Delhi: what to see and what to do

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.

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. 

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.

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!



Delhi: first impressions

After hearing and reading so many different things about India, we were looking forward to get our own first hand experience.  Direct flight Amsterdam - Delhi: and we were there 7.5 hours later, arriving to Delhi at 1am at night.

Arrival Hall at Delhi Airport

The person from the hotel who was suppose to pick us up was waiting and we were good to go. The Indian hustle started immediately after we left the arrival hall. When paying for the parking the driver suggested nicely that we have to do that instead, to which we said that we had no money what so ever and that it is his problem to solve. He didn't insist, but after we arrived to the hotel, the whole parking issue was presented to the owner. After suggesting to settle the parking thing at check out, we could finally get to our room. BTW, by the time we had to check out, the owner "forgot" about the parking al together.

The morning started with another attempt of the owner to sell us a tour and some tickets, we said thank you and that we already have everything, making him very sad. Oh well...
We decided to start with the Old Delhi, get our portion of shock and then move on to a nicer part.
Walking seemed quite far, so we decided to take the metro (owners suggestion by the way, the only one that actually turned out to be useful).

On the way to the metro

We decided to start with Red Fort and then walk through Chandni Chowk to the spice market and then to Jama Masjid.
From the outside the fort really creates an impression of the fortified structure,

but once inside, it feels more like a small city surrounded by a wall, which is kind of disappointing.

In India, they use bamboo sticks to instead of metal ones for the construction purposes. Looks very unstable and unsafe. 

There are tons of squirrels running around and they are not afraid of people. Even when you get very close to them, they just keep doing whatever they were doing before.

Fort is apparently a popular place for picnics with the whole family. No wonder, their entry tickets are 15 times cheaper than ours :-)

When we got out of the Fort, instead of just walking to Chandni Chowk, we decided to follow a tourist group, hoping to see some hidden gem, but ended up at the bus stop instead. The plus side was that we got a really nice pick of the Fort on the way back.

The Chandni Chowk walk is definitely an experience in itself. Everything is happening at once, rickshaws, sellers, smells - luckily having previous similar experience in Vietnam we were feeling quite at home in the middle of this busy everyday hustle.

And crossing the streets were not at all a problem, despite what people say.

Here, you can find all kind of street food, some familiar, some we had no idea what it was. But since it was our first day in India, we decided to act save and to avoid the street food for the timing being.

In India this is a very relevant sign!!

  At the other end of the Chowk we finally got to the spice market.

Initially the plan was to walk to Jama Masjid, but we decided to take the rickshaw instead as trying to get through crowds of people and vehicles was getting more and more difficult.

We arrived to Jama just in time for the afternoon prayer to be over and after paying 300 Rs for the "free entry" (camera charges for each and every camera including that on the phone; the fact that we were not using it was irrelevant) and leaving our shoes for safekeeping to a very suspicious guy, we could go in.

When we got back, the shoes were still there which was a relieve :-)

With the visit to Jama Masjid we were done with the Old Delhi part and decided to move on the New. Since we still had an afternoon, we wanted to cover the Connaught Place, the Jantar Mantar and then to walk from the President's Palace to India Gate.

The Connaught Place was just as busy as the Chowk, but much cleaner, uptight, and with lot's of new friends that were trying to get us into the fake tourist office or sell us some gem stones. We were stopped by 4 of them just in 20 min time trying to cross from one corner of the Connaught Place to the other. Some even spoke Russian... The length that they go is amazing :-) Unfortunately for them, we were not the kind of Russians that they usually come across here. Every time when they started to realize that they just loose time with us, the expressions on their faces were priceless.

Jantar Mantar didn't turn out to be spectacular, but the Indian apparently find it fascinating. They were making photos of practically every wall.

The President's Palace wasn't very impressive either, and for some reason it was not allowed to get closer to it . 

But the fountains and the park around it were quite nice and full of people. 

On the other end of the avenue we could see the India Gate and decided to walk to it, big mistake as it turned out... It was actually much further away than we thought.   

By the time we finally got to the Gate we were so tired and hungry, that we decided to eat something and call it a night. As it was our first day went for the safest option to get Chinese (in India!). :-) 

It took us a while to decide on the place, until I eventually found one on Triposo. It turned out to be quite far from the hotel we were staying at and Dima almost froze inside the auto rickshaw's on the way there, being stupidly without a jacket.

Conclusion: we loooooved our first day in India! We both pictured  all kinds of horrible things and were happy to learn that people tend to exaggerate a lot :-) Delhi's old city was interesting, chaotic and not at all smelly. New Delhi was a huge contrast to the Old one, but still almost just as interesting. It's of course more civilized and polished, but still in a very Indian kind of way.

Next: Delhi: what to see and what to do