Delhi was well and truly on the itenerary, being such a large, historic and diverse city. The plan wasn’t to head here until weeks later. Unfortunately, I’d had to evacuate the South, leaving Chennai because the humidity had caused my asthma to be so bad, the doctors could do no more for it. the country of ironies was about show yet another. The capital with whe world’s worst air quality would be just the environment I needed to get my asthma under control. High pollution, dust and airborne debris didn’t seem to inhibit my recovery with the average of 25-35%RH levels. In just 3-4 days my incessant coughing had slowed to minimal and in 5-6 days, I was able to stop the 24 medicines, pills and puffers that had been required to keep the symptoms semi-acceptable.
I’d been looking forward to Delhi to catch up with Saptarshi, who lives here part time to work. He knows Delhi well and would know where to suggest I see.
One of the first things I really noticed as a major difference from everywhere else I’d visited so far, was the propensity to outright stare. Whether at a Bus stop, on a train station or in a shop, I’d regularly have someone just shamelessly staring at me as though I had 3 heads. A lot of the time, I couldn’t tell if they were staring because of my Australian look, my paralysed arm or my boots. A lot of the ime, they’d even stare when you looked them back, square in the eye. I’d regularly have to ask them “Have I done something wrong?” to get them to stop staring.
The Tuk-Tuk drivers were atrocious to deal with, consistently trying to charge me 500 rupee for a 30-50 Rupee ride. When you showed them it was 1.7km and what you’d pay on Uber or Rapido, they’d outright argur Uber don’t come here, go there, service this area or even operate in Delhi. If you told them you didn’t need a ride because you’re only waliking 500m down the road to a Bus stop, they’d try to tell you you had to go the other way and go back across the Train station, over the walk-over. Every time they tried this, it was an outright lie. Just trust Google Maps on your phone and ignore them. If you need a ride, book it on Uber or Rapido and if you’re smart, book a taxi rather than a Tuk-Tuk. Even when you book a Tuk-Tuk on a fixed fare, 6/10 times, they tried going long routes, demanding extra payment and/or conning you into shops where they get paid an “Entry Commission” typically, around 200 Rupee. Even heaps of the locals refer to them as “Tuk-Tuk Mafia”
It was also very noticable how much harder the vendors and beggars targetted me. I’d realised it was very pointed but when I went anywhere with Saptarshi, he couldn’t beleive how solidly I was targetted. In Delhi, you really need to have a pretty thick skin. I certainly wouldn’t recommend it as your first Indian destination. Having said that, I’d recommend no Indian trip should ever miss Delhi.
On the flip side of this, I really found the food fantastic, with incredible diversity and much better value than Mumbai in serving size, price and quality of what was on your plate. Likewise, the Backpacker dorms were both cleaner, in better repair and priced well by comparison to Mumbai. This was surprising given the population being higher than Mumbai. In general, I found the Chowks (Marketplaces) to be great value with diversity from the best of Flea Markets all the way up to Connuaght Place, (The Western Style Shopping centre).
Delhi is full of Major attractions, Arkshardham Temple, Gandhi Memorial Museum, India Gate, Humayan’s Tomb, Lotus Temple, Rashtraptati Bhavan, several Stepwells and the Red Fort.