Old and New Delhi

Thursday, January 24, 2019
New Delhi, Delhi, India
We had a long flight to New Delhi, arriving around 12:30 am.  It was very slow through customs, and we were very glad we had pre-arranged a shuttle to the hotel, which is about 45 minutes from the airport at that time of the morning!  It was finally around 3:00 am when we could hit the sack for awhile.  The first day we mostly lounged around, including a fabulous couple's massage that included a private hot tub liberally sprinkled with rose petals and surrounded by candles.  So romantic and relaxing!  This is a very upscale hotel within a gated compound - we feel very much in a protected bubble.  There are guards at the gate who inspect under each car with a mirror and check the engine compartment.  All bags and purses go through an airport-type scanner, and all guests walk through a metal detector.  Security is taken very seriously!
Our second day we had prearranged a tour of Old Delhi with 2 other couples - what an experience!  Old Delhi is about an hour away, through unbelievably crazy traffic.  We don't know why they bother painting lines on the road since every available inch (and I do mean inch!) is occupied by something:  cars, trucks, many scooters, tuk-tuks, cows, buses, pedestrians, bicycles, and men pushing 2-wheeled carts.   Once I saw a couple of men leading 4 camels down the road.  And lots of dogs.  As close as everybody drives, vieing for every precious bit of forward motion and squeezing into the tiniest space, there are very few accidents or scrapes.  We had one tiny scrape in a tuk-tuk, barely anything.  Everybody seems to know exactly how large their chosen conveyance is!  
On our tour, we were able to see the outside of the Red Fort, which was built from 1638 to 1648, and is massive, with the walls extending for 2 km.   We went to a Sikh temple, which was very interesting.  One of the tenets of the Sikh religion is taking care of the community, so this temple has a huge kitchen where they prepare food for 25-30,000 meals a day!  The huge vats of soup are stirred a men standing by them with ladles taller than the men are!  Many women are sitting around rolling out flat breads, which are baked which are baked in a large oven with rollers so the bread rolls through and pops out the other end all done, kind of like those toasters they have in motels.   A couple of us took a turn at rolling out a few breads - very amateur!
We also went to Jama Masjid, the largest mosque in India, where 25,000 people can fit in the courtyard.  Yesterday we went to the Lotus Temple, which, as the name implies, is in the shape of a white lotus, very beautiful, and a temple of the Bahai faith.  Then we went to a Hare Krishna temple, so we are really covering the bases.  As you can gather from this, there are many religions in India, all practiced freely.  The majority of the population is Hindu, however.
The highlight of the Old Delhi tour was walking through the maze of alleyways seething with humanity, to the spice market.  Piles of beautiful powdered spices lined the shops, and one section was devoted strictly to chilis, where there was enough chili powder in the air to make us cough a little. From this part of the market we could climb up a narrow, twisting staircase to look down at the rooftop living areas. People were living everywhere, with laundry hanging, cooking areas and cots just barely under some kind of covering.  And lots and lots of trash everywhere!  However, unlike in the US where you would be smelling urine in such narrow, dark, and crowded conditions, we never did!  We learned that many of the vendors live near or in their shops for most of the time, only going to their homes and families in other parts of the country occasionally, while some live here with their families.  
Delhi is working hard to solve the trash problem, but there are so many people, and so few places to actually throw your trash.   In public areas we saw very little trash because there are trash barrels, and people use them.  But in the crowded, narrow alleyways of Old Delhi, trash pickup would be very difficult!
We had a late lunch in a nice restaurant in New Delhi, and when we came out, there was a snake charmer sitting in the plaza, blowing his pipe for the cobra swaying up out of his basket!  I asked if I could take a picture, and ended up sitting next to him with a snake draped across my shoulders - not a cobra!  I got a little more than I bargained for!  We also stopped at the memorial to Mahatma Gandhi.  His last days were spent at the home of a wealthy business man in Delhi.  Gandhi spent his days talking to the people, studying, and praying.  As he was walking to prayer one day, he was killed.  The home and gardens where he was staying have been turned into a memorial to him and his life, and was quite moving.
Today is Republic Day in India - like our 4th of July, only it commemorates January 26, 1946, when India became an independent republic.   Everything is closed and there was a huge parade downtown this morning.  We couldn't go in the Red Fort because it is closed for the entire week, and until the end of the month. And, all alcohol sales are banned on this day.  The hotel even went so far as to remove the beer from the mini-bars in the rooms, so that they can't be seen as selling alcohol today!  However, we planned ahead and bought beer yesterday that we can enjoy in our room today!
We are enjoying the food and looking forward to finally getting on the bikes tomorrow.  We will convoy from the hotel for the first 10 km, which will give us time to get over our first day jitters and get us away from the worst of the traffic.  We've been told that the first 2 days, to Agra, will be the worst for traffic and pollution, then it will get better.  We're looking forward to seeing the Taj Mahal in Agra!

Comments

Sally K
2019-01-26

Loved your commentary as well as the pictures. Am looking forward to more entries. Have fun and stay safe.

Kaison and Liz
2019-01-26

Thank you for sharing such an exciting and insightful journey!

Cat Pumford
2019-01-27

You write so colorful and beautifully. Thanks

Cousin Bill
2019-01-27

Have a great trip!

Patty Nightingale
2019-01-27

What fantastic experiences so far! Glad everything is going well. Your blogs are so descriptive and the pictures really help us live this journey with you. Looking forward to the next one.

Bob Schmidt
2019-02-22

sorry for the late comment, love the pics and story, great job!!

2025-02-12

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