After all of my research on the internet (Geobeats in particular), nothing prepared me for Old Delhi.
It’s an area of Delhi where the old ways still exist, but are merged with cell phones and massive swarms of people. The roads are very narrow, allowing only for two lanes of rickshaws to move at times, and are filled with people and merchandise. There were very few tourists there, but many women dressed in gorgeous saris shopping and men carrying heavy bags of grains and spices.
We traveled there via subway and when we exited the station, it hit us: We are in India. The noise, the smells, the massive number of people and animals– this was it. We crossed some busy streets to visit a tea vendor, selling chai. It was an amazing chai: extremely sweet but pungent with flavors of green cardamom and ginger. I think we were all a little hesitant to drink it so early on in the tour, but it was definitely worth it. The expression on Animesh’s face when he had the tea enthused us and we all took sips of the scorching hot drink. It was fantastic!
We proceeded to walk around old Delhi to get to the Jama Masjid. (We were unable to go to the Red Fort because it’s closed on Sundays.) The Jama Masjid (Masjid-i-Jahan Numa) is the principal mosque of Old Delhi and was commissioned by Mughal Emperor Shah-Jahan, the one of Taj Mahal fame. (Mughal = Persian/Central Asian). It is one of the largest and best known mosques and on Fridays it’s extremely packed with people– even though it can hold 25,000.
Five years was the time which was required for its construction.
- Indian Syntax, courtesy of Animesh at the Jama Masjid.
At the temple, you’re not allowed to wear shoes or have your knees exposed. Thus we removed our shoes and left them with our tour guide and the men wearing shorts wore sarongs to go in. There is also an extra charge for cameras inside the mosque, so we left most of our cameras with Animesh while one of us took some pictures inside. it’s a huge mosque – really large because it’s simply an open courtyard – high upon a hill in Chandi Chowk. (There’s several jewelry stores in the area that I would have loved to stopped in if they weren’t closed on Sundays.) You can see from miles from this mosque and if you’re really brave, for 50 extra rupees you can climb a spire to look up from the top.
I found the mosque extremely peaceful, with the stillness inside and the flying pigeons cooing in the background. India was so bustling that this moment of peace was a welcome break.
It was still extremely early in the morning (we had arrived at the Jama Masjid before the large white tour buses had arrived!) so we walked through a different street of Chandi Chowk to go to the Sikh Temple. On the way we observed the lime and chili charms in front of stores and got fresh jalebis and samosas. Jalebis are an Indian candy that is like a orange, donut sized funnel cake saturated in simple sugar. When you get them hot, the sugar syrup floods your mouth and the floral crunchy dough crumbles in your mouth. The samosas were awesome too and exactly what we needed before the temple!
The Gurdwara Bangla Sahib Sikh temple is an amazing experience. You must enter the temple with clean, shoeless feet amd a covered head. There is a lounge for tourists to put on orange scarves and remove shoes before you walk on the street and into a shallow fountain that has water pouring over it. After your feet are washed, you walk over some carpets into the temple, which is a white stone and red carpeted paradise. There are men singing the entire time there are also men giving you blessings of flowers. (I had no idea what this was until one of them did it to me and freaked me out a little. But it’s a blessing!) You can make a monetary donation as you leave, which is actually a really good idea because they provide free food for thousands on a daily basis.
I kid you not: they have a series of giant kitchens that provides daal and bread to the poor on a daily basis. And in one of the more feel-good experiences on our tour, we sat down and made chapatis alongside these good people. And in our auspicious orange head gear we felt truly blessed to see this part of India, which I doubt we could have seen if we had tried to tour India on our own.
After seeing all of this food made, we went to see where to get the seasoning for it: at the Old Delhi Spice Market. My daydreams of what a spice market would look like were nothing like the reality– it was more intense, more colorful, more bustling than anything I could have imagined. There were little side streets specializing in dried red pepper that made your throat choke up and your eyes water. Sacks as high as your waist filled with cardamom, dried ginger, and nuts. Almonds overflowed everywhere. And all of the merchants were extremely happy to see you. But the bustle was overwhelming and we ended up purchasing nothing which was a good thing before our bicycle rickshaw tour of Old Delhi.
If you can, you should definitely do the bicycle rickshaw tour of Delhi. It’s exhilarating and responsible tourism at its best. The men who drive bicycle rickshaws typically own their rickshaw, which means the money they make from you goes in entirety to them. It’s also incredibly clean and ecofriendly, making it a win-win for those who ride them. And really, once you see the streets of Delhi, you’ll understand…
… there’s not much room for anything else.
Animesh took us over to Connaught Place for lunch and let us roam the area on our own to deal which proved to be another adventure. Without a guide, it was difficult to figure out where to go, especially off the beaten path. The Banana Leaf was outside of the circle, but rumored to have extremely tasty south indian cuisine served on banana leaves. We each ordered something different until I noticed that someone was having what looked like a combination platter. It was called a thali, a combination of curry, dal, rice, bread, yogurt– a complete meal of small tastings of dishes. It was a perfect Indian meal and I think
We returned to the hotel to get ready for dinner… a special treat by any standard.
