Tony and Mike were off to the local Schneider office in the area. I slept in a bit longer, had breakfast, researched my next travel move (booking an airplane ticket for Goa the next day) and then headed for a workout. After the workout I was offered a free head and neck massage...well, how can I say no? It lasted about 5-10 minutes and the guy was really nice but some of his temple rubbing and head knocking gave me a slight headache, but it was still worth every penny.
I worked on my blog and emails until they arrived back around 6:30pm. They must have been exhausted but we made the decision to brave the 50 minute subway ride into Delhi to see a bit of the city, albeit in the dark, and get some dinner.
Hopping on the subway at its terminal on one end, Hupa City Centre, we were soon told by a subway worker to move from the first car down. It turns out that the first car is reserved for women only although we failed to see any signs. We still had our pick of many seats and got comfy for the ride on the Canadian made Bombardier train. The train soon filled up and it became obvious why there was a ”female” car. The ratio of men to women on the subway must have been 10 to 1, and in our car, there was a maximum of 3 women in the sardine packed car.
We exited at Chandi Chowk, the station for the old city. Immediately we were hit with the full magnitude of the poverty in this area. There were sad looking figures sitting on the pavement holding out their hands in a desperate yet silent plea for some financial aid. We kept our eyes forward and headed towards a main street.
Some weird temple outside the subway station:
What a circus! The streets were filled with incessantly honking cars, tuk tuks and mopeds while the sidewalk was lined with food vendors, homeless people sleeping and others just marching on to some sort of important business. Half of the shops in the bottom of decrepit two storey buildings lining the road were closed. As we passed by the vendors and open shops, I was slightly surprised that we were not accosted at all by anyone even though we were the only Caucasians around. I suggested that we try one of the narrow alleyways that seemed to be lined with shops, with the intention of coming back out the way we went in...I didn’t want to get lost in this neighbourhood!
The boys were up to it so in we plunged. There were many jewellery stores mixed with the occasional odd place such as an old man wearing next to nothing with a large wok like cooking pan filled with some kind of white, porridge like food. We followed what seemed to be the main artery of the path but were dismayed as we reached a dead end. Retracing our steps, Tony and I picked up our pace as we watched a stream of brownish fluid run down a set of white stairs. I have to admit that I was glad not to be wearing open toed shoes!
The street mayhem:
Chaos in Chandi Chowk:
Tone not looking too sure about this alley:
Tentatively walking down an alleyway:
Mike inspecting the nice electrical work (Mike and Tony work in the industry):
We decided that there seemed to be little possibility of finding a decent restaurant in this area so we hopped back on the super busy subway and went just four stops away, but it was night and day. The area we emerged in is called Connaught Place and it’s a large roundabout with nice shops and restaurants around the perimeter. We ended up in a Chinese restaurant (really, it was the nearest to the subway station as it was 10:30pm and we were all starving.
After a good meal, we headed back to the subway station and were dismayed when the ticket seller first mentioned that the last train had gone. He then double checked and there was one more which we ran to catch. Somehow we lost Tony briefly in the process but in the end we all made it onto the train...whew!
The busy subway (and this was after 10pm on a Monday!):
Might as well enjoy it!
(Insert your own caption here):
I think I’ve had enough of Delhi...
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