The second day in Delhi we started by a visit to Qutub Complex, one of the UNESCO Heritage Sites. As mentioned in the previous post, once we discovered the metro system, which is very comfortable and simple to use, we decided to stick with it. The stations we saw are all new, impressively big and well decorated. They are in a way similar to the ones in Moscow ((the newer ones that is) and not without a reason - we saw that most of them were built at least partially by the Russian company Metrostroy.
Once at Qutub Station, it took us a while to find a rickshaw to the complex, as they were all charging ridiculous prices and didn't want to bargain. We didn't feel like walking along the road for almost 2 km, so we gave up and paid the price asked.
The complex itself was very beautiful but crowded, especially with school kids. They all wanted to take a picture with me and were posing non-stop.
We liked the fact that all the school kids were dressed in uniforms. Considering the huge wealth difference and the existence of the castes system, the use of uniforms seems like a great idea to illuminate the differences.
The metro carriages are separate for men and women, but there are some that can be used by everyone. Also at the entrances to the metro there are separate security checks for women and men.
After the Qutub Complex, we made a stop at Humayun's Tomb. A much relaxer place, where you can also just walk around or have a picnic in the park. The main tomb is build in a way that is similar to Taj Mahal, but I guess all the tombs from that period are a bit alike.
One more place that we wanted to visit that day was Aksharhdam Temple, but apparently on Sundays it gets so busy, that it takes a while to get in. We didn't mind at first, but after hearing that we will have to leave all our belongings, including computer, phones, wallets, everything at some cloakroom, we said - no thank you - and left.
The picks would have been awesome though...
Since all the sights were quite far away from each other, they took us all day to visit. We decided to leave the places we didn't see for the day when we come back to Delhi on December 30. So, it was time to return to the hotel, eat and head out to the station, to catch the evening train to Jaipur. We were warned several times that it is best to get their at least an hour in advance, because it takes a while to find the right platform and train. So we did; we found everything in 5 minutes and had to hang out at the station for the remaining hour. Luckily, Delhi was a starting point for our train and we could board it 45 min before departure.
First impressions of the Indian Railways - the trains are great and very clean, at least as far as the first class goes. We will know more about the second and third class later, as I couldn't buy all the tickets in first, not the confirmed ones. So far, they are much better than the ones in Vietnam and cockroaches free! The peculiar thing was, when we started to move the conductor for our carriage closed the in-between doors on both sides of our carriage. When asked, he explained that it is a security measure... Probably so that the people from general carriages wouldn't get in and steal something.
We got a nice meal for free and didn't get sick, so the first train experience was a definite success.
Sleeping was pointless, as our train ride was suppose to be only 5 hours, so we decided to use it well and start putting together the pics for the blog.
Conclusion: overall we liked Delhi and saw most of the things we wanted to see (perhaps one more day would have been enough to complete the sightseeing, but even this way, we really didn't have the feeling that we missed out on something). The city has a lot off contrasts to offer and that makes it interesting to visit. Also, it turned out to be quite nice in a general sense and not at all horrible and smelly as we heard. Although, may be the smells were not so bad because it wasn't very hot anymore.
In terms of staying safe - we were feeling perfectly comfortable everywhere and stress free. We didn't feel threatened in any way and also the level of hustle was minimum, surprisingly enough, as we heard different about that as well.
The biggest inconvenience we had in Delhi was finding places to eat. We didn't want to risk getting sick in the first couple of days, so we were quite picky. There were no decent places to eat near our hotel and the ones recommended on TripAdvisor were scattered all over town. We ended up either eating somewhere at the Connaught Place or taking out Chinese.
Next stop - Jaipur: up-close and personal with Elephants!
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