Old Delhi

 This morning several of us took a car arranged by the hotel to go to Old Delhi.  This is the chaos I think people think of when they think of India.  We were told to ask the drivers to stay so that we had a way back to the hotel with someone that knew where they were going.  Best move ever.

Fist we stopped at India Gate , a war memorial to soldiers who died in the WWI.  While giving a very cool mist effect, you could really see how poor the air quality is in Delhi.  I have to think that respiratory disease is rampant.

 


The traffic here is organized chaos.  There I go using that chaos word again.  I believe that may be the theme of the trip but perhaps it's only in the big cities.  Somehow the combination of cars, bikes, tuk tuks and pedestrians all share the road while barely missing each other.  Since this was once an English colony they drive on the left side of the road.  I wouldn't want to try it!

Our cars stopped at a parking lot where we transferred to rickshaws that could take us further into the spice market.  If you read my Istanbul blog you know I visited a spice market.  That was like Disneyland compared to what we were about to experience.  This was a cacophony of people selling everything from flowers, to food, to spices, to just about everything.  Lots of goods were being moved by various modes of transportation.  Carts pulled by bulls and horses mixed with wooden carts pulled by people.  Heads carried big bags of maybe rice or nuts or something.  It's hard to capture the entire experience.  















Our rickshaw drivers had waited to take us back to our cars.  There's so many people asking to take you to wherever you want, but I had know idea where that might be.  Our guys knew exactly where the cars were that would take us back to our hotel in calm, uncrowded New Delhi.  What a day!

Tomorrow: We travel to Agra

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