Die Fernweh Bilder
New Delhi
While in India, I stayed most of my time in the city of New Delhi, the capital city of India. My significant other’s family lives in New Delhi, so I stayed most of the time with them at their house. While in New Delhi, though, there are several experiences I had.
The Site-seeing & Food:
The day after landing, my partner took me to see Knives Out at the theater in the mall. I remember being wowed by the elaborateness of the theater, never having been to a movie theater that elaborate. A picture of the theater is here on the site, and even though some people may say that it’s normal, it seemed quite fancy to me. That day also marked my first time riding in an auto rickshaw, and as I learned, every time we needed to ride an auto rickshaw, I had to hide my face, not allowing anyone to see that I was, in fact, a foreigner, because foreigners are usually charged twice as much as locals.
After that, we went on a sight-seeing tour of the city, stopping to look at and visit the Bangla Sahib Gurudwara (neither of us are Sikh, but we still visited because we like the architecture and food). Interesting fact: the top of the Gurudwara and the awning were made of solid gold. We had to remove our shoes, cover our heads, and wash our feet at the shallow fountain. before entering the premises. After exiting the temple’s interior, we ate halwa (a sweet pudding made from semolina and clarified butter) as a prasad (food that is offered to the deity or saint, and then distributed in His or Her name to their followers or others as a good sign).
We also tried some of the more famous street-food items, such as jalebi (fried batter made from fermented lentil) and paan (a concoction of various things wrapped inside a beetle leaf). We ate at Jamie Oliver’s Restaurant at DLF Mall, and had spaghetti with lamb, along with one of the tastiest pizzas ever. I realized we ate Italian food in India but it was a worth-while experience enough to recommend. The cost of the food along with beverages and drinks (I had a beet concoction while my partner had a Mojito) was slightly upwards of 3000 rupees.
We also indulged in sweets made with chhena (cheese curd made from water buffalo and cow milk by adding lemon juice instead of rennet and straining the whey through filtration) at the Kamala Sweets located in C. R. Park (home to a large Bengali community). We sweet costed on an average 25 rupees. We also tried some of the authentic Delhi street foods such as Daulat-ki-chaat (cow's milk mixed with cream which is cooled on an ice slab overnight, later, gallons of sweetened milk are whisked by hand till frothy and then enriched with khoya or mawa and crumpled chhena), fruit kulfi, aloo tikki chaat, paani-puri etc.
Later during my stay, we also visited the Qutub Minar, a structure constructed as a victory monument by Qutb-ud-din Aibak. The price to see the structure is around 550 Rupees for foreigners. We also visited and shopped at cottage industry markets in Kidwai Nagar and Connaught Place. I recommend going to the cottage industry for authentic souvenirs. However, be aware that things can be expensive, and can be vary widely in price –especially if you are a foreigner! In this regard, I was rather blessed to have a non-foreign companion to negotiate for me. One primary recommendation for any travel is that the experience is always better if you have local friends.
Apart from the above mentioned places, we also spent quite a lot of time at the Aerocity- place of high class businesses, such as hotels, restaurants and fashion brands. Built near the Indira Gandhi International Airport, the target audience is mostly travelers who have a layover in Delhi or happen to be in Delhi for a few hours.