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!