Delhi in a day
Oh what a difference a great shower and 8 hours of sleep can make! Feeling fully human again, I had a nice (if odd - decided on a banana rolled in an aloo (potato) parantha (bread)) breakfast and was out of the hotel by 9am, feeling ready to explore Delhi!
First stop, the nearby Red Fort. This had been recommended to us by a few people, and having been to a number of impressive forts I was looking forward to it. The morning was rather foggy (or smoggy, not sure which) however, and pretty cold too, which perhaps wasn't the ideal am eminence to set off the Fort in its best light. Instead of the well-kept collection of impressive palatial buildings I expected to find, there were a few large audience halls of red sandstone (with some white marble - admittedly), which were less intricately carved and certainly less well maintained than the majority of normal houses in Jaisalmer! Some pavilions were more functional, and in their time would have had water flowing through them into the manicured gardens and ponds, but in the absence of any water looked rather lost. I think it says a lot when my favourite photo of the Fort was of a particularly large and well climbed tree! Apparently the audio-guide was excellent though, and it left us highly amused when it kept suggesting we sprint to find some shade - certainly not required in the chilly morning....
We fairly quickly moved on, catching the Metro towards Humayan's Tomb. As underwhelmed as I was by the Fort, the Metro was the complete opposite, probably the cleanest and most efficient system I've seen in India, surpassing the tube in all but it's reach (which was limited for now but will expand I'm sure) and certainly better than the subways of New York. In fact it was so good, and inexpensive too, I was wondering why more locals weren't using it. I discovered later that it turns out they do, just not at 10:00.
On arrival at the tomb we paid our foreigners entry fee (this can be up to ten times what SAARCs pay) and entered, heading straight for Isa Khan's tomb, to check out the hexagonal Lodi architecture. This had a lovely red brick wall setting, which eventually let on to Humayan's tomb, which is thought to have inspired the Taj Mahal. It certainly had similar features and a stunning setting, peaceful enough to enjoy just walking around.
Peckish already, next on our tour was Pandora Market for an early lunch. This turned out to jot be a market at all (oops), but a relatively pricey place to get some tasty food anyway! Very well fed, we walked to the nearby India Gate, a war memorial reminiscent of the Arc de Triomph. More interesting than the arch itself perhaps, were the many independent sellers trading their wares. These included candy floss, street food, ice creams, sunglasses, bubbles, huge balloons and rides on tiny motorbikes to name but a few!
I indulged in a (packaged) mango ice cream, which was nice and also evidence it had finally warmed up, before catching a tuktuk to Gurdwara Bangla Sahib, the biggest Sikh Gurdwara in Delhi. Shoes off and headscarves on, we walked around on the cool marble floors, taking in the huge orange flag typical of Sikhism, as well as the large pond within the grounds, something that certainly doesn't feature in any of the gurdwaras I have been to in Birmingham.
Shoes back on, we tested out the metro again (even happening upon the metro museum, ooh) to journey back north to Chandi Chowk. This area has hundreds of shops and stalls for the locals, and was interesting to explore. The amount some people ole could carry on their heads or wheel along on a hike was astounding! I treated us to some Jalebi from a stall called Jalebiwala. This is a deep fried syrupy dough (better than it sounds) which we can obviously get at home, but somehow it tasted so much better fresh from a stall over here, and it is noticeably less vivid orange than at home which also improves it.
Before dinner we popped out heads into Jama Masjid, India's largest mosque. This was another huge and elevated red sandstone entity, which we didn't actually go inside of as it was prayer time for Muslims-only, after which they attempted to charge us a large entry fee on a bit of a whim (we knew it should be free!) so we didn't bother. Instead, dinner was had before heading back to the hotel for the rest of the evening - it had been a very full day out by our recent standards.
Oh what a difference a great shower and 8 hours of sleep can make! Feeling fully human again, I had a nice (if odd - decided on a banana rolled in an aloo (potato) parantha (bread)) breakfast and was out of the hotel by 9am, feeling ready to explore Delhi!
First stop, the nearby Red Fort. This had been recommended to us by a few people, and having been to a number of impressive forts I was looking forward to it. The morning was rather foggy (or smoggy, not sure which) however, and pretty cold too, which perhaps wasn't the ideal am eminence to set off the Fort in its best light. Instead of the well-kept collection of impressive palatial buildings I expected to find, there were a few large audience halls of red sandstone (with some white marble - admittedly), which were less intricately carved and certainly less well maintained than the majority of normal houses in Jaisalmer! Some pavilions were more functional, and in their time would have had water flowing through them into the manicured gardens and ponds, but in the absence of any water looked rather lost. I think it says a lot when my favourite photo of the Fort was of a particularly large and well climbed tree! Apparently the audio-guide was excellent though, and it left us highly amused when it kept suggesting we sprint to find some shade - certainly not required in the chilly morning....
We fairly quickly moved on, catching the Metro towards Humayan's Tomb. As underwhelmed as I was by the Fort, the Metro was the complete opposite, probably the cleanest and most efficient system I've seen in India, surpassing the tube in all but it's reach (which was limited for now but will expand I'm sure) and certainly better than the subways of New York. In fact it was so good, and inexpensive too, I was wondering why more locals weren't using it. I discovered later that it turns out they do, just not at 10:00.
On arrival at the tomb we paid our foreigners entry fee (this can be up to ten times what SAARCs pay) and entered, heading straight for Isa Khan's tomb, to check out the hexagonal Lodi architecture. This had a lovely red brick wall setting, which eventually let on to Humayan's tomb, which is thought to have inspired the Taj Mahal. It certainly had similar features and a stunning setting, peaceful enough to enjoy just walking around.
Peckish already, next on our tour was Pandora Market for an early lunch. This turned out to jot be a market at all (oops), but a relatively pricey place to get some tasty food anyway! Very well fed, we walked to the nearby India Gate, a war memorial reminiscent of the Arc de Triomph. More interesting than the arch itself perhaps, were the many independent sellers trading their wares. These included candy floss, street food, ice creams, sunglasses, bubbles, huge balloons and rides on tiny motorbikes to name but a few!
I indulged in a (packaged) mango ice cream, which was nice and also evidence it had finally warmed up, before catching a tuktuk to Gurdwara Bangla Sahib, the biggest Sikh Gurdwara in Delhi. Shoes off and headscarves on, we walked around on the cool marble floors, taking in the huge orange flag typical of Sikhism, as well as the large pond within the grounds, something that certainly doesn't feature in any of the gurdwaras I have been to in Birmingham.
Shoes back on, we tested out the metro again (even happening upon the metro museum, ooh) to journey back north to Chandi Chowk. This area has hundreds of shops and stalls for the locals, and was interesting to explore. The amount some people ole could carry on their heads or wheel along on a hike was astounding! I treated us to some Jalebi from a stall called Jalebiwala. This is a deep fried syrupy dough (better than it sounds) which we can obviously get at home, but somehow it tasted so much better fresh from a stall over here, and it is noticeably less vivid orange than at home which also improves it.
Before dinner we popped out heads into Jama Masjid, India's largest mosque. This was another huge and elevated red sandstone entity, which we didn't actually go inside of as it was prayer time for Muslims-only, after which they attempted to charge us a large entry fee on a bit of a whim (we knew it should be free!) so we didn't bother. Instead, dinner was had before heading back to the hotel for the rest of the evening - it had been a very full day out by our recent standards.
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