Delhi

Our first real day of the tour began at 9:30 after breakfast at the hotel. The initial challenge was to get to Chandi Chowk (a central area) from Karol Bagh (where the hotel was) using Delhi’s metro train system during morning rush hour.

The Tokyo subway has competition from these guys. We had to split the group across three doors just to manage to jam us all on and we still lost two people (they caught up one train later). It was so crowded we couldn’t fall over even if we wanted too. At one stop a guy got on with a loaded gym bag. He just threw it on top of the crowd and let it crowd surf for 2 stops while he clinged to one corner. Three stops later we all piled out laughing.

We wound our way from the metro station through the decaying streets and alleys of the Chandi Chowk area, toward our first stop a Sikh temple called Sisganj Gurudwara.

Although we couldn’t take pictures in the main hall they were very accommodating. We were expected to cover our hair (men and women alike) and to walk in our bare feet. The marble steps leading in were lightly flowing with water so that we could wash our feet and heads.

The temple offers food to anyone who comes for it so we toured there kitchen which was buzzing with people making large batches of Na’an bread, vegetable curry, confections and sweetened buttermilk. Followed by the dining hall, which only had a few people but had a constant turn over.




Off to our next stop, we pressed back into the alleys. The narrow twisting lanes are covered in a canopy of haphazard electrical wiring. Crawling on, around and through these live wires are families of untamed monkeys.

Next we arrived at the Jama Masjid mosque. One of the world’s largest, capable of holding 25,000 people for prayer.

Basically it’s a massive courtyard rimmed with red-stone walls, structures and minarets. I paid the extra 100 rupees (about $2.25) to climb the tallest minaret. I didn’t find out until after that unaccompanied women weren’t allowed in the tower, preventing my fellow Canadians Sheryl and Lauren from checking it out. It may have been just as well, there was only one tiny stairwell to get up and down and there was many a spot where people had to put their backs to the wall and squeeze past one another. About half way up a woman with two men started yelling at me to back down so she could pass but I had no where to go and I wasn’t going to go back to the bottom just to start the climb over. Besides she was smaller than several people I had already squeezed by. It turns out the issue was religious. I had to cover my eyes as she passed.

On the way out we had to cough up 10rps for the guy who was watching our shoes. There is always another cost around here but it literally is nickels and dimes most of the time.
We followed the Mosque with an exterior viewing of The Red Fort. India actually has two Red Forts and we’ll get to see the inside of the more interesting one to the south. I wonder about the scale of that one because this one was massive.
That was just the morning. We had the afternoon free to walk around so our tour guide who we call Perry because we have not mastered his Indian name, took us to a restaurant he thought we’d like in the Conaught Circle area, gave us directions home and left us to our own devices.
The place was called “Rodeo” and it turned out to be Tex Mex themed. The staff was even dressed in bad cowboy outfits and the barstools were made of saddles. We sat down, hemmed and hawed for a few minutes, then decide to go find some real Indian food.
Lauren found a good suggestion in her lonely planet guide and we were off. About 12 of us meandered and somehow managed with the help of the locals to find our way to Rajdhani, an Indian Tali place.

Tali is kind of like Indian Tapas. We got large metal plates filled with smaller plates and bowls of all kinds of flavours and dishes. Entirely vegetarian and delicious. You could also get endless refills on the food.

By the time we left the restaurant and had figured out where we were heading and how to get there the group had wittled down quite a bit. So four of us piled into a Tuktuk and took off for the India Gate war memorial.

It was a wild ride with Lauren sitting on Sheryl’s lap, Nick, the British Grandfather situated on my hip and me with a knee poking outside the cab. As we laughed our way down the road a Tuktuk with 7 people in it passed us, and at one traffic jam a beggar girl climbed right in and tried to sell us pens.

We arrived at the India Gate just in time for the sun to start setting, casting the great stone arch in orange hues.

After a wander around we worked our way down the Rajpath toward the Presidential Estate and caught the metro back to our hotel. We were very impressed with ourselves for navigating the transit system on our own.
After a low-key dinner with our tour guide, Perry helped me find an ATM that worked for me and we walked around Karol Bagh, which was still as busy as ever at night.
Back at the hotel, we had tea, packed and we were read for the road to Jaipur!

Adventure: India!

I’m off on another adventure. Now that I’ve crossed Japan, Australia and New Zealand off my list, I’ve decided this time would be India!

I’m taking a four-week tour that covers both the north and the south but skips the middle so I’ll take a flight to Mumbai to check it out on my own before heading for home.

Because of security I needed to be at Pearson airport at 3:45 am, 3 hours ahead of my 6:45 am flight for India. I don’t react well to getting up early but pulling an all nighter was just up my alley, especially if it would help me make the time change!

So the night before my flight I came home from work, did some final prepping, followed by 7pm a screening of Avatar with Jenny and a 10pm concert with Corey. The Skydiggers is my favorite live band and their annual Christmas show is a personal tradition. Being able to squeeze it in just hours before departure meant a lot to me.

From the show Corey drove me by my place to pick up my bag and we were off to the airport.

The flight was straight forward and long. I slept as best I could on and off. Apparently Air India is notorious for delays so leaving fifteen minutes late was considered a coup. By the time we reached Delhi the slow downs had snowballed and we landed 2 hours late plus I had to wait nearly an hour for my luggage to show up and baggage. I think the girl beside me missed her connection to Mumbai.

But when I came out of the airport something cool happened to me that has never happened to me before. I was greeted with a personalized sign and driver to my hotel.

It was an immediate immersion into the madness that is Indian traffic. The lines on the road are not even considered as suggestions, traffic lights are rare and vehicles accelerate suddenly and break within inches of whatever is in front of them.

For all that, there seems to be a structure in the chaos, a ballet of pedestrians, bicycle rickshaws, cars and Tuktuks. Tutuks are the three wheeled auto-rickshaws that are like overgrown vespas with a bubble shaped shell that you always see in photos of Delhi.

After dropping my bags and meeting my roommate for the night Nick (a recently divorced grandfather from the U.K.) I did a short walk about in search of a cash machine and to see the neighborhood.

With no luck in finding an ATM that both accepted my card and had money in it I returned to the Sky Rich hotel where the full tour group had an initial meeting followed by an excellent dinner.

The group looks like a good and varied bunch. Ages range from early 20’s to Nick who I believe is in his early 60’s. They cover New Zealand, Australia, England, Belgium, Denmark and of course Canada. In fact I’m one of 4 Canadians and we’re getting along famously.