Delhi ...

Only Delhi

It was onboard a Boeing 777 from India-Airline, that I left home for India. In the plane, my 2 neighbors were a Nepalese from Katmandu, and a Hindi from North of India. I switched my mp3 player on, and on a music written by Mike Jaegger in 1968: “You can’t always get what you want”, I started my tribulations through Asia. But this time, I did get what I wanted.

My plane landed after a flight of just under 5 hours. Delhi Airport was clean and the custom staff efficient. Less than 20 minutes later I was in a rickshaw: direction Woodcastle guest House.

New Delhi is the India’s capital and the second biggest city after Mumbai. With around 12.5 m of people, Delhi ranks 8^th in the most populated cities on earth. It is also one of the oldest cities, as it birth dates several millenniums BC, as the Yamunâ (one of the 7^t sacred rivers) is witness. Even though, historical traces dated from the 6^th century BC only.

Delhi History started with the creation of Indraprastha by the Pândava 1540 years BC, and then it History was written centuries after, by Kings and Maharaja from Indraprastha to Shahjahanabad, who made Delhi a magical city. Magical? Not that much!

My first day in Delhi gave me the opportunity to get a better understanding of the capital. One tells a lot about Delhi: an impressive city, but too noisy and dirty to my taste, and I was far from being impressed.

Delhi doesn’t escape the archetype of big cities in emerging countries; therefore you are deeply moved by the poverty and the awful living condition the population has to cope with day after day. In the afternoon of the first day, Nastya and I met a British couple and we decided to go to the railway statio to book our train tickets. Finding the right railway reservation office was not easy; a lot of travel tours and drivers tried to scam us. With patience we found the main station and booked our tickets to Agra, Udaipur, Mumbai, Goa and Varkala. Our trip from Agra to Jaipur will be done by bus, 3 hours of fun!

The afternoon was cultural and we enjoyed the visit of the Red Fort. The Red Fort is a huge castle started in 1638 and finished in 1648 by Shah Jahan. This fort, with walls’ length over 2km, was the most powerful castle in India during the Mughal domination. The tour continued with Humayun’s Tomb built in the 16^th century by Haji Begum.

Wealth and poverty are very close in India, street boys are begging for coins. Coins! No way! But Ice cream and food: Yes! At least two of them were happy for a while.

Then days went on. India gate, Parliament, Presidential House, National Museum of India… were the main places we visited in Delhi