Welcome to Delhi

Delhi, India -- October 17-18 -- Day 1-2

Well, we made it to Delhi.  Monday was uneventful, though it took the entire day to get here -- one short flight from Trivandrum to Chennai and another longer one from Chennai to Delhi.  Compared to bus and train travel, plane travel is fairly comfortable, if for no other reason than its relative exclusivity.  It took us a while to get to the proper terminal in Trivandrum, but once there it was amazing how empty it was.    

On the way to the airport 

Surprisingly modern Trivandrum Airport 

Welcome to Delhi

The traffic from the Delhi airport seemed ok at the start, but by the time we finally got to the Paharganj area and the Main Bazaar Road in particular, it was another story entirely. It is absolutely bananas that pedestrians, cycle rickshaws, scooters, ox-drawn carts, tuk-tuks, and taxis all vie for the same narrow roadway. Then, of course, there are the stray dogs and city cows further adding to the chaos. There were long periods of gridlock, when only the pedestrians and scooters could squeeze through the available holes.  As always, this was accompanied by a constant cacophany of honking, engine revving, and exhaust fumes.  Our driver continually honked and flashed his high beams, presumably an ingrained habit as it was completely futile.  Everyone here must just be numb to the noise, dirt, and chaos.  The animals certainly are, dogs lie inches from the traffic, peacefully sleeping.  How it is that people aren't constantly crashing into each other, I'll never know.

Our hotel, the Hari Piorko, was right in the middle of the Bazaar.  A great spot for viewing the daily activities.  The room itself was stinky and crowded, though it was clear it aspired to elegance once upon a time with fancy wood furniture and an aquarium in the front wall, but with only a single small window looking into a dark interior light shaft.

For Tuesday, our goal was to visit Humayun’s Tomb, a large monument that apparently provided inspiration for the Taj Mahal. After breakfast at the second floor restaurant, we decided first to explore the neighborhood a little now that the crazy evening crowds had dissipated. Most of the shop owners had started to sweep up the trash that covered the street from the night before.  As we strolled, it was fun to see the variety of fruits and fried food items for sale.  The mango and orange juice were particularly good, although the oranges were still green.

Sunny, a young economics student standing outside the hotel, offered to take us to Hunayun’s tomb in his tuk-tuk. It was neat to see and we got some additional history from Deepak (for 500 rupees) along the way. Apparently, the entire tomb had been renovated in 2013, but some of the white domes were already dark grey again. That must be what a thousand days of Delhi pollution does for you.

On the way back, despite our insistence to the contrary, Sunny took us to a souvenir shop. Apparently, he gets a free book for school if we go in and look around. The shop was filled with women's embroidered dresses, shawls, and men’s shirts downstairs; wooden and stone carved handicrafts -- elephants, owls, frogs -- and fancier metal statuettes upstairs.

Lunch at Tadka, a”veg” only restaurant, was one of the better we've had lately. Dex indulged in pasta with white sauce while the rest of us shared a couple paneer curries with rice and naan. My appetite seems slowly to be coming back

As a diversion for the evening, we took a tuk-tuk to Connaught Place to look for a movie.  Connaught Place is a huge “modern” shopping area (at least compared to the open market stalls near the hotel). It’s a huge circle consisting of three concentric roadways and a half dozen radial connecting roads. Tom Hank’s Inferno and some “Love” movie (for 18 or older), seemed to be the current fare, but the Tom Hank’s movie wasn’t playing until after 10:00.  We had seen that Tim Burton’s Miss Peregrin’s Home for Peculiar Children was playing, which we thought might suit, but no luck even after finding four different theaters.

As usual, there were tons of people milling about and the range of shops was surprising: Nike, KFC, Starbucks, H&M….  Even here, though, the sidewalks were filled with stands for fried food, eggs and noodles, jewelry, henna services….  On multiple occasions, I was approached by men wanting to polish my boots, filthy and starting to fall apart.  My only memory of being here 20 years ago was some guy who really, really wanted to provide his ear cleaning services. I never figured out what had convinced him that mine were so dirty/clogged to begin with.