A Dose of Delhi

Activity level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

Modes of transportation: 🚗👟🚲

We had a little time in the morning, so we went down for our hotel breakfast just to grab a few to-go items. Our driver was slightly late, so we were able to eat enough to survive until lunch.

Traffic was about as terrible as everyone says. There are a million cars, tuk tuks, bikes, tractors, pedestrians, and even cows on the roads. Lanes and directions of traffic don’t mean much either. The air quality was also terrible, at about 350 on the AQI scale (which is severe). But good news: that means the UV index was super low. The WHO says breathing is as bad as smoking 16.5 cigarettes a day in the bad season—but hey, that’s down from 42 pre-COVID.

It took us about an hour to get just to the center of Delhi, and we weren’t even far away. There, we met our guide, Rishi, who led us into the Jama Masjid, the old mosque in the center of Old Delhi, built in 1650. The structure was beautiful, using a mix between Islamic and Indian style, called indo-Islamic architecture.

Sarah was captivated by the ornate engraved floral patterns, called arabesque.

On the way out, Sarah asked or guide about the towers and what they were for. They were built for the royal women to see what was going on in the city. He said it’s actually still possible for a small fee (about 2.50 US).

Sarah was very excited to do it, so we went up the 200 steps of the spiral staircase to the top. Surprisingly, despite the main mosque being pretty crowded, there was absolutely nobody else going up. It was pretty awesome, despite the heights (and the very low rail at the top).

We stayed in the tower for about 15 minutes taking in the view of Delhi

We really liked our guide, who was extremely knowledgeable and gave us a lot of info. On the way out, he told us: “people will come up to try to sell you things, but they are fake and it’s a scam. I’ll try to sell you them because I have to see these people every day, but just say no.” And then exactly that happened, but we were all good just denying all advances.

Our guide also strongly discouraged us from giving money to beggars. Apparently the Indian government has many programs to help the locals, but some refuse and force their children into begging, rather than allowing them to get a free education. It’s a real problem as beggars can earn more than some of the hard-working day-laborers.

After that, we got into a rickshaw and took a ride through Old Delhi, through some small shop alleyways. We saw two guys fighting (and one of them was pretty bloody actually) over what seemed like some monetary dispute, but we didn’t get a photo.

The alleys were amazingly claustrophobic and vibrant, with thousands of people working, shopping, and transporting goods. We truly felt like we were far away from home.

From there, we were dropped off at the edge of the spice market to go walking.

It’s the largest spice market in Asia, and it’s massive. We spent some time on the ground level, but quickly made our way up to the second floor where it’s less crowded.

Our guide quizzed us on the different spices, and Eric is proud to have been able to name almost all of them (though we’ve been using green cardamom for food at home when it’s apparently only for tea…)! It was also amazing seeing the sheer quantity of spices. Apparently, this is where shops come from across India to buy wholesale. It smelled amazing (and spicy).

We left there, and headed back out to grab our rickshaws. Our guide bought us some milk chai because we hadn’t had it before (in India) and it was amazing! While we were drinking, a beggar, who had contorted his body into a seemingly impossible position, gave Sarah a jump scare by grabbing her ankle from behind. Fortunately we had a guide because he yelled at the guy, and he left us alone (they often don’t).

From there, we got back into the car to head to the cremation place of Mahatma Gandhi. Eric got frisked on the way in, and while waiting, Sarah became a celebrity with a small field trip of school boys. Apparently, it’s pretty common for people to want selfies with white tourists. We both ended up taking a few with the schoolchildren, which was kind of funny.

Our guide gave us much of the history of Gandhi, even the things they don’t teach in the history books (for which he had to shoo the schoolchildren away). He also taught us about the death rituals in Hinduism, which were fascinating.

He brought us to a touristy spot for dinner, which we were a little disappointed about (at first). But it was a very popular restaurant, and we have to say that the food was excellent. We weren’t going to order chicken tikka masala and butter chicken to avoid seeming like tourists, but then our guide told us that chicken tikka masala was his favorite, and very good at that restaurant.

Funny story: we asked him about vegetarianism and Hinduism, and he told us all about the karmic trade offs. He said he just loved chicken tikka masala too much to give it up (though, he did add that he knows in his next life he’ll be that chicken).

It was starting to get dark, so we drove around the embassies and president’s house before making a quick stop in front of the parliament and other important buildings to get photos (they only allow you to stop for about 2 minutes anyway).

Once we did that, our tour was basically over. We dropped off our guide at the metro and drove back to our hotel. We ate so much at lunch that we didn’t even bother with dinner, and we got to bed early. It was an exhausting day despite so little physical activity.