Delhi Dally

On the stairwell at our hotel, there is a sign that says “Buy one single malt, get one free”. Flynn thought it might be malt milkshakes and was pretty keen to get the deal. We sped through breakfast to be ready for our pickup at 8:15. Our guide asked us to go back up to the rooms to get our hotel slippers, as we would need them for our first stop today, the Jama Masid Mosque which is the largest mosque in India. I was covered up enough to be allowed in as is, but Josh and Flynn, both in shorts, were given natty checked skirts to put on. We shuffled about in our slippers (too big for me, too small for everyone else) and our guide Dave explained some of the features of the mosque. He wasn’t a great storyteller - lots of facts and names and dates and we were not particularly engaged. Following the mosque, we hopped onto a couple of rickshaws for a drive around the market area. Unfortunately, as it was Sunday, most of the stalls were closed. Many of the street food vendors were doing a brisk trade though, serving various hot breads with little bowls of curry. It smelled sooo good. We saw a very young barber (12 or so?) shaving a customer, and also piles of used textbooks piled in stacks for sale. The stray dogs here, like everywhere we’ve been, look well fed. Our guide told us that when young girls are taught to cook, the rule is that the first chapatti is for the cow and the last is for the dog. There is an odd juxtaposition between the scrupulously clean steps and pathways and the piles of rubbish in crevices and corners. We see people sweeping and cleaning all the time, but there is nothing to do with the rubbish once piled up.

Our next stop, Humayun’s tomb was set in a lovely garden area and was an impressive structure. Team Starrett however was done with monuments. We responded just enough to be polite and moved through fairly quickly. It was beautiful, but we have been looking at beautiful architecture all week, so it needed stories to bring it to life. We had a similar response to the stop at the Qutab Minar. I felt badly that we were unappreciative, but I’m telling it like it was. This stop was enlivened by a few hundred uniformed cadets (air force, navy and army) who were visiting the monument. Beautifully uniformed and groomed, they were all madly taking photos of themselves and each other. We were a curiosity and were asked to be in a few photos. Flynn was mobbed by some young Indian girls, participated in a number of photos and quite enjoyed himself. They all giggled when he walked by them again on the way out. Abandoning all culture, we headed off to the New Delhi Hard Rock Cafe for lunch. This is Flynn’s 18th Hard Rock visit. For those not in the know, he went to his first Hard Rock at age six, loved it, and declared his intention to visit all of them. We didn’t have the heart to disclose to him that there were over a hundred, but as it turns out he’s not doing too badly for a fourteen year old. 

After driving past the parliamentary section of the city (mostly closed off for a holiday on the 26th), we drove to our last stop for the day, the city’s largest Sikh temple. We shed our shoes and socks and put on head coverings in a little room set aside for foreigners. Then we had to wash our feet by walking through a shallow pool of water (we were supposed to do our hands as well but we were all a bit cringy at putting our FEET in the water with the other 20000 people there, so let the hand part go through to the keeper. The press of people was disconcerting. A human tide that pushed you along, regardless of the direction you wanted to go. The bare feet thing was also challenging as other people’s feet kept touching ours. I don’t want to sound like a princess but this was worse than camping. Josh and Flynn were equally challenged (Josh suggested an alternative blog title of “Sikh is sick and not in the good way” which I rejected). We spent a few minutes in the temple sitting and listening and then headed back out and down to the community kitchen. What an amazing facility. Hundreds of people at a time are let in to sit in rows for ten minutes to get a free meal. As foreigners, we were allowed through the food prep and kitchen areas (in bare feet mind you) to see the operations. Fires were roaring under giant cauldrons of dahl and curry. Some stations were rolling roti, others were cooking it on a big grill and we were given one to taste hot off the grill. The cooked food is wheeled to a serving window and then scooped into buckets. I’ve included a photo of this part. It was incredibly chaotic but very organised at the same time. A bit awed, we collected our shoes and headed off back to the hotel. 

Dinner tonight was at Bukhara- a restaurant I had researched and pre booked. There was a slideshow at the entrance of celebrity diners that amused the boys - Bill Clinton, Tony Abbot, Arnold Schwarzenegger to name a few (easily over 100). The specialty is char smoked Indian meats. No cutlery is provided, so diners eat with their hands and mop up the dahl with naan. The spice level packed a punch but this was definitely the best meal experience during our trip and a great meal to finish our adventure on (except for Josh, who ate only naan).