After almost 2 months in relatively relaxed Goa and Southern India, it was time to brave the North through the infamously chaotic Indian capital of Delhi. Almost every review of the 17+ million inhabitant metropolis includes extensive commentary on hassles, scams & theft, warnings are underscored in triplicate, so unsurprisingly we weren’t overly excited about visiting – but it was a necessary evil in our logistics so Debbie minimised the amount of time to be spent there, booked a slightly pricier hotel in an allegedly decent area and suggested that we should take the easy/safe kop-out of a guided tour rather than run the gauntlet of the scammers, con-artists and thieves. Spoiler – we were very pleasantly surprised by Delhi!

After a significant flight delay it was dark when we landed, not ideal as we’d wanted to arrive in daylight to keep our wits about us. A prepaid taxi from the airport was apparently the safest way to get into the city – easy and cheap to sort out in the baggage reclaim area, a printed invoice with our destination supplied, and we were accompanied to our car past the assembled throng of taxi drivers waiting to scam unsuspecting new arrivals to Delhi. But our vehicle had no room in the boot due to carrying a CNG (LPG to us) cylinder, so Steve’s rucksack went on the front seat and Debbie’s bag was strapped to the roof, which she really wasn’t happy about. On a busy but dark dual carriageway, with traffic at a standstill, the taxi spluttered and appeared to conk out – here we go, the driver’s mate is probably going to appear any minute to ‘rescue’ us for an extortionate fee, or is this a distraction for someone to nick Debbie’s luggage from the roof rack? Neither as it turned out – just the CNG running out and the driver needing to switch to petrol mode!

Delhi is a bit like London, and probably any capital city, for hotels – you don’t get much for your money, there’s some luxury establishments at luxury prices, some utter dross in dodgy areas, and middle of the road places that are fine to lay your head. Most of the Agoda offerings were around New Delhi railway station – a convenient area but dodgy as hell according to various travel blogs – and we’d been advised that Connaught Place was where to stay. Blooms Boutique Hotel was OK-ish, next door to the 5* LaLit and a 5 minute walk from Connaught Place, but the most expensive hotel of our time in India so far at just short of £90 for a slightly shabby small room of Premier Inn standard at best. Breakfast was good though – they even had real Nutella 🙂

Delhi By Locals had been recommended by a couple we met in Goa – tours by young local Delhi residents, with 50% of profits going to the Learning by Locals NGO and many of the guides having been helped to develop their skills through the organisation. We opted for a 1 day private tour of Old and New Delhi, with absolutely no idea what to expect and just going with the flow. It was quite pricey, £65 each, but worth it for peace of mind and knowing that our funds were helping a good cause. In summary – just wow!

Our guide Salman was about 12 – actually he can’t have been as he is married with a young daughter and has been guiding for 7 years. From a local community, he was the only person in his extended family to speak English, having been supported in his language development from age 14 by the Learning by Locals programme. He’d worked in a call centre during COVID but tourism was his first love – although he was tempted to train as a London cabbie when we told him how much they charge. He had a real desire to progress his career to provide the best possible life for his family and we suspect/hope that he’ll do well – fluent, knowledgable, entertaining and a thoroughly nice bloke. It was the first day of Ramadan and as a Muslim he was fasting, so out of respect/empathy we chose not to make a lunch stop – no biggie as we tended not to eat lunch most days anyway.

First stop early (for us) on a Sunday morning was Humayun’s Tomb, an elegant red-brick forerunner of the Taj Mahal, Delhi’s first Mughal mausoleum constructed by the senior widow (he had three!)of the 2nd Mughal emperor to house his remains. Islamic-Indian architecture, restored to it’s former splendour by the Aga Khan and surrounded by formal gardens, it took our breath away with its beauty and was really not what we expected to see in the middle of polluted, busy Delhi.

Next stop was off the tourist trail totally, to a back street chai stand and a meet up with Pradeep, the founder of Delhi by Locals, and some of his friends. They meet every Sunday morning with their mentor to discuss various subjects and expand their learning. This Sunday’s topics were the stock market and Donald Trump! A group of really nice people, interested to hear about our experiences in India, wanting to get our thoughts on world events and discuss current affairs, share their tips on what we must see/do/experience next. Through the NGO they had helped youngsters undertake sponsored programmes in the USA, Pradeep had himself spent a year studying tourism in Washington, and one of the girls was waiting to hear whether she’d been successful in gaining a place for July. However, they feared that the lunatic in the White House was likely to stop the programme – America first and all that 🙁

Salman later told us how special it was to be able to spend time with the mentor, a very interesting and well travelled man, as normally a person of Salman’s social class would have no opportunity to interact with a person of such wealth & stature. A Google search revealed that the mentor was Sanjeev Nangia, a very wealthy and philanthropic Delhi businessman with political views definitely to the left of centre and a passion for helping others to realise their potential.

Lodi Gardens, another surprisingly calm and green space, was one of Salman’s favourite places to bring his family and housed more impressive Islamic tombs and architecture. Also popular with trysting couples, this gave Debbie an opening to quiz Salman on the intricacies of dating in modern Indian culture. We learned why dating is initially often done in secret (remember the bird sanctuary in Kerala?!), about arranged marriages, love-arranged marriages (where the parents agree to the match of a couple who’ve found love themselves), and love marriages (which happen despite parental objection). Salman’s marriage was of the love-arranged type, so everyone was happy 🙂

New Delhi was designed by Edwin Lutyens and built by the British, a city of wide boulevards and stately buildings to accommodate the colonial government. Its centrepiece is Rajpath, a long, straight, wide road leading from The President’s Palace to India Gate, Delhi’s iconic 1st World War memorial with a vague similarity to the Arc de Triomphe. Again the magnificence of the buildings and structures, and the amount of space in one of the world’s most congested and densely populated cities, surprised us.

From there we visited an ancient Step Well where Salman said that he enjoys witnessing the reaction of people when they step through the unassuming gate and see what’s inside. We didn’t disappoint him! The contrast between the ancient well and the modern tower blocks that loom over it is amazing.

Bangla Sahib Gurdwara was the standout part of our Delhi tour, which is saying something given what we’d already seen. A huge temple complex, named after the 8th Sikh Guru, it is one of the most important places of worship for the Sikh community in India but is much much more, having great cultural and social significance. We were provided with orange headscarves and after donning these, removing shoes and washing hands and feet, entered the magnificent golden temple to join the faithful in prayer and listening mesmerised to the musical chanting (sorry, we aren’t religious so don’t really know the detail). Outside, a huge rectangular pool provided the option for pilgrims to bathe.

As impressive as the temple architecture and religious goings-on were, the outstanding experience was visiting the Langar Hall (community kitchen) and witnessing the mammoth operation to feed the people of Delhi – around 40,000 of them every day – from all religions, classes and walks of life. Langar is a Sikh tradition practiced all over the world, not just in Gurdwaras but also in secular settings for example in response to crises and disasters. It isn’t just about feeding the poor & starving – food is offered to anyone who is hungry, no questions, no justification required. Those wanting food sit quietly in a waiting area while the hall is prepared, long carpet runners are laid on the floor, and when the doors are opened probably 1,000 people make their way to take a seat on the carpet. The food is a set vegetarian menu so that any religion or diet can eat it, and everyone gets the same. This represents another Sikh principle – equality.

A team of volunteers hand out metal thali plates and then walk up and down the rows efficiently dishing out rice, dhal, veg curry & pickles from metal buckets, accompanied by bread. Food is eaten quickly and in silence, the room is cleared and cleaned when finished (within 20 minutes) and the doors opened for the next 1,000 people. The kitchen operation is amazing, mainly manned by volunteers with just a few paid employees who properly know what they are doing. Teams chop veg, knead dough, mass produce chapatis, make industrial-sized vats of dhal and curries, decant into smaller buckets for serving, pass things through hatches, wash dishes. Even young children are brought along by their parents to volunteer and it was a sight to behold. Often on these tours Salman gets his guests involved in the food preparation, but it was so crowded during our visit that they couldn’t have accommodated any more volunteers – a shame but the experience was extremely humbling nevertheless, which taught us another Sikh principle, Seva, selfless service.

Time to ditch our driver as we were heading to places that would be impossible for a sedan car, so we took the ultra-modern metro 2 stops, just 4 minutes journey time, and were transported to a totally different world. Welcome to Old Delhi – an assault on every sense imaginable, and chaos taken to a new level. A ride in an electric rickshaw down a throughfare crammed with traders, people going about their business, dodgy-looking electrical wiring everywhere, a cacophony of sounds, and being overtaken by pedestrians. A quick respite came in the form of a mosque and huge square, hidden behind the chaotic streets, where we caught our breath and conversed with some children keen to speak English while Salman nipped off to pray. He then expertly guided us through bazaars, side alleys, spice markets, into a wholesale chilli market that stung our throats, pointed out the split level outlet where 2 separate vendors shared the rent, the tradesmen with their bags touting for work (a paintbrush indicates a decorator, a light bulb a sparky, you get the drift….), a trip on a bicycle rickshaw (well 2 rickshaws actually, it wouldn’t have been fair to ask some poor bloke to drag our combined body weight along by bike). The whole place was utter madness but not in a particularly intimidating way – an ‘experience’ but not especially interesting or immersive in the way Marrakech is for example.

Tour over, after almost 8 hours we were famished so asked Salman and our driver (now reunited with us) to drop us at Connaught Place – no point going to our hotel as we’d be turning around and coming straight back out again in a desperate search for food. Where did we head to? The Hard Rock Cafe as sometimes only a burger and a couple of beers will do. But bloody hell – £43 – we were in a capital city sure enough!

The contrast between Old Delhi and New Delhi was stark and it’s almost impossible to believe that they co-exist. Our tour was a fantastic way to experience Delhi in a day as undoubtedly we’d not have had the confidence to visit some of the Old Delhi districts, and wouldn’t have necessarily chosen (or understood) some of the New Delhi sights and experiences. There’s lots we didn’t see in the centre, and apparently some fabulous areas in South Delhi, so we could’ve easily filled another day or 2 but we’d deliberately kept the visit short. But, from being quite (understatement) apprehensive about Delhi and being pretty sure we’d hate it, we actually had a really good day and enjoyed Delhi far more than we expected. But most of that was down to Salman and the excellent Delhi By Locals tour.

Delhi survived – tick – now Rajasthan awaits….