Love/hate relationship with Delhi

We landed from Goa into Delhi, and the airport at Goa already gave us an incline of what was to come… We’d heard that the south of India was more chill and a nice introduction, but we were heading to Delhi, one of the most populous cities in the world. Chaos levels were about to increase exponentially!

After landing we headed towards the airport express metro. I’d picked a hotel near one of the metro stations so we could get around easier. The airport express was very convenient, and after arriving at New Delhi station, it was only another 2 stops on the metro to the hotel.

We came out of the station (RK Ashram Marg) and were immediately hit with the smells and sounds of Delhi. There were cows in the streets, hundreds of flies, lots of beeping and traffic and a lot of people trying to get us into a rickshaw. We politely declined and headed to the hotel.

We stayed at hotel Neu Villa (£12/nt) in the Pahar Ganj region in Central Delhi. We were just off the main Bazaar Road, and the area was bustling and full of life if not dirty and smelly, but that’s Delhi! We loved it, but we did get hassled for rickshaws and money a lot by beggars in the street.

That night, we took a walk down the bazaar street to take everything in. It was WAY more chaos than Kochi or Gokarna/Goa! Street sellers lined the road, which also had lots of shop fronts. There were also plenty of street food vendors, and the road was very much with taxis, motorbikes, rickshaws and auto-rickshaws, which continually beep and bustle together, causing lots of mini traffic jams all down the street. We got used to the way of walking here, you have to be vigilant, as vehicles will pass you with literally millimeters to spare, and if they can undertake you, they will. There seem to be no rules of the road, it’s “get out of the way, or else”. And we saw plenty of “or else’s” over the days we were here, luckily nobody was ever seriously hurt.

We found a little peace amongst the chaos, Leo’s restaurant, just off bazaar street, and had the nicest Dahl Makhani I’ve had so far, as well as our first soy dish.

The next day we started by heading to a local favourite I’d read about online, Sita Ram Diwan Chand. They only do one dish; Chole Bhature, which is a spicy chickpea and spinach curry served with fluffy bread stuffed with paneer and Indian spices.

A quick word on paneer. We are usually vegan, but in India, being vegan is not very common, and although a lot of the population is vegetarian, the definition of pure vegetarian which most stick to, includes dairy (but not eggs). Since even if we avoided things like paneer, we’d still have a lot of dairy (ghee and butter is in pretty much every dish) we decided to stick to a vegetarian diet here instead. Although I am still always on the lookout for vegan restaurants and dishes wherever possible!!

It was really delicious and only 90 rupees per plate! (About 83p!!)

We then got the metro over to the Red Fort (Lal Qila), but unfortunately this whole week it is closed as they set up for independence day festivities which will be there. So we just looked from the outside.

The metro has amazing AC, but as soon as you step outside you are hit with a wave of heat. The heatwave across Northern India (including Delhi) was still in full force, and although it was only 35°C the “feels like” temperature was up to 46°C most days. So after about 10 minutes of looking at the Red Fort, we headed back to the station and onward to the next stop.

Back on the metro over to Sarfajung’s tomb. Entrance fee here was about £2.50 each, and it was really quiet and peaceful away from the noisy beepy roads.

Indian food has always been one of my favourites, and I was really keen to join a food tour of old Delhi and Chandni Chowk, but when I looked online most of them were £40 each, and also combined into a rickshaw tour… So I got to work and spent about 2 hours (whilst Dave napped) figuring out where all the food tour places go. Then that evening we took the metro to Chandni Chowk and did our own DIY food tour!

First stop was Natraj Dahi Bhalla, which has been around since 1940 and only serves 2 dishes, Dahi Bhalla and Aloo Tikki. You could tell it was good as there were loads of people eating there and stood around waiting to order or already eating. It looked like one of the most popular.

Then we crossed the road to Paranthe street, which is a narrow street with about 10 different Paranthe restaurants. These are basically deep fried stuffed parathas or breads served with curry.

We stopped at the oldest one, apparently established in 1875!!

Then we walked through the bazaar streets and up and down Chandni Chowk road. It was crazy and about every 20m a rickshaw pulled alongside us or blocked our way asking for our business. We saw a few road accidents too, which was crazy because cars are not allowed on this road, only motorbikes and rickshaws.

The next day we took the metro to Humayun’s tomb, which was absolutely stunning, but wow it was hot this day! We were both absolutely soaked in sweat by the time we were done.

Then that night we went back to Chandni Chowk to sample some other food places we didn’t make it to last time; Kake Di Hatti, which is famous for it’s giant naans cooked on a traditional tandoor.

To get here, also took us through the spice markets which was really cool.

The 3rd day, we woke up and the weather forecast was set to be EVEN hotter than the last 2 days. Considering we had practically melted being outside, we decided to spend the middle of the day in a mall, and got the metro to Saket City Walk mall. We had a nice ice cream and a bit of a shop and then on the way back in late afternoon early evening, when it had started to cool a bit, we jumped off the metro at central secretariat and walked through the gardens (Kartavya path) to the India Gate.

But we got A LOT of attention here, it was Sunday and obviously very popular with the locals, and I’m not exaggerating here, over 100 people wanted photos of us, mainly me, and ALL eyes were on us. I actually found it quite overwhelming in the end, especially as it was mostly big groups of men. I know that the Indian culture is quite different and taking photos of foreigners is showing curiosity and gratitude, but it was too much. At one point it felt like almost everyone around me was just staring at me. Lots of people asked to take photos, and we politely declined. Although I did make the mistake of saying yes to one family, which escalated quickly and suddenly everyone was on me… We had to start saying no as politely as we could. But that didn’t stop people taking photos sneakily, lots of different tactics, from pretending to be on the phone and walking close up to me, some selfies which just had me in the background, some people didn’t even try to hide it.

I’ve had people taking photos and staring at me every day in Delhi so far, but here, with this many people at once, it was too much and made me feel very uncomfortable. So we make a quick exit towards Mandi House metro and home.

The next day was raining in the morning, we thought this might cool things down a bit, but it just made everything humid. We thought escaping to Lodhi Park might help, but it was sweltering here under the trees! Still the tombs here were interesting.

Then in the evening we headed over to Jama Masjid, the largest mosque in India and just caught the sunset as we walked through the bazaar from the metro towards it. We went to a little rooftop cafe to get a better view and then walked over to Chandni Chowk one last time to get the Aloo Tikki we missed last time.

Overall, we definitely had a love hate relationship with Delhi, it was weird. We both loved the vibrance and how interesting it was. The narrow streets, full of life, the colourful shops and sarees, the spices, monkeys in the street, kites (the bird and the toy) in the sky. But the overcrowding, the busy streets, constant honking, the stares and unwanted attention, especially from men, and being almost constantly hassled by someone for money wherever we went were the darker side.

Also it was a shame that we could not really explore as much as we wanted, with the heat being overwhelming most of the time. So perhaps we will come back again.

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