Delhi is the capital of India with a population approximately 14 million people. We arrived in Delhi at 5:00 am Feb 5th. In the customs line we had our first experience of how things work in India. There is no line within the queue; people just fill the entire width of the queue as a mob of bodies. We find our contact and make our way outside into cooler, smoky air which we welcome. We are transferred to the hotel; the traffic is fairly light. Little do we know at this time, but we will never see light traffic in Delhi again. We arrive at the LaLIT Hotel in New Delhi and wait for a few hours before we can get into our room. We are feeling very jet-lagged. We have a short snooze, a shower and then decide to go for a walk towards the city centre. We don’t last long, we are feeling tired and are unable to cope with the persistence of the people on the street trying to sell us something. We head back to the hotel and sit on lounge chairs at the pool. Although it is not very warm we read and drift in out of sleep for the rest of the afternoon.
The next morning we arise more refreshed and meet up with the people in our group who have all found their way to Delhi via various routes. After breakfast we head out to explore the city on a big tour bus. It feels excessive but we have a good view of everything going on around us. The traffic is much heavier this morning. The first stop on our tour today is Old Delhi. Old Delhi is a conglomerate of seven ancient cities. The city is populated by a predominantly Muslim community. We go by bus to the edge of Old Delhi, but here we have to switch to cycle rickshaws in order to travel the crowded and narrow streets of the old city and the Meena Bazar.
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| Heading into the Meena Bazar with the Jama Masjid in the distance |
Riding in a rickshaw is crazy but fun! Horns honking, people are walking, riding pedal bikes and motorcycles, green and yellow auto rickshaws, cars & buses; people transporting all sorts of goods in unimaginable ways; stalls selling myriads of wares. A massive bombardment of the senses.
Our first stop is at the Jama Masjid. This is the principal mosque of Old Delhi and the largest mosque in India. It was commissioned by the Moghul Emperor Shah Jahan and completed in the year 1656 AD. The mosque is built on high ground, enhancing its dominance over the area. Its name means “the mosque commanding a view of the world”. We climb up the stairs from the street to the entrance where we leave our shoes and the western women don the required cover-ups. Inside the walled red sandstone and white marble structure is a large open air courtyard that can hold up to 25,000 worshippers.
From here we continue via rickshaw on into the maze of narrower side streets in the area. Above the narrow streets between the buildings is a tangle of electrical wires that defies logic. Monkeys run along the overhead wires – an easy canopy for them to make their way above the chaos below.
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| Monkey scaling wires above the street |
Our rickshaw driver is very friendly and amusing. He goes very quickly and nimbly amongst all the obstacles. Better than a ride on the midway by far!
Everywhere you look there are pictures. The people on the streets are intriguing.
We cross a main thoroughfare to return to the buses. This is an interesting event weaving our way across, dodging traffic going every which way. There are lights at this intersection but you wouldn’t know it. As we leave Old Delhi we see the walls of the Red Fort which was the palace for Moghul Emperor Shah Jahan that was built in the mid 1600’s.
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| Our rickshaw driver |
We cross a main thoroughfare to return to the buses. This is an interesting event weaving our way across, dodging traffic going every which way. There are lights at this intersection but you wouldn’t know it. As we leave Old Delhi we see the walls of the Red Fort which was the palace for Moghul Emperor Shah Jahan that was built in the mid 1600’s.
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The walls of the Red Fort   |
After lunch we toured around New Delhi by bus. New Dehli, in contrast to Old Delhi, has wide streets and trees. Construction of the city of New Delhi began in 1911 when the British rulers decided to move their capital from Calcutta and build a new city next to Old Delhi. We see two sites in the afternoon. First is the India Gate, a monument to 90,000 Indian soldiers who died in Europe in World War 1. We then visit Humayun’s Tomb, built for the second ruler of the Moghul dynasty in the 16th century. It is built predominantly from red sandstone and set in the middle of a very large garden. It was the first garden-tomb on the Indian subcontinent. The tomb was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993.
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| Humayun's Tomb |
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| Construction near Humayan's Tomb |
We return to the hotel in the late afternoon for a brief siesta before going out to a “Welcome Dinner” hosted by Gorev and Suhasini Jain from Incentive Destinations. The dinner is in a private room at the Manor House “Indian Accent” Restaurant. We are treated to the chef’s tasting menu which is a creation of Indian contemporary food. Although the food is in ‘tasting size’ portions there is a lot of it. New dishes keep coming one after the other. A wonderful meal. http://www.indianaccentrestaurant.com
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