Out and About in Delhi, India

08Mar
by Cherryl

Delhi, India is packed with monuments and interesting history, but I won’t give you lengthy guide book spiel about each one, since that’s easy enough to look up.

Religious and presidential buildings, crazy traffic, and of course the customary cow….are all too be expected, but I wasn’t expecting this…..

Bath Time

On my first day of walking down a busy and congested street in India, I walked past a group of very happy looking young men, all taking an outdoor shower/wash on the curb and in the road as we headed to the Jama Masjid Mosque. There was no embarrassment or awkwardness on their part (all modesty was in tact), and they seemed oblivious to anyone else being around as they scrubbed and lathered away, happy and smiling.

I felt an almost unbelievable sense of being in an entirely new world, a world with ‘ways’ that are not to be labelled or ridiculed, but simply accepted as ‘the way’ for where we were –  a different way to what I was used to seeing or experiencing.

Jama Masjid Mosque

One of India’s biggest mosques, dating back to the 16th century, and very a popular stop for tourists.

Shoes were left outside and women had to wear one of these gowns (at 50RP) to enter the mosque – regardless of what you were wearing. Men could enter just as they were, minus their shoes. In our guides’s words “unfortunately, women are not spared…” but we didn’t have to cover our heads.

Tip: Take a spare/pair of socks with you or grab those fabulous white hotel room slippers and bring them along, otherwise your feet/soles will be pretty dusty afterwards. All shoes have to be left outside – (I admit I did worry about them being stolen or not being able to find them again in the ocean of shoes on the floor)…and having to spend the rest of the day barefoot lol…. but you probably don’t need to worry.

That said, it might be best to leave your ‘Louboutins’ behind, just to be safe 😆

More of what India does best, stunning architecture….

Lunch Stop: Food Glorious Food

We had a mixture different dishes, all served at the table like a mini buffet – everything was dee-lish, I’ve always liked Indian food and spicy food in general, so I didn’t have and worries about what to expect from the food.

The tomato soup was surprisingly watery, but very flavoursome and the naan bread was characteristically light and chargrilled – unlike the mass produced, thick ‘bready’ ones we get in UK supermarkets.

There were people around the table who said they didn’t like naan bread, and would never eat it in the UK – but they couldn’t get enough of the stuff whilst in India.

There you go. You can’t beat the real thing.

The spinach and mushroom sauce was a new one for me, and the potato naan was lovely – very filling.

Indian food (in India) is like a Piccadilly Circus of flavours, on your palette. It’s amazing what they can do with a packet of unassuming lentils. I’ve never eaten so many lentils in my life – the spicy flavours were so good.

 

Raj Ghat

This is where Mahatma Gandhi was cremated in 1948, Delhi, India.

Cremation is popular with those from the Hindu faith.

From what I gathered, white is often the colour of choice when dressing for a funeral.

Qutub Minar Victory Tower

No photos please!!!

During this tourist stop, I had quite a few people (who looked like locals) come up and request a selfie with me, and also requesting that I take a picture of them with ‘my’ camera, and in some cases the request was for me to take a picture of their children.

This baffled me a bit for a number of reasons, the main one being – why would you want ‘me’ to take photos of ‘your’ child???

Sometimes a seemingly entire family would ask for a group photo with me.

“Me?” I’d ask, pointing at myself to make sure they were not gesturing to someone behind me lol (like someone famous – which surely must have been the case)…this was happening with other ‘obvious’ tourists too.

Of course I smiled politely and obliged, since they asked so nicely and I didn’t want to seem rude. I guess it was a nice thing, but very new to me at the time.

The Qutub Mina, or Victory Tower, construction began in the 11th century and completed in the 13th century – just beautiful!!

Isa Khan Niazi Garden Tomb

Isa Khan’s Tomb, another 16th century monument in Delhi, India.

Tourist attractions are not just for tourists!

Usually, whenever I’ve gone on a holiday/trip somewhere, it seems very apparent that ‘tourists’ are the majority crowd at any tourist attraction.

In India, I got the impression that the opposite might have been the case. I don’t know for sure, but I got the sense that non-western visitors outnumbered the western tourists at every tourist spot we went to, and remember thinking it made a nice change – assuming I wasn’t completely wrong!

Presidential buildings above

We didn’t stop for The India Gate, New Delhi, India – but I managed to get this wobbly snap as we drove by. It’s a memorial to “70,000 British Indian Army soldiers that died during the first world war”

Humayan’s Tomb

Spotted

The only church I saw – out of the corner of my eye whilst on the road.

A church in India

 

23 thoughts on “Out and About in Delhi, India”

  1. Pingback: A Solo Trip to India!!!! Leaving my Comfort Zone -

    1. Cherryl

      Lol, six pairs of socks – I didn’t think of it, but yes – the ground must get very hot in the summer months, especially the marble 🔥🔥I think that spiritual feeling was definitely there with me throughout – but my attention was pulled more, in all directions and the novelty of it all. I think wherever you have high concentrations of people with a strong and unashamed spiritual believe, that energy will be all around you… and in addition, the people seemed very humble, polite well-meaning, so all in all, very positive ☺️

      Reply

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