Indira Ghandi International Airport
Arrived in Delhi, India mid-morning after a looooong night on the plane! There was a G Adventures representative with his sign in the reception area. Everything went very smoothly! He grouped several of us together and introduced us to our taxi drivers, Cabs for women by women!
I had two co-riders that were in Delhi for G Adventures, one for the Rajasthan Adventure and one for the Golden Triangle Trip. The driver took us to our hotel, The Aster Inn.
The girl that rode with me from the airport, Rebekka, who is from Bern, Switzerland, and I decided to wander around the area near our hotel with the guidance of the hotel clerk. The streets were crazy busy with street sellers, cars, motorcycles, tuk tuks, rickshaws and people. There were no sidewalks so you have to walk in and out of the streets with constant honking from all the vehicles. An excerpt from an article,
'Honk if You are Driving in Delhi' says:
Parminder Singh, toy salesman and part-time driving instructor, turned to his newest student and carefully spelled out a basic rule: "In Delhi, the horn is not a problem."If a bus won't move aside, honk; if a rickshaw gets too close or a cow is in the road, honk; if an entire family -- mother, father, two kids -- is packed onto an aging scooter and slowing traffic: ditto."In Delhi, every time is horn! horn! horn!" he told me, starting our first lesson. "This is not your America."That's certainly clear.
Driving in India's sprawling capital city doesn't mean simply getting behind the wheel; it means waging a Darwinian struggle for traffic survival.
Every day, well over 4 million vehicles -- trucks, cars, auto-rickshaws, scooters, motorcycles and buses -- take to the roads of this ancient city. Joining them are millions of bicycles, thousands of pushcarts, wandering cows, and the occasional elephant and camel. The streets are a symphony of chaos: Horns blare, cars weave dizzily and turn signals are rarities. Few roads have painted lanes and fewer drivers care.As India's economy blossoms, 100,000 more vehicles join the fray each year, further clogging streets originally built for the carriages of Mogul kings and the chauffeur-driven automobiles of British colonialists.
Rebekka and I found a nice place to buy lunch and it was delicious. She was a good sport and went with me to the Vodafone store so I could get an India SIM card.
We had a meeting at the hotel at 5 pm to meet our fellow travelers and our CEO (Chief Experience Officer) of G Adventures, There were 15 travelers, a range of ages from 21 to 71 from USA (2), Canada (2), Australia (2), New Zealand (2), Thailand (1), Germany (3), Switzerland (1) and England (2). Our CEO was Aditya Singh Rathore from a village near Jaipur. We all followed him like ducklings through the chaos of Delhi to have our first group dinner. We ate at the Hotel Arpit Palace, which I initially thought said 'Armpit'. The dinner was awesome, and it was only the first of many delicious meals in India!
Our first full day in Delhi, Adi took us to meet a young adult from the G Adventures-supported New Delhi Street Kids Project. Salaam Baalak is a charity which helps Delhi's street kids. We met at the end of the railway station and walked around some of the narrow back alleys of Paharganj where we ended up at the charity office. Pics from our walk:
Group with our Street Kids guide
In one small alleyway, graphic depictions of important figures from different religions adorned the walls. What was this all about? It turns out, too many men were using this wall as a public urinal. The religious figures were placed here to discourage this action😋
Electricity transmission Indian style
We then proceeded to the Jama Masjid (Great Mosque). Mughal emperor Shah Jahan built the Jama Masjid between 1644 and 1656. It was constructed by more than 5000 workers. It was originally called Masjid-i-Jahan-Numa, meaning 'mosque commanding view of the world'. The construction was done under the supervision of Saadullah Khan, prime minister during Shah Jahan's rule. The cost of the construction at the time was one million Rupees. Shah Jahan also built the Taj Mahal, at Agra and the Red Fort in New Delhi, which stands opposite the Jama Masjid. The Jama Masjid was completed in 1656 AD. The mosque was inaugurated by an Imam Bukhari, a mullah from Bukhara, Uzbekistan, on 23 July 1656, on the invitation from Shah Jahan. About 25,000 people can pray in the courtyard at a time and it is sometimes regarded as India's largest mosque. The mosque is commonly called "Jama" which means Friday.
Jama Masjid
We had to wear cover-ups if we weren't properly dressed!
After Jama Masjid, Adi took us to a Parantha restaurant. A parantha is an unleavened flatbread made with whole wheat dough, they can be plain or stuffed, then fried. I had a mixed vegetable stuffed parantha that was served with different toppings: daal, mint sauce. They were awesome!
We went to a Sikh temple where they were celebrating one of their many holidays.
We observed a group of people making chapatis.
The group headed to the train station for an overnight train ride to Jodhpur! We were spread out over a few train cars. Rebekka, Becca (my roommate, born in Taiwan, raised in Australia) and I were in the same car on the top bunks. There were 8 beds in our car, 3 on each side and 2 at the end. Getting up on the top bunk for me was very intersting😂. Also, I'm 5'8" and Rebekka is probable 5'10" and these bunks were not made for us, but it was an 'adventure'.
Rebekka
View from my bunk down below
Becca
It was a long night; train stops, roommates talking and eating strong smelling food😬 and praying I wouldn't have to used the bathroom! But in the morning, we were in Jodhpur!!!
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