Delhi Diary Day 2
I started the day with a walk round the lake and a trip to Third Wave Coffee (it was nice enough, but I preferred Blue Tokai yesterday). I made a conscious decision to lean into the chaos today so walked to a Metro station and headed to Chandi Chowk. The metro is new and cheap and clean and air conditioned with good phone signal throughout. It has been much nicer and easier than the tube.
I had a good wander round Chandi Chowk, checking out the back lanes and stopped off at a couple of food vendors that I have on my list. It’s a bit of an assault on the senses but quite a positive one. The Daal Kachori was particularly tasty and as good as anything I’ve ate so far.
I briefly ducked into a small museum dedicated to the poet Ghalib which was cool and calm and peaceful, beyond that I can confidently say I know slightly more than I did about Ghalib as well.
I don‘t understand how there can be 200 meters of shops with maybe 40-50 sunglasses sellers offering the same things at the same prices. How does it work?
I was contemplating going to the Red Fort as it was within striking distance but the siren song of the air conditioned Metro was irresistible and I have a hunch I will find my way back to the Red Fort on Friday. I returned to the flat via metro & my first tuktuk journey. The metro plus the last mile solution of the tuktuk is a quick and cheap and fun way to get round. As with a lot of things on this trip my outward impression was one of mild alarm mixed with confusion but when I got going I loved it and felt quite at ease with the situation.
I ordered a thali plate for lunch somewhere South Indianish in HKV without really paying much attention to the menu and was a bit taken aback by the size of it. It kept on coming and coming and coming until I made a manual intervention to stop the flow of rice.. My early afternoon plans were changed up in favour of having a little rest and a wash and a change of clothes after this, which I can confirm was fit for a Maharaja.
The afternoon brought some light sight seeing with a trip firstly to the Lotus Temple, a modern Baháʼí edifice, set in an immaculate park. It was hot, busy, and close to closing so I just did a quick lap of appreciation of the building and it’s surrounds.
A few minutes walk through a slightly less immaculate park there is a slightly different temple proposition in the form of the Hare Krishna dominated ISKCON Complex. This was on the clearly batshit side of holy/sacred/spiritual experiences and I don’t think I would rush back. Those Hare Krishnas have some rare energy.
I have not scratched the surface of the amount of green space in Delhi, there are a lot of parks and woodland and I noticed a bird sanctuary with a Metro stop I’ll try and get to at some point.
Take away pizza tonight. Contemplating a mission to Agra to see you know what, but not tomorrow, maybe the weekend.