A Mad Dash Around Delhi

My flight to Delhi was simple and uneventful, and on arrival I was met by not one but two chauffeurs! I felt like J-Lo! Turns out the tour company I’d hired for the next six days decided to collect me as well at the smartly suited men from the Metropolitan hotel here in divine downtown Delhi! I took the Met car as I suspected I was probably paying on top for that one! The other was included in the trip anyway.

I'd been warned by several people that the traffic in Delhi was horrendous and if I'd not spent time in places like Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur I may have found it overwhelming, as it was it just seemed about par for the course to be honest!

The hotel wasn’t quite like the Met in London, but not too shabby at all! By the time I got here though I was so shattered I half unpacked, had a shower and quickly checked emails before falling into bed. This chest infection thing is really taking it out of me and the flight didn’t do me any favours on that score.

I was being picked up at 9am yesterday, so it was an early start as I prepped for my day. It’s meant to be a fair bit cooler here than it was in Goa so I went mad and wore my jeans, trainers and socks.

Ramesh my driver and guide for the day was bang on time, and off we went on a whirlwind tour of the city’s landmarks. We started off at Jama Masjid the biggest mosque in the city. It’s an impressive structure, and really relaxed and welcoming. I’d never been inside one before. Another first!

I had to remove my shoes and wear a floral smock over my clothes kinda like the ones they put on you at the hairdressers - if you go to the hairdressers in 1972 that is! The place was full of tourists all of us on some kind of landmark merry go round.

From there I was taken to the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Park, which is one of many oases of peace in this mad, enormous city!

In addition to all the European tourists, the park was full of children all in school uniform. As the day wore on and I went from sight to sight to sight I saw more and more kids. My theory is that there are no schools at all in Delhi, just hundreds of buses transporting kids from the ages of 4 to 16 around the city constantly. They were so cute though, quite a few of them getting a buzz out of saying hello to me. All of them were incredibly well behaved too, no matter what age they were!

I got to see India Gate, a fairly new landmark at a mere 70 years old, it’s pretty cool and again there were gazillions of schoolkids. Photos taken, it was back in the car and onto Lodi Gardens. Fewer tourists here and more importantly a clean, western toilet! Once relieved it was time for a little wander round. Hard to believe that only a few metres away was all the noise and dust and hassle of the endless traffic. This place really is peaceful! I saw some more of those squirrel things, that aren’t squirrels but I have no idea what they are - feel free to post a comment informing me, please!



I saw a really cool thing, this old hippy guy, obviously not a tourist, who was laid out on a bench reading a hardback book. It was only on the way back to the car that I saw his ‘book’ was in fact a Kindle inside a hardback cover! Cool. Kinda reminded me of the days when men used to hide their porn mags inside the Racing Post.

The highlight for me of all the places I went to has to be The Lotus Temple. It’s run by the Bahai people and is open to all faiths to come and worship their god. I sat in there and gave thanks for all the love I have in my life, gave special thanks for those that I’ve lost whose anniversaries are coming up this month and all around me were Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, you name it we were all in there together. I have to say it brought a tear to my eye and hope to my heart.

Obviously 24 hours is nowhere near enough time in a city like this, but I get the impression it's enormous! Really spaced out and one that without my lovely driver I'd barely have scraped the surface of.