Who knew?

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October 3, 2011

Well, here's a place I never thought I would be traveling to; but as my brother-in-law and sister-in-law were living here on a three year work term we decided if we were ever going to get to India then this was the perfect time...The plan was to hang out in Delhi for a week, spending most of our time in the city (with a side trip down to Agra to see the Taj Mahal) then up to Nepal for two weeks...



Arrived at the tender hour of 3am and were greeted by the familiar and welcoming faces of Sean and Jerlin, who were gracious enough to come get us at this less than ideal hour. Made it back to their apartment in Greater Kailash (go E-block!) and chatted until the sun came up...needless to say it was a bit of a lazy day but did manage to poke around the neighbourhood, get to Sean's place of work to meet his employees and settle in to our first Indian meal, fantastic! Capped it off with a quick tour around the M-Block market and back to the ranch for some pints and relaxing...



Next day we were ready to see some sites in earnest, so decided to start with the obviously named Red Fort...Shah Jahan had moved the capital from Agra to Delhi in the 17th century and had the fort built using red sandstone soon thereafter, very cool...the grounds are huge, with some great architecture, worthwhile visit..



One must see for me in New Delhi was actually Old Delhi and the Spice Market, which was conveniently located near the Red Fort so that was our next destination...wow, talk about igniting your senses; as soon as we crossed the road from the Red Fort onto Chandni Chowk we were certainly into the madness...fantastic! Packed with people is an understatement, and within no time we were dragged on to a local van/bus by a one-legged man on a crutch to take us down to the Spice Market (which we were informed was very far-hence the bus-but really not all that bad as we walked back to the Fort from the Market in short time).



Again, awesome. We walked along the street where shop fronts were displaying nuts, fruits and coffee before finally getting to the spices...all senses were firing at this point; the bustle of cars and trucks rolling by on the street and crowds of people moving bags of wares in and out of the shops, sweet smells from the spices competing with the less than pleasant ones from the street, the noise of the traffic and bargaining and the apparent chaos unfolding before our eyes...exactly what I had hoped for...



Unfortunately it wasn't all pleasant; someone began following us through the market, and not in any sort of clandestine way, he was right behind us. We spoke to him nicely, then not so nicely, then finally rudely, and all he did was stand there with this stupid grin on his face...we couldn't shake him, and it really began to creep us out...even a merchant came out and tuned him up but that didn't seem to deter him...we decided at that point that we had had enough and started making our way back to the Red Fort...did manage to duck down and lose ourselves in some amazing alleyways where more shops were found before finally making our escape...made our way back to Connaught Place for a relaxing pint after hours of crowds and traffic...



Karen unfortunately at this point seemed to come down with a bout of "Delhi Belly" which put her out of action the following day (we think it came from a street vendor orange juice she sampled in Old Delhi but not entirely sure)...Sean and I ducked out for a couple of hours in the afternoon (Jerlin stayed behind while Karen rested up) and hit the Lotus Temple and Qutb Minar...not much to say about the Lotus Temple; architecturally very cool, set up on this hill on a huge piece of land but nothing spectacular inside or around it. Cool to see but wouldn't recommend it if you're short on time in Delhi...



Qutb Minar on the other hand was excellent, one of my favourite stops in Delhi and well worth a look. Dating back to the 12th century, the grounds are a beautiful blend of ruins and gardens, with the stone minaret being the focal point (reputed to be the tallest stone minaret in either India or the World, plenty o' conflicting info out there so not quite sure). Really enjoyed strolling through the ruins, and even with all the people it proved to be a nice refuge from the noise and commotion going on around it...



Sean had to get back to work so we hopped into a tuk-tuk and headed to his office in Nehru Place...I had now been in India for three days and still hadn't had a samosa so picked some up at a place recommended by one of Sean's employees, grabbed some pints and headed back to the ranch...samosas were amazing...



Next day (Thursday) we headed to Agra to see the Taj Mahal, see next entry for pics and details. Weren't expecting to be back in Delhi until late Friday evening but due to some mix-ups (again detailed further in the next entry) we were home early, rested and ready to set out again Friday afternoon...



Sean had wanted to see Gandhi Smrity, the place where Gandhi spent the last part of his life and where he was killed. Beautiful and tranquil place, filled with gardens and murals with quotes from Gandhi as well as photos and history of the times. The most compelling part was the path they had marked out with Gandhi’s final steps as he went to the Prayer Meeting for the last time, with a small monument on the spot he was killed. A very moving place and highly recommended, one of my favourite sites in Delhi...



Next it was back in the tuk-tuks; thought we'd do a quick fly-by of India Gate, as it was close, on our way to Dilli Haat Market for some souvenir hunting. Arrived at the Gate at sunset and we were surprised at how big the site was, turned out to be a really cool spot to check out. India Gate is a War Memorial dedicated to fallen soldiers of the First World War I believe, and it is the centrepiece of a wonderful park where people come to picnic and relax, as well as paddle around a small watering hole. Great fun, lots of vendors milling around, again not what we were expecting but certainly worth the visit...



Saturday was our last day in India, off to Nepal the following day to continue our adventure. Karen was feeling better by this point (a real trooper all around!) so we went back to Qutb Minar as the girls had missed it and we thought it worthwhile. Sean and Jerlin then recommended we go see a live Bollywood performance they had seen, couldn't pass that up! So off we went to the other side of town and a place called Kingdom of Dreams; this elaborate, newly built complex consisting of a large theatre and food/shop court next to it, grandiose to say the least.



Picked up our translator headsets (production was in Hindi after all) and headed into the beautiful theatre...production was called Zangoora, and it was amazing! This is the first live Bollywood production I believe, and man do they know how to do it up right...costumes, sets and especially the choreography were through the roof, and that coming from someone who is not all that keen on musicals...what did make it interesting was the English translation in our headsets; it wasn't exactly sync'd up with the performance, which actually made it funnier in some ways...haha...wouldn't necessarily want to see one of these on a regular basis but very worthwhile checking out...



And with that our Indian adventure came to end, it was off to the airport and on to Nepal the following day...Impressions? India is an interesting country to say the least...one of the strangest things was the lack of Western tourists; rarely encountered any outside of the usual tourist haunts, and even at the popular sites (including the Taj Mahal!) the vast majority of people seemed to be locals, very odd...overall I was happy I had the opportunity to see a slice of India but have no desire to go back, not the friendliest bunch in general (did meet some fantastic folks though). The staring finally did us in, it got to be very old, very quick. I'm used to people staring when we travel, being foreigners who stick out, but staring in other places visited seems mostly out of curiosity, whereas India seems more out of judgment/disgust (not imagined, after days of having people look you up and down and then either roll their eyes or look away in disgust tends to wear on you, not to mention the looks the men were giving Karen...). New Delhi did surprise me in that it is much cleaner and greener than I had imagined or been told; there are parks everywhere and I believe they switched all the tuk-tuks from diesel to propane(?) a few years ago, and is now nothing like it used to be pollution-wise apparently...



Enjoy the pics...

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Photos

Nuts!
Stall in Old Delhi Spice Market

Royal Enfield!
Love these bikes...

Minaret...
at Qutb Minar

Samosas!
Man these were good...

M-Market
Jerlin and Karen at the entrance to M-Market

Posing at Red Fort
Karen and Sean

Creepy Amusement Park
...closed for reno's I think, creeped me out for some reason...

Into the fray...
Karen and Sean at the entrance to Chandni Chowk

On the bus...
...along Chandni Chowk...

Old Delhi III
Near the Spice Market