhi has breathtaking touristic attractions which is the other side of India. Historical fortresses, monuments and places where some of world’s history events took place, such as the place where Gandhi used to stay and where he was murdered. Food is very impressive and can be very cheap to eat at a top restaurant, but from time to time I went to Mc Donalds just to taste something I’m more used to (imagine Mc Donalds in India don’t sell meat, so you can have a spinach-corn hamburger which was actually pretty good).
After 3 days, I took a bus to the city of Agra, my first bus was cancelled so I had to wait another 3 hours in the middle of nowhere for the next bus (this is very common in India as well, no train or bus are actually confirmed until you see it arrive).
In Agra I visited another fort and the great Taj Mahal. When I was a kid, I had a puzzle of the Taj Mahal, I believed by then it must be one of the most beautiful buildings in the world and that one day I’d love to visit it. My dream was accomplished. Costed me getting a cold, because I went at 6 am, and the temperatures where pretty low with very high humidity, but there it was, in the middle of the morning fog.. the Taj Mahal. There’s something about the composition of the landscape and architecture that makes it really unique, one of the most beautiful architectural creations I’ve ever seen.
From Agra I took another 5-hour bus to the city of Jaipur, where I stayed with a local family and shared with them nice times, apart from getting to know the city (chaotic too) and a very special attend to a huge cinema, supposedly one of the world’s most interesting, where I watched a complete 3 hour movie, in Hindi language of course :).
Now is time to move on, saving incredible experiences and anecdotes from India!