Delhi-The Indian Capital (Oh People do Exagerate!!!)

Well we arrived in Delhi on schedule with Danny and Kathryn some good friends from home flying in this afternoon after spending a month travelling around South Africa.  

Delhi was busy on arrival as you would expect but after some research we were well up on all the scams described in The Lonely Planet. I keep wondering maybe the street entrepreneurs should purchase their own Lonely Planet so they could then come up with some new scams.

Why Hello there Delhi, thanks for having us

We checked into the Vivek Hotel and put some much needed laundry in. Nice to feel clean again before checking e-mails. The plan was to meet the guys at the hotel until while e-mailing one of the staff was printing out a sign saying welcome Mr Danny Marsh. Absolutely brilliant! We negotiated a free taxi to the airport to go and collect them ourselves, and it was funny when Danny and Kathryn came out of the terminal to see us holding a welcome sign. Huge surprise as they didn’t expect to see us so soon. The beginning of our next four weeks backpacking. With the North West and North East regions firmly in our sights

The Vivek Hotel

  

It was like a sign from the Gods

There were lots of stories to be told so seemed only right to welcome them to India with an evening of Curry and Kingfisher Beer overlooking the city, from the roof terrace of Sam’s Cafe.

Welcome to India Danny & Kathryn . Hows your first Curry?

The Team enjoying some stories & beers. No team name yet but that will change many times over the coming weeks...

The plan of action was set and we were up early the next day to purchase our train ticket for Udaipur in Rajasthan. The scams were in full force at New Delhi Station which we nearly fell for if not for Kate. The foreign booking desk is always in the main building and it is never closed and has not burnt down. Plenty of people were telling us others stories because of the Common Wealth Games. A NEW scam!! But we managed to succeed.

New Delhi Train Station. Next step ticket office!

Today seemed like a good time to explore New Delhi including Connaught Place, India Gate and Humayun’s Tomb which was an amazing sight and another World Heritage Site. After this we even got the Rickshaw driver to take us to the Commonwealth Stadium. We might have missed the games but at least we so where it had been held, and signs for the games were still all over the city.

Why thankyou Mr Mascot

Connaught Place shopping. Nice hat lad!!!

India Gate in New Delhi

Outside Humayun's Tomb or Mini Taj Mahal as it's known

Humayun's Tomb

Commonwealth Games 2010

Two days late for the games but here's the stadium. Impressive!

Nice Run!!

Our last day in Delhi was exploring the old part of the city, where we came across the Red Fort and had lunch at the world famous Moti Mahal Restaurant, where the Butter Chicken Dish Makhani was invented 60 years ago. It was also where people like J F K frequented and Gordon Ramsey cooked at in one of his shows. The food was amazing and the butter chicken dish was just divine. Yes that’s right we even ate chicken for one day. By far the best curry so far in India!!




Old Delhi Market Place



Red Fort Old Delhi



Best Indian Restaurant Ever-Fact!



Chicken Makhani or Butter Chicken-Wow! No beer but perfect with a local Lassi drink...



No complaints at this private table, Awesome

Overall we were pleasantly surprised with the city of Delhi after hearing so many horror stories on our trip. An inspiring, fascinating and interesting place with all the hustle and bustle that we have come to love as India. We will be back in four weeks to fly to South East Asia. So maybe we will be able to see if the City changes following the Games.

Main Bazaar. See you in 4 weeks

A parting gift from Delhi. Now this is good electrical work...