Days 1 – 2: Delhi, chaos and culture

It’s 5.30 in the morning, but Delhi is still awake – as are we. The beeping of horns is not the noisiest we’ve heard, the roads are not as full as we’ve seen them. We’ve made it on to a train out of Delhi, heading to our next stop: Agra - home of the Taj Mahal.

One for all our trainspotter friends.

It’s a little odd to think that we’ve finished with Delhi after only 2 nights – and only 1 real day. Looking round Delhi we were struck by just how much life there is – 24 million people (or so), crammed in together. According to Jim and Kerry (two of our companions on our tour), that’s about the number of people that Australia has IN TOTAL.
In a city like this it seems people have learnt to muscle in. The road network is full to bursting, with scooters happily cutting up lorries and vice versa – but it only rarely stops moving. Somehow, in the thronged streets we walked down on our morning walking tour of old Delhi, scooters threaded their way down streets utterly packed with people, with rickshaws and tuk tuks doing much the same – and we didn’t see anyone hurt. It’s something quite astounding to behold.

A cultural morning

After finding our hotel and settling in – a journey that involved us braving Delhi’s metro network (a lot more civilised than its roads it turns out) and walking its streets with just two hours sleep – we met the rest of our tour group in the evening. We’ve got a good mix of ages and walks of life. The group will come to feature more in this blog as we go along, but suffice to say for now that they’re a lovely bunch and we had a superb first evening meal together, getting to know each other and getting our first taste of real Indian food. We also met our guide, Harshvardhan, a young man engaged like us (but unlike us, with a history of rally driving before he took a job as a tour guide. Apparently, he switched jobs in order to ‘settle down’ before getting married).

Delhi's efficient metro - built above the chaotic roads below

 The next morning saw us off on the aforementioned walking tour of Old Delhi. There were only four or so stops on the tour. First up was a Hindu temple, just outside the metro station, and a quick insight into Hindu religion; then the Jama Masjid, built from the stone left over from construction of the Red Fort at Agra. A curious stop was at the beautiful houses owned by the Jain community: a religious sect traditionally focused on commerce, but whose houses in the centre of Delhi currently stand derelict while they live in houses out in the country. Finally, we saw the Sis Ganj Gurudwara, where we got an insight into the generous traditions of Sikh people.


The Jama Masjid

Volunteers rolling chapatti in the Gurdwara kitchen

One of the most interesting aspects of the tour, however, was simply getting between each stop. We set out early, and walked through markets just waking up, shutters rolled down and only a few people sat at the side of the street selling spices or making wreaths of flowers for religious offerings. After the first few stops, however, the city was coming to life, and the walk through the market became increasingly an experience in its own right. The people, the smells, the sights – from the shops selling wedding gear to the rat’s nest of electrical wiring adorning each junction – were all fascinating.

We'd be concerned if our electricity was in the hands of a monkey...

This picture made Jon feel much better about that time he accidentally broke a new dimmer switch fitting in the dining room.

No time to gaze in wonder, through – if you did that you’d be knocked down by a scooter or a rickshaw. So on we pressed through this bizarre, glorious sea of activity and humanity, and we have to say – it was fascinating.

We were expecting to see much more in the way of poverty from what we'd heard, but the (admittedly limited) view we got of Delhi was a little different. We saw the slums, from a distance, and there were beggars on the street (though H advised that they were often 'working' as a collective, rather than freelance beggars, as it were). Perhaps we'll see more of that side of India the further away from the city we get.  

Unfortunately, none of our pictures really capture Delhi at its most chaotic - probably because we were too busy trying not to get crushed to take a photo!

 

The afternoon will have to go into another blog post – as it was quite thought-provoking! In short, we decided not to go for another monument tour (we were wilting in the heat anyway) and instead learnt a whole lot about Indian cooking – and Indian culture. More on that next time!

It's probably fair to say we're reserving judgement on Delhi for now. It was great to experience - but how it will compare to the rest of the country, we don't know. Whether the rushed, chaotic life being lived among the beauty and squalor in equal measure is something we'll find in other places, or whether it's something that is unique to Delhi, remains to be seen.

J&g

Seen here in robes provided at the Jama Masjid to cover our bare legs and arms. Much nicer than the plain white cloth Georgia had to wear in a Catholic church in Italy!

 

LINKS TO REVIEWS

1. Hotel good times (Hotel in Delhi)
2. Jama Masjid (Mosque in Delhi)
3. Gurudwara Sis Ganj Sahib (Gurudwara in Delhi)
4. Urban Adventures - Home Cooked Delhi tour (you can also read our blog post on the subject here
5. Crossroads Bar and Restaurant (the restaurant we ate at in Delhi on the first night of our tour)