Delhi Day 1 - Start of Tour

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After all the hours of travel, and general lack of sleep, we only slept a few hours our first night in Delhi and we awake before 6am. We decided to go up to the terrace to take some sunrise photos and wait for our breakfast. The hotel’s terrace is quite extensive for such a small building, with a large mish-mash of decorations, many of them quite neat. By sunrise there were a large number of large black birds circling and sweeping down all around us. Some of the bigger ones had wingspans of 3 feet or more! Around 6:30 or so, we ordered our breakfast. We both got an Indian breakfast, mine large and Manoli’s small. The breakfast consisted of juice, coffee/chai, three types of bread (one with a delicious filling), a bowl of soup or stew, and mine had a small bowl of “pickles” which were soooo spicy! The food was pretty good and filling. Mine cost 150 Rupees ($2.25) and Manoli’s was 140.

At breakfast we met two more of our fellow travelers in the tour, one guy from Australia and a lady from Brisbane, Australia. Both were in their late 30s or 40s. We ended up inviting the lady, Julie, to go with us for our solo tour of Delhi before our tour group meeting tonight at 6pm. After checking our trusty map from the hotel, we set out and quickly discovered one of the most annoying aspects of Delhi, and probably all of the frequently visited parts of India. Every time we turned around, there was a tuk-tuk driver (tuks-tuks are the small 2-passenger, motorcycle type, taxis) asking us to get in for a great tour. Few were very persistent, but it happened sooo often! Add onto that the fact that we picked up a friendly local guy early into our trek and couldn’t shake him for miles! I tried to be nice, but cautiously refused to ask him any questions, just saying thank you when he offered information. That way I didn’t feel obligated to treat him as a guide or pay him anything. Soon after we finally shook this guy, another guy took his place, but seemed more or less just friendly, so we let him keep us company and actually direct us some places along the way. Our first actual sight was the gigantic temple Hanuman Temple. There are many temples in Delhi, but this one is quite unique, looking like a giant Indian dude standing there. I’m not sure how tall it was, but lets just say people looked like ants standing in front of it! We decided not to try to enter, and after a few photos, continued on down the streets towards the Gate of India, today’s destination.

By this time it was mid-morning, so we found a decent looking pastry shop and ordered something to drink. I had a coffee with milk (or it might have been chai tea), Manoli had a hot tea, and I also ordered a mango mousse. The coffee/tea was pretty good and the mousse was delicious! Altogether they cost something like 120 Rupees, or $2. We continued down the street and finally found the Gurdwara Bangla Sahib Sikh Temple. What a magnificent looking building, with people constantly entering, after covering their heads, removing their shoes, and wading through a small stream of water in the front. I decided not to enter, but Manoli and Julie both went for it, and were allowed to bring and use their cameras, which surprised me. I waited outside, watching their shoes, and all the comings and goings.

Leaving the temple, we finally found the famed Gate of India. It is pretty cool, standing in the middle of an open manicured lawn, along with another memorial the name of which I don’t recall. The memorial is in memory of all the Indian soldiers that died during wars since World War I. We took some photos, wandered around the grounds a bit, then started looking for someplace to eat lunch. After a long walk looking for the Khan Market where we figured we could find some food, we finally found it and the Market Cafe. It ended up probably not being the best choice, since it was a bit on the expensive side and had little in the way of true Indian food. I never did figure out if they were supposed to be a Mexican theme or a Mediterranean theme. Many dishes had a Mc prefix, I assume representing Market Café, but I couldn’t help thinking of McDonalds. My confusion on theme was that many or most of the dishes were Mexican sounding, such as tostado, nachos, and tacos, but they also had Italian pasta dishes and dishes with tzatziki. Go figure. I ordered a plate that had Indian sounding stuff that turned out to be one very crisp taco, a bowl of tzatziki sauce, and a bowl of what was called bryani, but was a bit on the spicy side. Manoli ordered nachos which were apparently pretty good. Like I said earlier, the food wasn’t bad, just confusing in theme and a bit on the expensive side. I think we paid about 11,000 Rupees, or $15 for both plates with drinks.

Having walked all morning to get to the Gate of India, we all opted to take a tuk-tuk ride back to the Hotel. We located a driver who had to ask another guy where the Hotel Perfect was located, then told us it would be 250 Rupees for all of us. That seemed quite cheap, so we went for it. The poor guy really earned his money, since besides the long distance involved, he had to stop like 10 times to ask others for directions to the hotel. After a harrowing ride, and I do mean harrowing, we finally reached the hotel. Since the poor guy had gone through so much to get us there, we gave him 500 Rupees instead. From first-hand experience I can tell you riding in a tuk-tuk is a wild adventure not to be missed. You can’t believe how many times we almost hit other vehicles and even pedestrians!

When we returned to the hotel, we took a brief break to rest and recover from the heat and dryness. Both Manoli and I had major cases of dry eye, but after a rest, we decided to check out the nearby Karol Bargh Market. It started just a few blocks from the hotel and went on for many blocks down one street, with more shops and vendors along streets on both sides. You could buy just about anything you can imagine. I’m not sure how good their prices were, and we only bought another better electrical adaptor at 500 Rupees, then headed back to the hotel to get ready for our tour meeting at 6pm.

At the meeting we met our guide, Bhagwat Singh, or Buhu. He is from India and speaks English well enough, but has a fairly thick accent. After introductions from the 9 members of our tour, we went out together for dinner. I can’t remember all the names yet, but we had the guy from Australia named Karin, the lady police officer from Australia named Julie who we spent the morning with, a young blonde from Germany, another young lady from Russia whose name I can’t recall, a young lady from Minnesota, another young lady from Australia, and a young lady from just outside of London. For dinner, we went to a restaurant/bar called Aroma Spice. They had a long table set up for us, and another G Adventures group, and were quite attentive. After ordering drinks, most of which were beers, except for my wife’s water and my hot chai tea, we all worked through their menu with the waiter and a head waiter. Manoli ordered a Russian salad and I ordered Shrimp Masala with rice. Manoli said her salad was pretty good, and my Shrimp dish was delicious, and not too spicy. With drinks, the order came to about 1,200 Rupees or $17.

After dinner, we all returned to the hotel and I started on this blog. Unfortunately, I got involved talking to Karin about Australian politics and didn’t finish until the next morning. I have looked at the days photos, but haven’t picked the ones to use, so I’m going to post the text part now while I have a chance, and will add photos later. By later, I mean tomorrow night (this is the 2^nd morning in Delhi now), after our overnight train trip to Varanasi, which should be a real experience. The group is going out shortly for a tour of Delhi and then back to the hotel to grab our bags and head to the train station. See you next in Varanasi on the famed Ghanges River.

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