Blogs from Delhi, National Capital Territory, India, Asia - page 4

Having been born and raised in the USA, let's just say my favorite foods consisted of Cheeseburgers, steak, meat, gravy with meat, salads with meat, more meat...and well...you get the point. So what's a California carnivore to do when you move to a country where it is FORBIDDEN to eat the oh so holiest of holy, sacred animal...the cow. Go vegetarian. Ok, so technically you can find chicken and even mutton (I don't recommend either) however I will say one thing: I've been eating vegetarian food in India and to tell you the truth I like it! Hinduism is a religion where people believe animals are sacred (and being an avid animal lover and professional horse trainer I can definitely relate with the logic.) Don't get me wrong, being all veg all the time is not ... read more

Nothing can prepare the traveller for Delhi, not Google, not Lonely Planet and not even other traveller's stories. We understood it would be noisy, chaotic and colourful but the degree to which these adjectives were appropriate was certainly understated. In just two days we visited sites from the north of Delhi to the south and thoughts of driving ourselves were very quickly dispelled after one minute on the road outside of our hotel. We were to find out later that the first rule of the Delhi Highway Code is that drivers must consider themselves immortal and that rule number twenty six is "Oh! and look out for pedestrians." We spent a couple of hours inside the National Museum to try and get an overview of Indian history and culture and even though our research beforehand gave ... read more

Pessimo momento per arrivare in India: il paese e' nel bel mezzo della messa fuori circolazione delle sue due banconote di taglio maggiore, che dovranno essere sostituite da quelle nuove da 500 e 2000 Rupie. E' questa la grande trovata del primo ministro Modi che ormai da un paio d'anni ha sostituito la nostra Sonia Gandhi nel cuore degli elettori indiani; peccato che si sia clamorosamente dimenticato di far stampare per tempo quantita' sufficienti di nuova valuta, che per il momento rimane severamente razionata, tanto da aver portato alla creazione di un suo mercato nero e, nei casi piu' estremi, al ritorno in auge del vecchio, caro sistema del baratto. Questa mossa del governo va sotto l'orecchiabile nome di "Notebandi" e sembra avere come scopo principale l'emersione del denaro accumulato illegalmente ed il passaggio a forme ... read more

Geo: 28.6137, 77.1834Monday night we decided to abandon the buffet as we had had enough and try the Mughal Restaurant at the hotel. We had drinks in the bar first with our fellow travellers and then about 8pm went into the elegantly decorated dining room. There was a traditional singer accompanied by a drummer and keyboard player for entertainment. The restaurant had three menus to choose from; an Indian, a Continental and a Chinese. We opted for the Continental though Fletcher did have an entree of Salt and Pepper prawns from the Chinese. I decided to have creme of chicken soup followed by a Tenderloin steak which Fletcher chose as well. There is so little meat in the buffet offerings. The fun came when ordering wine.From the wine list Fletcher chose a Pouilly-Fume from France. The ... read more

Geo: 28.6137, 77.1834The plane journey took 8 1/2 hours. It was smelly and hot but we were consolled by the MASSIVE array of films available to watch (Bollywood marathon anyone!?). For the on plane cuisine we ordered one meat and one vegetarian just because we're nosey and greedy. Both consisted of a curry and rice (paneer and chicken) and we had two kinds of daal (sooz's daal tasted like a 3:3:2 ratio of feet, armpit and curry), a chickpea salad and stuffed paratha. The veg option had a bread roll and the meat had yoghurt. Dessert was a lemon and cardamom lumpy pudding (we're pretty sure it was meant to be lumpy!). We only managed to watch 'Finding Dory' before we were overcome with exhaustion from the weeks of preparation and organisation mania (and it may ... read more