18. 2.19

We were awake til gone midnight with the idiot in the next room on his phone, people upstairs moving furniture and the ‘I just called to say I love you’ remix from the lift.

At 6.20am I politely asked the people across the hall to be quiet as they had been banging the door, talking very loudly +and their child was running around shrieking outside our door.

Went back to sleep and neither of us woke until nearly 10am. We obviously needed it.

We explored day trips with drivers yesterday but you’re at the mercy of where they get the best commission, their time keeping and Delhi traffic.

We’ve spent enough time in cars to last a life time recently.

So we made our own itinerary, with the help of a great blog that we found, we bought a one day metro ticket for 200 rupees each and set off.

The metro is spotlessly clean, and relatively simple to work out.

Our first stop Chandi Chowk. Apparently full of fab eateries, just in time for brunch and the Paranthe Wali Gali street, legendary for deep fried paratha bread.

The reality was extreme poverty, women and children sitting along the street, one child playing happily with a broken dolls head will stay in my mind.

It was crazy, noisy chaos and our map couldn’t find Paranthe Wali Gali and we could hear a protest going on.

Someone told us that Old Delhi is pretty much closed today with protesters.

We got back on the metro to Patel Chowk. A 20 minute walk along big clean wide roads brought us to Gurudwala Bangla Sahib Sikh Temple Complex.

It was every bit as fabulous as we had read about.

We were directed to the Foreign Tourist Area where we had to remove shoes and were given scarves to cover our hair.

Our guide explained about the Sikh ideals and gave us a tour inside the temple.

We were shown their holy book which is removed each morning and returned to its ornate resting place each evening.

Then we were shown the eating area, kitchens and foodstore. Everyone is welcome to have a meal there regardless of their faith.

At the end of our tour we asked if we could eat there and were taken back and shown what to do. Chapatis have to be received with both hands, as taking one looks like you’re grabbing. We were given a metal tray and dahl and potato curry were brought along.

The cooking and food serving is done by volunteers. The food was delicious. You can have as much as you like. An old man next to me had taken plastic bags to take some home for his tea.

From there we walked to Rajiv Chowk metro as it was slightly nearer and walked along the huge Parliament Road where there are huge banks, Police Headquarters etc and went past Nandos and other western venues to a market area where we were told clothes are great value and better quality than our bazaar street. There were some lovely things but nowhere to risk trying anything on.

A couple of guys told us we must go into the Government Tourist Office nearby even though we protested that we have maps and know where we are going. They hovered and watched so we went in just to keep them happy. Once inside we were greeted like long lost friends and encouraged to sit down. No idea what it was all about but we left pretty sharpish.

We then got another metro, changed lines to Khan Market to go to Lodhi Gardens, about 20 minutes walk from the metro.

This area was very smart, with designer shops on small streets, and chain brands including Accessorize, Body Shop, L’Occitane and even M & S.

We saw many Europeans, Asians and wealthy looking Indians here and shortly after we were walking along another huge road, with imposing houses and some Embassies along it.

Lodhi Garden was superb.

Apologies for so many photos, I have loads more!

More info here

https://www.inditales.com/lodhi-garden-walk-new-delhi/

From here we decided to make our way back to our base in Bazaar Street, and did go slightly
wrong with where we got off the metro. But easily sorted by changing lines and we were soon back in the chaos.

We had dinner nearby, once again we saw a desert called Hello to the Queen on the menu. We googled it. Vanilla ice cream, biscuit crumbs, banana, caramel. Not sugar free but we have walked 14km so we deserve it.

It was ok, no caramel, pieces of cheap biscuit, but the ice cream, banana and chocolate sauce was good.

Tomorrow we are going to visit the other places on our list.

We thoroughly enjoyed today, so glad we didn’t give up on Delhi and have seen what else it has to offer.

We realise just how huge Delhi is, we covered just a very small part of the yellow metro line today.

Really looking forward to more escapades here tomorrow.