Delhi with Clean Air

Our patio at the Rambagh Palace

Delhi Metro

Dinner at the Imperial Hotel

We awakened at the Rambagh Palace in Jaipur, and were delighted that we had decided to spend the night there rather than in Pushkar. Our room had a screened in Patio. The screen was to keep the birds away from us. A Peacock visited us right on the other side of the screen. It is funny, they make a noise that almost sounds like a cat: meow.

Vijay picked us up for drive to Delhi. Depending upon traffic it can take 5 to 6 hours. About half way along the way we stopped for tea at a dhaba (roadside café), where a friendly woman tourist wearing a head scarf stopped at our table and offered us some cookies that we gladly accepted. It was a wonderful gesture of friendship. Later in the car, as we left the dabha, Vijay said the tour group was from Iran. I will always regret I didn’t attempt to talk to them. I don’t know if they offered the cookies because we were obviously, not Muslims, not Indians, obviously westerners, possibly Americans, maybe they could tell we were Jewish. I will never know. I do know I would have liked to talk to them especially after the Nuclear Deal with Iran, and the possibility of someday visiting Iran.

As we approached Delhi, we saw more and more trucks by the side of the road. The primary mode of freight transportation in India is trucks, not trains. There were hundreds of them that we passed. They are not allowed to enter Delhi until after 8:30pm. They simply park by the side of the road. We were expecting the air in Delhi to be terrible, worse than Beijing. We were wrong, we hit blue skies, moderate temperatures.

The highway from Jaipur to Delhi is a four-lane freeway, just like an America freeway. It is slightly different because they allow cows, elephants, goats and camels to also be on the freeway – we saw them all. They also have crosswalks, with no lights where people dart across the freeway. As we approached Delhi, there were immense factories on both sides of us. Huge apartment complexes were also being built. Delhi is giant -18 million plus people live in the city.

We arrived at the Imperial Hotel in Delhi and we were delighted to see the Delhi Metro Subway construction in front of the hotel, that has been continuing for years, has finally been completed. There is a subway stop directly next to the hotel. We decided to go to Khan Market, a popular shopping area, by subway. We have never taken the Delhi Subway before. The cost of a one-way ticket is 10 rupees (14 cents). That is the way public transportation should be priced! As you enter the subway there are armed guards and you go through a scanner, your bags are put through a separate scanner like at an airport and you are patted down. They are taking terrorism very seriously.

When we entered the very full car, Cathy was immediately offered a seat that is reserved for ladies. there are also women only cars.

When we exited the train the platform was thick with shoving crowds. We have been on the Tokyo Subway where there are men with white gloves that push you into the cars. No white gloves or pushers here, but the cars were even more crowded. The Metro is a victim of its own excess!

After shopping at Khan Market, we returned by subway to The Imperial. We had wine in our room before dinner, a delicious Indian dinner, then a Scotch after dinner concluded our day.

There will be no site seeing in Delhi, we will be shopping.