Day 2: Delhi, India. A mental, but fantastic first full day we had in Delhi. I haven’t experienced headaches in a very long time, but today I have had a few… Delhi is an assault on the senses; the noise, the smells, and the people rushing at you from all sides make it extremely difficult to cope.
Morning.
The previous night’s sleep wasn’t very fantastic. We got off to a bit of a slow start today, due to me being awake from 1-3am watching Glentoran defeat Linfield, Nicola was also up from midnight until about 3am, and Megan was not in bed until around midnight, so we needed a bit of a sleep in. Another problem was that we had to check out of our room because we were given one yesterday to get us checked in early, but it was booked for tonight so we had to switch rooms. This meant repacking and leaving our bags downstairs. It is mad how much stuff leaves backs when you have only been there one day!
Breakfast
As it was approaching lunchtime, I decided we should have a Subway, killing two birds with one stone. How wrong was I? It was the most disgusting Subway I have ever had. The food was disgusting and cost us 6.90 rupees (which was dearer than the previous night’s lovely meal). I was not popular when we left.
Walk to Connaught Place
I had a quick look on Google Maps and saw Connaught Place was nearby, so I decided we could walk there.
For the next 25 minutes, we made the walk to Connaught Place, through a local market, and along a few ropey backstreets. We dodged Rickshaw drivers, people begging, and people telling us about wonderful places to go visit. I really can’t work out if people are trying to scam us or actually trying to help us. Being honest it wasn’t a great experience and we were exhausted from it by the time we reached Connaught Place.
We thought Central Park in Connaught Place would be a calm place and no one would bother us, but we were wrong. We were the only tourists in the place at that time, and we where approached by our new friends every few metres. I like talking to people, it is one of my favourite things to do when travelling. However, every person who approached us had an end game other than just wanting a chat and I can’t be bothered with that.
I started to feel a bit ill; I hadn’t eaten properly in a couple days, felt dehydrated, and the sun was making me squint, giving me a head ache. The constant attack on my senses probably wasn’t helping. We bailed out of the park, found some sunglasses for a couple quid, grabbed a bite to eat and a drink, and I was feeling far better about 30 minutes later.
Afternoon
Rickshaw to India Gate
The next destination on the list was India Gate. I had looked on Google Maps and seen it was walkable, but as I looked at Nicola and Megan while we had a drink, I knew I wasn’t getting away with another walk, so we looked at getting our first Rickshaw of the trip.
We asked a woman in a café how much it would be to India Gate (Uber told us about 85–100 rupees); she told us 15 rupees, no way I thought, and perhaps we misheard 50 rupees. We went outside and looked for a driver (our tactic is to look for a guy in no rush to go anywhere instead of those pouncing on you as soon as you move). The guy we picked started off at 250, then dropped to 150 before settling on 100. I don’t think that was a bad deal; we are never going to get local prices.
We jumped in the rickshaw for what was the most chaotic 10-minute trip of our lives, my life flashed before my eyes a few times, but we made it safely to a location near the gate. These are a great mode of transport for getting around quickly and cheaply. Grab (think Uber) has rickshaws of their choice, and you do pay a bit cheaper if you are willing to wait around.
India Gate
We walked towards India Gate, which was nearly completely hidden by the thick smog in the air. However, the view was much better as we got closer. Nicola was struggling with the smog and her asthma, so we did need to slow down the pace, and she had to stop to take her inhaler a few times.
As we got closer to India Gate, we became the interest of school kids who wanted high 5’s, and Megan had to pose for a number of photos. This does feel awkward, but we are used to it now and only allow photos with kids. A number of adults have asked for photos with her, but that is a firm no!
Apart from the photo requests and lots of people saying hello, no one bothered us at all, a pleasant change from Connaught Place.
Government Offices
Going against Megan’s better wishes, we decided to walk up from India Gate to the location of the government offices and the Parliament buildings. The walk wasn’t far, but it was difficult to grasp how far, due to the amount of smog in the air, you could literally not see either the government office buildings or India Gate.
Another issue we had to deal with was Megan; her legs were about to fall off. This was a comment we had to take very seriously, and we thought it was best to continue walking.
We arrived at the end of the road, but there wasn’t much we could see or do as most of the area was closed off by the police. Megan made the decision that she had enough, so we dodged the group of monkeys and headed for a Rickshaw.
Rickshaw back
After about 15 minutes, we eventually found a Rickshaw driver. Where did all the others go who constantly asked us if we needed a taxi? He wanted 200 rupees; we knew this was too expensive, but he wasn’t budging; he knew he had us by the balls. . After settling on 200, we left to return to the hotel.
Just like the previous trip, we weaved in and out of traffic, and crossed oncoming traffic. A couple times I swore and closed my eyes, but after a while I just laughed, just going with the idea it will all be alright!
The biggest hassle for us was the traffic light beggars, there was small kids, women with babies, transexuals, and men off their faces on what I assume was petrol as that was the strong smell from them. They swarmed our rickshaw every time we stopped at a traffic light and were there for 120 seconds, I know this as I couldn’t every second each time. That was not a pleasant experience. Thankfully, we arrived back at our hotel safely. We took some time out in our room to recover from the madness of outside.
Evening
Going for a walk
We sat in the room for an hour or so, and before it got dark, I decided we should go for a walk around the local area. We had been around the back streets, but we decided to give the main roads a go, and that probably wasn’t a wise decision.
Constant beeps of the horn, dodging cars and cows, saying no thank you, and trying to cross extremely busy roads with no gaps between vehicles were exhausting but actually fun in a weird way. We walked around for an hour or so and decided to head to the bar we were at the previous evening for a well-deserved beer.
Constant beeps of the horn, dodging cars and cows, saying no thank you, and trying to cross extremely busy roads with no gaps between vehicles were exhausting but actually fun in a weird way. We walked around for an hour or so and decided to head to the bar we were at the previous evening for a well-deserved beer.
Cheap as chips
Megan was getting peckish, so we decided to go get her some street food. We had spotted a place earlier which sold chips for 40 rupees and Megan decided she would try them.
We returned to the hotel where Megan decided to inhale her chips as they were just beautiful.
Sim Card
While Megan inhaled her chips, Nicola went with her passport to see the ‘SIM Card Guy’. This was a lot more legit than the photo looks! The fella registered her for a local SIM card. For 550 rupees in total for 1.5GB of data a day, a lot cheaper than using roaming data.
This was the first time we have ever used a local SIM. However, I suspect we will purchase more on our travels
Dinner
Taking Megan’s recommendation into account, we returned to the street food seller. Megan got herself more chips, and we got ourselves dinner. For the sum of 240 rupees, we got ourselves a portion of chips, noodles, egg fried rice, and chilli paneer.
I was cautious about getting street food, but this was all cooked in front of us. The guy never stopped the entire time we were there. It was a constant stream of people looking for their dinner.
Our food was absolutely delicious, and we were sure we would return it to the seller before we left Delhi.
Night
We spent the rest of the evening having a beer on our balcony. The street was filled with noise as the local kids played cricket in the street below. We took this time to reflect on our first proper day in India.
We were all exhausted, and after a couple of hours, we were all out cold sleeping.
Thank you for taking the time to read about our ‘Day 2: Delhi, India’. If you have enjoyed the read, please come back tomorrow for Day 3: Delhi, India. Check our the rest of our India Travel Diary.
The Lewis family
