October 26 - Old Delhi

We slept in until about 9:00 and are feeling pretty good.  

We are back in the color and chaos that is Delhi, India. And today is the day before Diwali, one of the most holy of Hindu holidays (and their New Year). So everyone was out in force shopping and shopping and eating and shopping.

We were picked up at 11:30 by Tara and a driver and headed into Old Delhi where we met our travel companions for part of this trip, Steve and Valerie from the East Coast. 

We also road around the streets of Old Delhi quite a bit.  The traffic was much worse than our previous visit.  We were at a standstill more than once. 

We headed out today for a rickshaw tour of Old Delhi. We have done this before but it never gets old. Because of the holiday the crowds were much larger than the last time we were here. We hit gridlock more than once...and that's saying something when there are very few cars. Traffic is mostly motorcycles, rickshaws, bicycles, tuck-tucks and masses of humanity (and an occasional bullock cart).

We had a walk-around lunch hitting some of Tara’s favorite street food restaurants and shops. Don't try this unless you are with our travel agent Tara. She knows where to eat so that you don't get Delhi Belly. And the food was wonderful (and usually unpronounceable).   We had jalabi’s (think funnel cakes with sticky rose syrup) and paranta (stuffed breads) and some other unpronounceable treats.  Yum. Yum.

It's good to be back in India. Love it or hate it there is no place else quite like it.  .

Many of the streets are devoted primarily to a single type of business such as silver, or saris, or stationery or eyeglasses. 

We spent a fair amount of time walking through the old Spice Market.  Valerie and Steve bought some spices.  Everything was very crowded.

We enjoyed looking at all the goods for sale...such a colorful variety

 

We also climbed to the top of one of the buildings that gave good views of the surrounding area.

Things were mobbed as people are getting ready for Diwali, a major Indian holiday. 

As usually there small, interesting scenes that played out on the streets.

This is an iron (full of hot coals that was sitting on a step, presumably waiting for someone to return to finish the ironing. 

We seemed to notice some really pretty doors...more than we usually do.

We ended the day at Karim’s…noted by a long-ago Time Magazine article as one of the most famous restaurants in Asia.  We ate here the last time we visited Delhi and the food was good.  Tara think's it's gone down hill.

We were back to the hotel around 8:30.  We are both a bit jet-lagged and are tired, however, instead of going to bed right away we spent some time repacking so that we can travel lighter for the next three-week segment of our trip.