Above:The Baha'i House of Worship of Asia. Below:Life and times of your fellow World Citizen, Kolya

The train today was cancelled so we won’t be leaving until tomorrow evening. The reason, apparently, is that the trains were running late and it’s just to get everything back on schedule! Otherwise, all is set for our trip on the Brahmaputra Mail (2nd class sleeper) to JNP (near Darjeeling), from where we’ll take a bus or jeep up to Sikkim. I’m planning to leave there on the 5th of February in order to get back to Delhi on the 7th. In time for the weekly early morning Devotional at the Baha’i House of Worship on the 8th and the Indian release of the Lord of the Rings--Return of the King! However, I wasn’t able to get a reservation but only get put on the waiting list…hopefully it’ll work out!

I found out that there’s a really freakin’ stupid Rule at India Rail!! Namely that they need you to have a money exchange receipt in order to be able to pay for train tickets in Rupees! How dumb is that?! Not to mention unsupportive of the tourist industry since it makes people not like or want to use Indian Rail again. Anyway, it made us have to go back the next day to get our tickets. Since we didn’t have an exchange receipt the first time. Anyway, so remember, if you’re planning to make use of Indian trains remember to keep hold of your money exchange receipt! (I couldn’t find mine… when I arrived I hadn’t been planning to travel outside of Delhi and I didn’t know about the dumb rule anyway). Obviously it’s so they can get a hold of foreign currency, but it sucks, anyway!

Like much of Delhi, the Main train station is a crowded and dirty place, unfortunately. Not so good for Delhi or India’s international image…In contrast, when traveling through the diplomatic quarter of Delhi, where the embassies and also the Sikkim House is, one really notices that it’s much cleaner and more kept up than much of the rest of the city. Outside the train station, the traffic is very congested and there is a hoard of Autos (3 wheel taxis) and Taxis outside. Some beggars begging and a load of people standing around or sitting on some of their luggage in the main hall. Upstairs, there is a special ticket office just for foreigners, and the trains have a special reservation for foreigners making it easier for them to get tickets, which is good for the tourist industry, balancing their bloody stupid rule regarding the currency exchange receipts!

After getting the tickets we walked to Connaught Place because none of the Auto drivers were willing to take us by the meter or a fair price, and that area was closed to pedicabs. Once there we saw an impressive demonstration of the home theatre/surround sound system from the company Bose. If I had piles of money I would probably buy it—if it were available in China, that is…