Before you worry – we didn’t get caught up in any of the protests but, it turns out we weren’t far from them.
After the lack of success walking around Delhi yesterday, we decided to hire a driver for the day. He would pick us up from our hotel at 9.30am, drive us wherever we wanted and drop us back to our hotel by 6.00pm, all for NZ50 (although we all suspected there was a catch and we’d be asked to pay more at some stage – this is India after all).
The driver was at our hotel right on time in a reasonably new 6 seater that would need to seat 7 for the day with three people squashed across the back seat.
Our driver took us to the Red Fort and parked there before negotiating with three tuk tuk drivers to take us into Old Delhi. Only tuk tuk’s are allowed on the narrow streets of Old Delhi and we would later see why.
First stop on our tuk tuk tour was the Jama Masjid, one of the largest mosques in India. Old Delhi has a very high Muslim community and on Fridays (which today is) anywhere from 15,000 to 25,000 come to pay at this mosque. Preparations were underway as we walked around with people sweeping the area and laying out prayer mats. Toni and I had to don a very stylish “dressing gown” to be allowed access (the joys of being a woman) and, while it is free to enter, if you want to take photos, or even take your cell phone inside, there was an extra charge. We left most of our cell phones with our driver.
The mosque was amazing, set slightly elevated, there were views into Old Delhi, albeit very hazy views.
Back on the tuk tuks and into the heart of Old Delhi. Each narrow street is dedicated to a different form of retail. One street filled with wedding card shops – I’m not sure how many people are getting married in Delhi to keep these shops open but the cards looked elaborate and if I knew someone getting married soon I would have got the tuk tuk to stop.
Next stop, Khari Baoli – Asia’s largest spice market. The streets surrounding the market are filled with spice shops, more for retail purchases than the wholesale market that’s behind them. On the streets are hundreds of men, each with their wooden cart ready to transport purchases out of the narrow streets, there’s no room for a truck and trailer here. Within the surrounding walls of the market are the wholesalers, with sacks of dried chillies, turmeric, chickpeas, coriander …… It was a photographers dream and BJ would have loved to go further into the market but we were being watched closely by the stallholders so didn’t get a chance to just wander around.
As we continued through the narrow streets by tuk tuk there was a clear police presence. Many were in riot gear and in large groups. Our tuk tuk driver said they would be heading to the mosque given the protests of the past week or so. He promised he’d keep us well away from any trouble.
Back to the Red Fort we decided to walk along the outside but not go inside. The Red Fort in Agra is supposed to be much better than this one and is on our list of places to visit.
It was a reasonable long drive to the Lotus temple – a Bahai House of Worship which is open to all religions. It is a beautiful building made of marble and with similarities to the Sydney Opera House. The grounds around it are the best kept we’ve seen in India so far, possibly because they check all bags and don’t allow food to be eaten therefore minimising the possibility of rubbish. The building is constructed of 27 marble-clad free standing petals surrounded by 9 water pools to represent the 9 major religions in the world. The central hall is over 34 metres high and the complex construction has created a simplistic, peaceful space for the 3.5 million that visit here each year.
Our driver suggested we visit the India Gate – a war memorial commemorating all Indian military. There were plenty of people inside but the police had shut the gates so we took a couple of photos then drove to Rashtrapati Bhavan – the presidential residence surrounded by parliamentary buildings. The smog was so bad that we could only just make out the shape of the presidential residence but got a reasonably good view of the gates!
After finding somewhere to get SIM cards for a couple of our phones we were taken back to the driver’s office. We knew there would be a catch as we were taken into the office, sat down by the business owner who proceeded to try to sell us travel everywhere else we were going in India and then asked for an extra 500 rupees. While that may only be NZ12.50, a deal’s a deal and we refused to pay any more. We were however quite happy giving our driver a tip when we finally made it through rush hour back to our hotel.
Now the reason I mentioned protests at the start of this post is because we woke the next day and found that there had been major protests outside Jama Masjid in the afternoon with hundreds being arrested. We’d seen signs of this on our drive back to the hotel with police cordons on some roads. There were also fires lit overnight at the India Gate that we’d tried to visit. It’s difficult to find much information about where the protests are being held but we’re planning to stay close to the hotel for our final day in Delhi and check out a market so hopefully we’ll be out of harms way.
Jama Masjid Mosque
Old Delhi
Lotus temple through the smog
