Days 3-4. We got back to the hotel and decided to relax for a bit, which turned out to be 4 hours and realized that geez (gotta love vacation siestas), it was time for dinner! We decided to go somewhere close and the Sheraton next door got good reviews so off we went. The map said “go this way”. Well, “this way” was an alley with locals cooking in front of it, so after a lot of “excuse me’s” we got through to another part of the alley. A long, VERY DARK portion of the alley. Leave it up to us to get lost going next door. We thought this CAN’T be right so started to turn around, but one of the vendors said that indeed, the Sheraton was down the end and to the left so we went ahead and went down it, hoping that nobody would clunk us over our heads for a few rupees. Our fears were for naught because the Sheraton was right there. We ate Pan-Asian (yes, I know we’re in India so am sure that there will be curry galore and why not try something else?). We started out with lamb satay (notice that I haven’t mentioned beef or pork yet – they don’t serve either due to the Hindu and Muslim religions), David chose stir fried lobster with black bean sauce and I had duck in yellow curry with coconut/lemongrass/ginger rice. Just delicious, an amazing meal. We kept making nummy noises while we were eating it so what more could we ask? Our waiter asked us for dessert and we politely refused, professing we couldn’t eat another bite. We were a bit confused when be brought over two spoons, then understood when he returned with a beautiful chocolate gateau with chocolate sauce and white chocolate garnish. I mean, we didn’t want to be RUDE so we HAD to eat EVERY BITE. Geez, this is what you get when you say you don’t want dessert? Imagine if we had said yes?! OK, after this, it was almost 11pm and we were feeling jet lag kicking in so back to the hotel for the remainder of the evening. We checked to make sure the mall dogs were still there and indeed they were sleeping on the steps. Lots of dogs here, but they seem to be pretty healthy overall and are pretty much sleeping wherever – on steps, on the sidewalk, street medians, etc. So I’m glad that they’re not completely emaciated and suffering. I can only imagine what the animal population is in Delhi. We did see a pig in an alley way and a couple of monkeys hanging out as well. We started the morning with an American breakfast - don’t want to completely overload on Indian food all at once. We then met our driver and guide (Karan) for a tour of the city. We started out at the Qutab Minar Complex dating from the onslaught of Islamic rule in India. The pillar itself was constructed in 1193 after the defeat of the Hindu kingdom. It’s 73 meters high and tapers from a 15 meter base to 2.5 meters at the top. Made of red sandstone and marble, has been struck by lightning and an earthquake, which brought down the 6th story cupola. It is surrounded by a mosque, built on a Hindu temple, which is evidenced by many Hindu motifs. Another pillar was started, but upon Ala-ud-din’s death, nobody else was willing to take on the project so it’s only 27 meters high. It wasn’t too busy at the mosque, a lot of school field trips were there so children in uniforms abounded. They liked saying “hi” to us. We happened upon a Rajasthani family in full native regalia – love the way they were so colorful in their saris, red veils, gold jewelry and such. They were very nice and let us take some photos of them. We then proceeded to the Ghandi memorial. Karan gave us a good overview of the life of Ghandi and how revered he is in India. He lived his last 140 days at the house we toured and was assassinated on the grounds. There was a lot to read, but luckily they had made dioramas of the high points in his life so we were able to get the “condensed” version. Next was the Laxmi Narayan Temple, a red and white confection that was one of many built by a British family in 1947. Karan gave a brief description of some of the Hindu gods (there are 3.5 million of them…one of every trouble you can possibly imagine) but we hit on some of the more “popular” ones. Shiva, Ganash, Vishnu, Krishna, etc. You can tell each one by what they’re holding, how they stand, what they’re sitting on (a tiger, maybe) or if they happen to have a monkey head (Hanuman). They kind of all looked like pretty girls, Karan explained that since they are made of white marble, they had to paint eyes, lips, etc, which gives them a feminine tone. Of course all the silk, jewels and peacock feathers helped as well. He mentioned that there are three animals revered in the Hindu religion – the cow, elephant and snake. Monkeys and rats are also popular with their own temples – not sure if I want to visit a temple overrun by rats! We buzzed through the gift shop, but nothing caught our eye. I’m sure we’ll have plenty of opportunity to shop along the way. Let me know if you want me to pick up a statue of Shiva the Destroyer for you. Karan then said he wanted to take us to a place that sold Kashmir articles. Uh oh… Rug time. We got to the shop and saw many items for sale, then were taken upstairs to yes, the rug room. They brought tea – always a sign that they are expecting you to buy – and showed us the technique of rug knotting. So impressive that each and every color is hand-knotted, then multiple washings, hand trimming, etc. Then they started unfurling beautiful rug after rug after rug. Silk, yak, ibex yarns. The silk ones just shone and changed color as they were spun around. He gave us the “original” price, then the “discount” price and then the “today only for Diwali” price, which I must admit was very fair and I bet we could have talked him down even more. We’re not really in the market for a rug, but if we do decide to get one, we assured him that we would return to that shop. Then they took us through the statue room, the bronze room, the pashmina room, the painting room, the pottery room and finally we said ENOUGH! It kind of made your head spin, all that was available. We saw some items we liked, so might end up with something when we get back to Delhi at the end of the trip. Next was the bicycle-rickshaw ride in Old Delhi. Karan said that nothing we had heard or read about would prepare us for what was about to happen and boy, was he right. We met Amir, who was to be our pedaler – he was pretty small, but was able to cart two big Americans without much problem. We started at the Red Fort – one of the largest structures in Delhi, but didn’t have time to tour it so only saw it from the outside. We started seeing lots of people – up to that point, it really hadn’t been as bad as I had imagined – but this was only the tip of the iceberg. We rounded a corner at the Second Gate of the Red Fort that overlooked a bazaar and saw just a throng of humanity below us. I’m all for browsing a bazaar, but even I wasn’t about to decent into that! Amir said that it probably wouldn’t be a good idea for us to venture forth and we could tell that he was keeping a close watch on us. There were people in the street doing laundry, cooking, selling items, sewing clothes, pretty much anything you could imagine. We left the Red Fort and headed into Old Delhi to get a true flavor of India. And BOY, did we! We were in a four lane highway along with cars, auto-rickshaws, bicycle rickshaws and people walking every which way and honking. LOTS of horns constantly honking. Noisy, crazy and lots of fun. Our pedaler wove in and out of the crowd and turned down an alley that was JAM PACKED with people. How on EARTH was he going to get us through there? And yet he did, moving around people and people got out of the way. He took us down wedding sari alley that was no more than 10 ft wide (mind you, full of people and other cycle rickshaws coming from the other direction) with tiny shop after shop after shop full of sari silk, jeweled skirts, ribbons, decorations and such. The wedding saris on display were spectacular in their adornment – I would love to see a bride all decked out in her dress and gold jewelry. Karan mentioned when he got married, his wife’s wedding sari was 25 kilos and she only weighed 42 kilos! The average price is $400 US so not a bad deal for a totally bejeweled wedding gown (brides take note – why not a Bollywood wedding theme?). We then were back on the main street crush – cacophony was definitely a word that came to mind! We were just laughing and going “WOW” “WOW” and “WOW” everywhere we looked. Food, clothing, silver, jewelry, pretty much anything you could want could be found somewhere. I can’t imagine going there to do your daily shopping. It was to the point of sensory overload where you almost didn’t notice the Brahma bull dyed with henna pulling a cart! I’ve never, ever in over 50 countries seen anything like it. An extraordinary experience, but we were glad when it ended. After this, we needed to go somewhere quiet for a whiskey! We were told we were going to have lunch at the Ethiopian Embassy and I thought Karan was joking until we pulled into…the Ethiopian Embassy. They have a small restaurant there, but aren’t allowed to call themselves a restaurant so they have to call it a Culture Center with Food. I was up for eating Ethiopian, but we found out it was Indian so had two kinds of lamb curry, parathas and King Fisher beer (no whiskey after all). This ended our tour, so we dropped Karan off and headed back to the hotel. It was a great overview of Old and New Delhi and once Karan heard that I like to cook Indian, he said he will take us to the spice market when we head back at the end of the trip. We got home around 5pm and hung out at the hotel until about 8:30 and after checking Trip Advisor, decided to try South Indian food. The map stated that the restaurant was in another Sheraton, but after inquiring at the front desk, we were happy to find it was in the same Sheraton we had been at the night before. Oh, and we had found a better access/egress so didn’t have to risk life and limb wandering down dark alleyways! Beautiful South Eastern Indian restaurant, lots of silver and spices as decoration. We started with fresh pappadams and chutneys – I couldn’t decide which I liked better – tamarind, tomato, coconut or ginger. I’m going to have to learn how to make these! We let our waiter make a suggestion of an appetizer, which turned out to be sole wrapped in banana leaf – so tender and mild. Next up were chicken curry and shrimp curries (oh, they have other complicated names, but basically they’re Southern Indian curries). Accompanying was a kind of rice flour/coconut milk crepe, which was a nice change from the usual rice. Oh my, these are some wonderful curries! We’re not to the point where we are sophisticated enough to discern the difference between all the curries, but know a good one when we get it! We were talking about spices with the waiter and he brought out a huge box of them – I could pick out 10 of 12, I didn’t know what the stone flower fungus or the long pepper were, but thought I did pretty good for an American! We are going to look for some stone flower when we head south. The chef came out to talk to us and we enjoyed talking about food, curries, spices and such with him. I got his facebook and email addresses so when I attempt some of these dishes at home, I know who to get in touch with. We tried Indian wine (who knew?) both last night and tonight and the sav blanc is surprisingly nice with curry. We saw that we’ll be drinking Indian wine on the train so at least now know a bit of what we’ll be getting. The meal ended with coffee served with a flourish, being poured three feet between pitchers to become frothy (their version of a cappuccino) and served in silver cups. I’m definitely going to have to learn how to do this for our dinner parties, but think I’ll start out practicing with cold water. Geez, we haven’t gone wrong with the food and are looking forward to future foody experiences. Off to bed and tomorrow evening we head out on the Maharaja Express so may sleep in. Breakfast at the hotel – more Indian, which included soup, matter paneer, dal cakes, garlic and chili chutneys, poached eggs and another large crepe stuffed with potato curry and accompanied by different sauces. Back up to the room to pack, upload photos and catch up on this diary so here is where we’re at. It’s now 3:45 and we head to the train at 7pm so will finish packing and maybe go downstairs for a cocktail. This is a has been a nice hotel stay and everybody has been so pleasant and accommodating – have pretty much found this to be the consensus of Indian people as a whole. We will get on the train this evening and travel during the night to Agra – I believe the Taj Mahal is tomorrow. More soon…
Posted on: Sat, 09 Nov 2013 10:21:18 +0000