Delhi

Travellers hate Delhi. Over and over again, backpackers told us how they didn’t enjoy the city and spent as little time there as possible. But we really enjoyed our two days in Delhi, due a great deal to excellent hospitality from our CouchSurfing hosts: Sujai and his mum Kumla. Unlike most travellers, we had Delhi as our last (rather than first) stop in India. We think some of the negative impressions of Delhi are just people getting used to the country!

Sujai spent a day showing us around New Delhi, which was developed by the British during their colonial rule. Sujai described this as his gentle introduction to Delhi! Sure enough, it was one of the most pleasant urban environments we found in India. For one, there were actually footpaths! We walked through a wealthy neighbourhood. A strange sign of this wealth are the watchtowers and armed guards present in many of the house compounds (apparently they are as much a status symbol as they are for security). There were some lovely parks in New Delhi, which are a rare sight in India. We realised how much we’ve been missing nice green spaces.

The next morning, in Old Delhi, we saw some of the poverty that the city has sadly become known for. We took some back streets to a mosque and ended up walking past a small slum. Houses were made out of scraps of scavenged materials, including fabric, wood and corrugated iron. People were washing themselves using buckets on the street and were huddling around piles of burning rubbish to keep warm. Nearby was a street-side TB clinic - just a table where a couple of health workers were giving injections to homeless people. Delhi is actually quite cold at this time of year, and this, as well as the poor/non-existent housing, contributes to making TB a big problem. There were signs up all around this city advertising a new treatment regime for drug-resistant TB.

We enjoyed wandering around the narrow alleys of old Delhi, full of life and activity. You could buy a huge range of goods at the stores lining the streets, but you’d have to know where to look. Different streets had strong specialities, so we often ended up amongst a bunch of, say, padlock stores or university bookstores.

Later in the day we visited a few different temples in Delhi. First up was a Sikh temple. Sikhs believe that you can’t think about God on an empty stomach so they provide free food at the temple. We went through an interesting ritual we didn’t quite understand which culminated with a spoon of sugary slop being dumped into our hand. It did taste quite nice though, and we later were served a plate of samosa also.

The next temple, the ISKCON Hare Krishna temple, was definitely the most bizzare. With garish evil-lair architecture, a robot show and huge billboards, we felt like we were stuck in a strange religious theme park which we decided to call Hare Krishnaland. We were very disappointed to find that the robot show wasn’t operating.

Sal wasn’t prepared when someone greeted her by saying “Hare Krishna” so she just responded with an awkward “Hi”. That said, the Hare Krishna mantra is pretty catchy…

Sally considers converting

With the mantra firmly stuck in our heads, we thought we had better move on. We visited the Ba’hai Lotus temple - a huge marble building located in the middle of a lovely garden.

Another day we saw a beautiful South Indian style Hindu temple. The temple was surrounded by burning oil lamps.

All over India, but particularly in Delhi, there is a huge security presence. There are armed police/military, sandbag bunkers in metro stations and metal detectors at markets, train stations and even parks. Sujai joked that Indians love rituals, and the security certainly seemed like more of a ritual than an effective process. One checkpoint even had an open door right next to it, with dozens of people bypassing security entirely.

Delhi was our last chance to try as much Indian food as we could. We ate amazingly well, both at Sujai and Kumla’s home and on the street.

We offered to cook for Sujai and Kumla one night, and after having been so well looked after we were feeling the pressure to cook something nice. Craig’s old standby (spicy vege burgers) seemed to be well received.

As we left India, we thought back on our three weeks in the country. Nowhere else have our feelings about a place been so mixed. At times we were sick of the rubbish, noise, touts, illness and traffic. But other times we were blown away by all the unbelievable, funny, friendly and delicious moments India had to offer. We learnt to be patient with the lows, knowing that (without fail) a fun experience wouldn’t be far away. Driving to the airport, we actually felt a bit sad to be leaving.

Night markets under gas lanterns

But we have a varied and exciting time planned for the next few weeks in Thailand. We will check out Bangkok, visit national parks in Kanchanaburi and chill out at the beach in Hua Hin before our volunteering placement begins. Learning about a new culture starts all over again!

Comments from WordPress

• Tam 2013-01-18T22:23:11Z

  Wow! What an awesome host!

Written by Craig Drayton and Sally Robertson