A few days ago, we flew from New Zealand to
Sydney then on to New Delhi. We were headed to India for 2 months of sightseeing, and we couldn't wait. The plan was to start in Delhi then travel around India by various means. We were aiming to see as much as we could, including some hard-to-reach UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
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| Our route through India |
We landed into a smoggy Delhi and a busy
airport, which involved a slow trip through immigration, and a minor panic when
we couldn’t locate Leigh’s case. It was eventually found, then we headed out to be met by
our driver.
For the first part of this trip, we have purchased an organised tour. We normally wouldn't do this, preferring to find our way around ourselves. But Marg found a short tour online for a really good price, and we thought it might be a gentle introduction to India. So here we are.
The tour will take the first 9 days of our time in India and focus on the "golden triangle" around Delhi. After
that, we'll do the remainder of our 2 months by ourselves. The map above shows the whole route.
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| A street in Karol Bargh, Delhi |
First though, we were to see Delhi. After
picking us up from the airport, our driver took us to our hotel in Karol Bargh,
right in the middle of the biggest market area of Delhi.
Our flight from Sydney to Delhi had been very full, with an awful lot of young children who all seemed to perform at different times. In fact they helped us stay awake to watch four movies! So we really were looking forward to a decent night's sleep in Delhi.
We did sleep well on that first night,
notwithstanding the very hard bed. The next morning, with a day to ourselves,
we ventured out to investigate the local area.
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| Busy street outside our hotel in Karol Bargh, Delhi |
Our hotel is in a narrow, crowded road with a
constant flow of people, cars, motorbikes and rickshaws (both pedal and
motorised as tuktuks), all trying to go both ways with much tooting of horns.
This tooting is a sound we will have to become used to as it is constant and
apparently, pretty much a cultural thing here. Tooting means ‘get out of my way
as I’m coming through whether you are ready or not’.
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| A street in Karol Bargh, Delhi |
Lots of little shops and food places line our
narrow road, leading into wider streets lined with market stalls, bigger shops
and many more people.
While there are some footpaths, everybody walks on the roadside. It seems preferable to take your chances with the manic traffic and cow dung, rather than trying navigate the broken footpaths with their open drains, market stalls that absorb footpath space, persistent touts, and piles of rubbish.
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| A typically small street in Chandni Chowk, Delhi |
The next day, we met with Abyss Tours who arranged our first 9 days in India. After that, our organised sightseeing began, starting with a rickshaw ride through Chandni Chowk.
Dating back to the 17th century, Chandni Chowk is one of the oldest and busiest markets in Old Delhi. It is a maze of very narrow and potholed lanes that reminded us of the bazaars of Morocco.
There are many, many shops, and it is particularly known for its silver jewellery, traditional perfumes, wholesale spices, cameras, fabrics and its wedding shops - so interesting.
After our visit to the mosque, we stopped to see Humayan’s Tomb, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
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| Marg in her yellow robe at Jama Masjid mosque, Delhi |
Leaving there, we visited Masjid-i-Jahan-Nama, commonly known as Jama Masjid. It is one of the largest mosques in India. We had to don a yellow robe before entering, and as we wandered around, we were agape at the beautiful architecture.
Built by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan between 1644 and 1656, this huge mosque is surrounded by large walls with three massive gates, and has two 40-metre-high minarets built out of red sandstone and white marble. The massive courtyard can accommodate more than 25,000 people.
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| Humayan's Tomb (UNESCO), Delhi |
This beautiful building was apparently a precursor to the Taj Mahal. Humayan was a Mughal Emperor and the tomb was built by his first wife, Begum Bega, between 1565 and 1572 – quite a feat for a woman in those times. It now holds the remains of over 150 Mughal family members.
We really liked the serenity of this place.
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| The front of the Red Fort (UNESCO), Delhi (note the smoggy Delhi atmosphere) |
Next we went to the Red Fort, which is under the control of the Indian army. It's also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
To get to the Fort, our rickshaw driver had to swerve across four lanes of traffic. Not for the faint hearted, especially when sitting in the back of a flimsy bicycle rickshaw and the traffic is travelling thick and fast around you!
We made it safely across the road to the fort, only to find that we could not enter. The whole area was off-limits because of a VIP presence in the area.
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| The stunning minaret and the intricately carved Quwwat ul-Islam Mosque at Qutub Minar (UNESCO), Delhi |
Getting safely back over to the other side of the road again, we drove on to Qutub Minar, another UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Qutub Minar site includes a huge minaret that is 72.5 meters tall, making it the tallest minaret in the world built of bricks. It was constructed in 1193 and has 5 distinct stories. The first three are beautiful red
sandstone, and the fourth and fifth are marble and sandstone.
We also liked the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque. Although now a ruin, we thought the carvings on the stone columns were stunning.
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| Bahai Lotus Temple, Delhi |
During this full-on day, we also visited the Lotus Temple which is a Bahai house of worship. It is a huge lotus flower-shaped building surrounded by beautiful gardens, and a very peaceful place.
Moving on, we visited the India Gate which is an Arc De Triomphe-like archway erected as a war memorial. It is close to the home of the President. However, we were not permitted to drive past the President’s house due to a VIP visit, and it was too smoggy to take a photo from a distance.
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| Tomb of Mahatma Gandhi, Delhi |
Our final stop for the day, was to visit the tomb of Mahatma Gandhi, who is known as ‘the Father of the Nation'. It was a sobering visit as we learned more about this amazing man.
At the end of the day, we said goodbye to our knowledgeable rickshaw driver, and had a wonderful traditional vegetarian meal, then an early night.
The next morning, we took a walk around various parts of Delhi. During our walk, we were accosted by two men at different times, who tried to tell us we weren’t safe walking around the area. They also said that they could help us get to a market that sold genuine handicrafts - there's always a sale in there somewhere!
The first man also said we should dress more like Indian women to be safer! Somehow, I don't think that would work for us!
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| Colourful saris |
Indian men on the whole, dress in European clothes, while many of the women (the married ones) mostly wear saris, providing an oasis of colour whenever you spot them.
Actually, we’ve noticed very few women around. All the restaurants we’ve been to, shop staff, cleaning staff, all workers, including in our hotel, are all male!
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| Swaminarayan Akshardham temple in the smog |
Later we were driven to see the Swaminarayan Akshardham Temple. This is an amazing modern Hindu complex, dedicated to devotion, learning and harmony. No cameras were allowed inside so we only have photos of the outside at a smoggy distance.
Leaving there, we spotted a beautiful red stone
gate which turned out to be Sher Shah’s Gate. He was one of the early rulers, and this gate was in front of his ruin fortress, Purana Qila.
After lunch, we stopped at the Lodi Gardens
for a walk. Being driven everywhere does not help the waistline, as we've had no time to walk. So we were looking forward to wandering the Lodi.
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| Shish Gumbad monument, Lodi Gardens, Delhi |
The gardens seemed well used by the locals, but it was still peaceful, with some lovely monuments. We particularly liked the Tomb of Sikandar Lodi in its beautiful garden, and the colour and architecture of the Shish Gumbad tomb.
So far, our first impressions of Delhi are
that it is a massive, sprawling, dirty, chaotic city filled with colour, noise,
smells, smog, roaming animals, beautiful monuments, vibrancy, and very many people – 18.6 million of them!
At the end of four days here, we were glad to
retreat to our hotel to pack, ready to move on to Jaipur the next morning.
The above is the first blog about our 2-month tour of India.