Journey to the Sub-Continen: Day 2 Delhi

Day 2: Delhi

Day 2: Delhi

Molly and Dave arrived early this morning (got to bed at 4am) and met us for breakfast at 9, wide-eyed and bushy-tailed.  Breakfasts are going to be our downfall.

Driving through the city to our first destination, old Delhi’s market area, Chandni Chowk, we passed the iconic India Gate

and the Ministry of Defense.

 

Old Delhi is in stark contrast to the British designed New Delhi.  The streets are narrow lanes filled with thousands of people, animals, shops, and garbage.  The buildings and roads are in various states of disrepair.  In other words, real India.  

To experience this 1^st hand, Hemesh ordered up 5 pedicabs for us.  Our driver was about 5’4” and tipped the scales at about 100lb, but could have easily worn the yellow jersey at the Tour de France.  No way we could have kept up with him even though he was moving 400lb of people and bike on terrible roads with rock hard tires (Jeri’s bruises could attest to that).  

The Chandni Chowk (Moonlight Square) is one of the oldest and busiest markets in Old Delhi, India. It is located close to Old Delhi Railway Station. 

We took the pedicab through the market dodging pedestrians, cars, oxcarts, and other pedicabs.The market was once divided by canals (now closed) to reflect moonlight and remains one of India's largest wholesale markets.

Located at the western end of Chandni Chowk, Khari Baoli is a street entirely dedicated to all kinds of spices, dried fruits, nuts, herbs, grains, lentils, pickles and preserves. We stopped in one of the nicer spice shops for a primer on Indian spices, teas and coffees.  We left 30 minutes later with about $50 worth of tea and spices.  

From here, we continued on by “auto rickshaw” (motor scooter pedicab which translates to faster and scarier) to India’s largest mosque, Jama Masjid, built in 1656 by Mughal ruler, Shaha Jehan.  Mughal Empire that ruled from Delhi and Agra. The Mughal dynasty ruled Delhi for more than three centuries 1500-1800.In the Old City, the Mughals and the Turkic 

rulers constructed several architecturally significant buildings, such as the Jama Masjid^, and the Red Fort (which we saw from afar, but similar to the Red Fort in Agra which we will see in a couple of days.

Next stop was the Sikh Temple, Banglaw Sahib The Sikh’s major tenet is to help others without proselytizing, and the temple here has a kitchen which serves 10,000 meals a day!  Anyone can eat here, including daring tourists (not us).  It is manned completely by volunteers from the Sikh community (Sikhs are required to donate time, money, or food).  In order to enter the temple and the kitchen, everyone is required to remove shoes AND socks.  We were all pretty grossed out (did some significant foot sanitizing at the conclusion).

 

This evening, we dined at one of India’s top 5 restaurants, Bukhara, which happened to be in the hotel that Trump was at last week.  We had the waiter order for us, and had a remarkable dinner.  All our friends kindly toasted Brendan and Jessica’s engagement, making it even more special.

Journey to the Sub-Continen: Day 1 Delhi

Day1:  Delhi

Flights to India were all on time and pretty smooth sailing.  Our biggest problem was finding a parking place in Montreal.  8 inches of snow the night before and an overcrowded parking lot made it a challenge.  Hopefully, the car will be in one piece, sans scratches and dents, when we return.

Our travel agent, Divya, set up an escort for us through customs and immigration.  The whole process took about 15 minutes (skipping line after line of bodies, some only skeletal remains of poor souls spending months trying to get through customs).  Seriously, it probably saved us 1-2 hours and at 1:30 in the morning, that was a lifesaver.  

After a brief nap at the airport Marriott and an amazing breakfast, we set off for New Delhi proper.  Though it was Sunday morning, the traffic was still pretty amazing.

Drive from the airport

The area around Delhi was probably inhabited before the second millennium BCE and there is evidence of continuous inhabitation since at least the 6th century BCE. It is divided into Old Delhi, built by the Mughal rulers in the 1600’s, New Delhi, built by the British during their occupation in the 1800’s through 1947, and the surrounding metropolitan area (NCT).  Delhi is the capital of India boasting the 2^nd largest population after Mumbai of 11 million in the city proper, and the world’s largest metropolitan population of over 25 million. Delhi also boasts 21,000 parks and gardens.

Our hotel for the next three nights, the Leela Palace, is in the heart of New Delhi, close to embassy row and government buildings.  The roads in New Delhi, thanks to the British, are wide boulevards with endless roundabouts.  Still, the traffic is crazy, with traffic laws taken as mere suggestions by everyone.  Neither a car or bike rental were very appealing thoughts.

Leela Palace Hotel

Red dots and leis on arrival

"Namaste"

Leela Palace Hotel

Hotel Garden

We met up with Dave and Carol Wood, and Phil and Anne Langsdorf (Molly and Dave were in the air somewhere over Pakistan) for some afternoon sightseeing, hoping to be able to stay awake.  We met our handler/guide, Hemesh, who was going to be with us for the next two weeks.  The afternoon was spent at the national museum (bad idea after flying 16 hours and sleeping 3) filled with Hindu artifacts (Hinduism is impossible to understand fully awake let alone being sleep deprived), 

Our guide, Hemesh

National Museum

followed by a brief shopping expedition to a higher end market (Khan Market)where we checked out Indian dress clothes (in Fab India) that we decided we probably could not pull off in NH, so elected not to buy.

Khan Market

Clothes shopping in Fab India

We were all pretty trashed by the time we made it back to the hotel, but had a drop of stamina left to watch wedding festivities that were going on in the street outside the hotel. 

Wedding at the Leela Palace Hotel

After an early dinner, we crashed hoping for a good night sleep.