Delhi Belly

Back in April this year, I was fortunate enough to visit India for 3 weeks.

I’ve been meaning to write up my experience of this incredible country, and thought now would be a great time to start as I sit in the luggage compartment of my horrendously delayed Virgin train from Milton Keynes to London Euston.

So, where to start? Well, let me give a bit of background. Before March, I’d never been to India. I say never but I lie, I went to Goa in 2005 for a few days but I don’t think it captures the real essence of India. This time, our itinerary would take us across major sites in north and north West India and give us a real chance to see the roots of our family and culture.

We were bound for Delhi flying from Heathrow and arrived first thing in the morning. We promptly met our driver Binod who would accompany us for the first leg of our journey, and we got our first sights of Delhi on our way to The Lalit hotel where we were to stay for a couple of nights. The check in was lengthy but we needed some time to stretch our legs and recover from the exhausting 10 hour flight. Eventually we took some sleep and had a great lunch overlooking central Delhi, before heading out to the Akshadam temple in the evening, this is where I had my first taste of Indian culture.

The queue to get in was enormous, separated into different lines for men/women. We were told not to take any electrical items whatsoever but I stupidly thought that my iPhone would pass by un-noticed in the sole of my shoe. The security was tighter than at any airport I’ve ever been to and I soon shamefully handed it over to our driver who had to run back to the car to put it away. I was pretty annoyed with myself as we had queued for over an hour and risked it all just so I could take a few photos of this magnificent temple.

Anyway, the gardens were beautiful and the architecture really fantastic. The devotion of our Indian community to our culture was fantastic to see and this would be something I would be reminded of many times on my trip. We saw a movie on an absolutely enormous 3D screen of the story of Lord Krishna. My Hindi is pretty awful ( I’m working on it) and headed out to the temple itself to see the fine designs and mosaics. We then watched a brilliant dancing fountain display outside after the glorious sunset, and I have to say it was a big step up in terms of quality and originality from the ones outside the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. It’s a must visit for this alone. We rounded off our visit here having eaten some thalhi and chocolate cake at the crazy dining hall which was literally a free-for-all. We then headed back to the hotel as we were pretty tired, and before heading to sleep I had a bit of a nasty surprise when my hands were covered with brown sludge dispensed from the hotel’s tap.

The next day was to be action packed. Following an early breakfast we went to Old Delhi, first to an ancient Mosque built in brilliant red stone. I found the concept of paying someone outside to not steal our shoes rather funny, although it was an early reminder that inner city life wasn’t great and many made a living by any way possible. Following our brief visit we took a walk through the main Street of old Delhi. It was an unbelievable place, the shops were barely four feet wide either side of a not much wider road, and monkeys were merrily jumping around the thousands of electricity cables that crossed the street with motorcycles and rickshaws below. Though the shops were mainly closed, we were constantly targeted by the shopkeepers trying to sell us random stuff. At the end of the street I made the horrendous mistake of photographing an old lady sitting on a stool making some snacks. She was utterly furious and chased me out of the street before throwing a bucket of water over me and sitting in the middle of the highway. We offered her money in return for our seemingly innocent action but she wouldn’t take it.

Bewildered, we headed onwards to the Indira Gandhi memorial where Mahatma Gandhi was cremated 60 years ago in front of the mourning Delhi public. Again the place was well kept and quite a serene place to be away from the chaotic streets of Delhi.

We spent the final morning in Delhi at Connaught Place, one of the main shopping districts in the city featuring a diverse mix of eastern and western styles of shops. Before long, it was time for us to board the train to our next destination: Amritsar, in the state of Punjab.

-Shonak