HoHo Bus Delhi Sightseeing tour

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Geo: 28.6137, 77.1834

Once again, we awake and plan to meet for breakfast early. We have to get to the Hoho bus station for Delhi City Sightseeing Tour. We were organised with a Ola cab (like Uber) and although it's only 6km away, with all the traffic, the bumps, the people, it all takes longer. The beeping of all the horns are now becoming drained into our heads, it's just a noise that happens all the time. Along the way, we see thousands and thousand of people commuting to work, to school, delivering fresh produce, furniture, steel lengths (6-8metres long), all in tuc tucs or motorbikes, cow and wagon, cars, overloaded buses, cows waddling along the side of the roads, dogs, some sleeping, some looking for food, it's so eye boggling to see the variety of transportation. We arrived at the bus station, we were early luckily, we organised our tickets and waited for the bus. Whilst waiting outside, we were approached to have our photos taken with a group of Indian men who were also taking the HoHo bus. We felt special, like all the paparazzi, about 10 men joining us for photos while 10 of them take the photos!! These men were catching the next bus, another 40 minutes. It was so much fun!
We waited on the bus, another 3 Indian people joined us, a man with his mother and father. The younger man, (we found out was Krunal,) asked to have my photo taken with his mother, again paparazzi!!! We started talking to Krunal, asking about india and where his parents came from, (about 1400kms away,) and we were asking what we should go and see as there is too many sights to see in one day. Even before our tour started, we all decided that we will stick with Krunal, as he was here sightseeing with his parents too and he was happy for the 4 of us to tag along. The bus tour started, a lovely young girl as the guide who explained all of the locations we could visit today. Our first stop was to Garudwara Bangla Sahib, a serene place of worship of the Sikhs a religion that was born in the 15th century. So much marble, the whole temple, the terraces and the whole building, then also so much gold, the domes outside, pillars, gates and then inside, it was everywhere. You had to cover your hair and take off your shoes for respect.
Back on the bus Number 2, we then stopped at India Gate, built in 1931, in memory of 82,000 Indian soldiers who died fighting for the allies in World War 1 and for the British in the Third Anglo-Afghan War. Guarded by soldiers holding big guns, it was very much like the Arc de Triomphe an Champs Elysees in Paris, as there was a very long road leading to India Gate. We wandered around here and after we all had ice creams! Krunal and his parents very appreciative of us buying them ice creams, the least we could do for them showing us around.
Back to the bus stop, we met a blonde lady who was waiting for the bus too, she was from the UK, and was sightseeing by herself, so we asked her to join our group and have some fun with us!! Her name was Amanda, and was visiting Delhi for 10 days, on her way to Australia to see her daughter. She had just visited the National Art Gallery, (we find them boring!), and now she's tagging with us. She wasn't game enough to go shopping in market areas by herself so wanted some help, and we were willing!! Next stop, to the Dilli Haat market, where also stopped to have some lunch. We had fresh cooked samosas, they were huge and it was about $1 AUD for 2!! Cheap!! We also collected another 3 tourists, who were from Orlando USA, so they also had some lunch with us too. We were having fun!! Hanh, was now off bargaining again, for pashmina Scarfes for her friends. We didn't stay here too long, the afternoon was slipping away and we had someone coming to deliver our dress by 7pm. Back on the bus again, we got the same young lady we first started, she was not interested in using the microphone for the rest of the bus, she came down the back of the bus where we were, and gave us more personal information on what we could see in the last 3 bus pick ups! She shared selfies with us, before we left the bus to visit Qutub Minar, a structure which stands 72.5m, built in the early 13th century, and it's Delhi's most famous mascot, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was extremely busy here, Krunal jumped the line to get us tickets, but it would have taken so long to queue for tickets, then the tower, so we decided to miss this one, but to catch 2 tuc tucs to the next spot, Humayun's Tomb. Little did we know that the limit of people is 3 per tuc tuc, we had 4 in each, or how long we have to travel to the next spot. Down the bumpy road we go, next thing, our tuc tuc has been pulled over by the police for having 4 people, the driver stepped out, and tried bargaining, one officer thought he was the boss, pushing the driver back, spitting constantly on the ground (yuk) and in the meantime pulled over so many vehicles for various reasons. Our driver was fined 300 IDR. Clint's tuc tuc passed with now problem! We continued after he paid the fine, we went for miles, poor Amanda now knowing she took the wrong choice to come with us!!! When we arrived, we all basically fell out as we were cramped for so long, and made our way to the queue. Luckily there is a tourist line, much shorter and we headed in. This place was built in memory or the second Mughal emperor, Humayun, also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This is the precursor to the Taj Mahal. Time was ticking, we HAD to make it to the last bus for the day, it was an hour back to the bus depot. So many interesting things we saw, can never explain how much slum we saw, the animals, children, older people, so many sad faces, but almost it all, many were able to smile. They looked at us strange as we were white, a quick wave made them smile!
We returned to the bus depot, said goodbyes go Amanda who I'm sure was relieved she was leaving us crazy Aussies, then Krunal arranged 2 tuc tucs for us to get to our hotel, we said goodbye to Krunal and his Mum and Dad (again I'm sure they're relieved we are going!!) but once we got moving, our driver stopped to get better directions, then renegotiated the price, said it was further away and wanted more money, we just wanted to get to the hotel, so just paid it.
We all arrived safely, the dresses had been delivered , we tried them on and all was good. We went to the local street for dinner, so many choices, we chose a little restaurant, and tried to order with not know what we were ordering, no pictures!! Anyway, food was really nice. We bought some jalebis on the way back, we had to try them ( from the movie we saw called Lion!) and they were freshly made, a very sweet treat, cooked in oil, then in a sugary hot syrup.
Back to the hotel for rest, too much excitement for one day!!

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Comments

[Josie]

Looks absolutely fantastic enjoy.

[michbarn68]

Wow I'm exhausted reading about your day sounds like a real adventure and yes you definitely find about the lives of other cultures that make you appreciate home. Looking forward to the next travel tale.