India - Old Delhi Walking Tour

This was close to where we started the tour. In the Hindu tradition, you should hang flowers on the pictures of those who are deceased to honor them. This lady every day sews the flowers together to form the wreaths for the pictures. 

I took this at a snack break. You can see the pictures below with hanging flowers on them. 

There is a tradition in Indian culture to offer a glass of water to visitors. The way the shops handle this is in one of two ways. 1) they have an official owner of a shop, with their name on the paper signalling ownership. This allows their shop to be hooked up to the water system. 2) You or your family have been renting a shop for a long time, or you "own" it without your name on the paper (maybe it's been in your family for generations). without your name on the paperwork, you can't get hooked up to the water system.  So every day, someone fills up these barrels of water, and brings them around to shops that need them in place of running water.

After the flowers you hang on the pictures are done, they're supposed to be released into a river.  Since there isn't a river close, everyone hands them on the poles outside. Once a week, someone (our guide said a boy) will collect them and take them the 20km or so to the river.  They'll pay the boy a small fee to do so.

These were our good friends we went with.  The Lifferths on the left brought their 7 month old boy along. He was by far the biggest hit of the tour as many, many people stopped them to get a picture with their baby (or try to hold their baby etc). At one point, they stepped into the bathroom, leaving the baby in my charge (I know, a risky proposition, I question their judgment too). Some girl came over and asked for a picture with the baby. There was no way I was letting someone else hold the baby that I didn't know, so I gave him to Suzy and she sat next to her.  

 The Baby (name intentionally not dropped here) was amazingly great. Rarely cried, smiles, was generally a great baby all around.

Here's me learning how to make some kind of bread thing. I can't remember what it's called. This is a traditional breakfast joint, this is where our guide (Raj) grew up eating breakfast.

Here's a picture of Raj, in front of some steps. These are very narrow steps. He was great, degree in history and anthropology.  Gave VERY good cultural and historical background to much of what went on.

Here's me trying to flip the oil onto the bread like the guy showing me was doing it. And failing. Miserably. He made it look so easy.

Hey, it still turned out okay.

Suzy was an oil master

Oh yeah, baby.

Here' we are eating together. It was GREAT food. I love those Indian spices.  

There was a political rally that went by as we were eating. I captured a video of it below.

They had a "breakfast dessert" available. It was actually quite tasty! Basically cream of wheat with extra sugar and butter. I like a culture that believes in dessert for breakfast. 

We visited a local Hindu temple. It was quite interesting, especially the explanation on the Gods. Apparently all statues are "demi-gods" since in the Hindu tradition God is part of everything, so those represented by statues are not God but demi-Gods who can be harsh or merciful depending. 

They had some drive by windows in case you don't have time to go in and take off your shoes etc.

Here's another of the drive by windows. Drive by temple worship, I think this could really catch on in the Mormon culture as well. 

This is supposed to be a picture of the archway. Before we get to that though, I want you to notice a common theme you'll see in many of our pictures. Electrical wires everywhere. And haphazard as all get out. According to Raj one of the great Miracles is the absence of fires and scarcity of blackouts.

Back to the Arch, it is supposed to represent the king cobra, who scares away evil.  You can see the head at the top.

 This is a very popular thing. These are some leaves you chew that have stuff inside of them. It can either be healthful or hurtful depending on what is inside. Some people have tobacco, others have seeds that make your breath better (similar to gum for us). 

This is a kind of tree (bunyon?) that is considered a symbol of prosperity. Thus, no one is willing to destroy these trees. There was almost ZERO greenery in old Delhi, to the point where just one tree really stands out.  As you can see, the even cut a hole in the roof here because the tree was growing that way. 

Here we are in a rickshaw. We took multiple rickshaw rides, and all I can say is I really feel for the poor guy pedaling me around.

We were happy and out of the direct sunlight!

While it was hot, it wasn't near as bad as we were expecting. It was quite dry, and so it wasn't too bad despite all the looks of horror folks gave us as we said we were going to India during the "hot season" (probably why it was so pretty inexpensive).

So, in the same road you'll see Bike Rickshaws, trucks, motorcycles, humans pulling stuff, and yes, cows.

Lots of cool architecture, somewhat hidden bye the squalor and absolute dilapidation hiding it. Once upon a time, the british instituted rent controls. When they gave the country back to India, they required a 3/4ths vote to change the laws in place. This is one that's never been changed. Many places have hundreds of tenants, with maybe water or no water or electricity. You can't change the price, and often generations will live in the same place with the same rent. This doesn't encourage investment.  

Lots of these fruit and vegetable stands.

If you had an actual stall, that meant you were a merchant (you bought your goods from somewhere else).

If you were selling from the ground, it was direct from the farmer usually. 

This one guy really wanted us to take a picture with his eggplants. So we did. 

Here was a sugar seller, lots of different varieties. 

Here was a salty snack seller, how nice to be able to scoop out your snack in the open air like this.

Some rock sugar.

I have no idea what most of this stuff is.

Here's the spice market. It was an Incredible experience. The smells were incredible and overwhelming. You could NOT stop coughing! everyone, everywhere was coughing. I liken it to tear gas. Only it smells nice.

I asked Raj if you get used to it, he said no, those that work in the Spice Market just cough all day long. 

so many spices, and apparently pretty cheap if you buy it wholesale like this.

Here we are coming to the top of the spice market building. I'm pretty excited to try to get everything out of my lungs before heading back down. 

So, apparently the spice market is housed in an old palace. It was donated by the ruler of this particular state when another state started taxing the heck out of the merchants. The first two floors were the original market, then the next few were built when the British were in power. Then the thing the courtyard got built who knows how or when.

We got to go up further to the very top and get some great views.

We could really see over Old Delhi.

Very interesting, and has it's own beauty

Here we are hopping down from the upper platform.

Below you could see "snacks" drying in the sun. These will be sold to locals only. This is someone's roof.

Here's a couple of views from the roof.

 Here we are coming back down the narrow passageways

 Stopped for a bit more local color from the guide.

 You can see Nelsa coughin, me with my hands over my mouth. Listen to the video above, *cough, cough. yes, those are bags full of chili's 

 We stopped at a guy Raj knew (5th generation owner of this spice shop). 

 Great education, got to smell and learn about a lot of the spices

 Yes, I look intense as I contemplate the subtle oakiness of this particular spice.

 Just some of the spices we got to experience. the four on the right are from the same plant. The bark is cinnamon, the fruit is nutmeg, the bud is cloves, the flower is Mace. Not that I know what Mace is, but he had it here.

 More spices

 and more.

 Twinners!

 Not as much twinners. This is Nelsa's husband Will. We travel in much the same way. I'm glad our wives are willing to put up with us and our wanting to get from one place to another and helping us to enjoy the journey despite ourselves.

 This was an incredible experience. This was the Sikh temple we visited.

 Here's Suzy getting her head wrapped

 Here are some notes about the Sikh's. This was the newest major religion, apparently started as the defense branch of the Hindus (according to our guide). A series of 10 Gurus are credited with the current Sikh structure.

Everyone walked through this water as part of the cleansing before entering the temple

 This temple was the site of the imprisonment of one of the Guru's (9th or 10th, I can't remember). 

 He was later beheaded after digging a well and taking 2 baths a day. The Muslims who were in control at the time felt that there should only be a bath once a week (Friday) and that he should be killed for violating this.

 I don't know why Suzy is giving me the eye here. Could be anything really.

They feed up to 20,000 people a day here. Anyone can come get a free meal here. The whole operation was incredibly impressive. As was the size of their pots.

It's all volunteer labor, people will come on the lunch break to help out. I was quite touched by the evidence of their passion for service. 

 Here is the well that the Guru dug to get the water for his bath. 

 We later visited a few streets of shops like this. Just full of stuff, so much stuff! 

Gotta love yourself some beads. I still don't know how I was able to walk pass without buying something.

Lots of human labor

Very common, narrow, packed, interesting.

Will and I are so happy.

 The Brits dug wells about every 200 feet or so that are still in operation.

 We thought this wa

 We thought this was a cool door.

 Apparently, so did Ch

 Apparently so did the Charlie's Angels! And yes, they dressed the same each full day we were there. And No, none of us guys were even aware this was going to happen.

About to go up for lunch.

7 Chilis and one lemon. Some kind of superstition. I can't remember what, having to do with evil spirits of some sort. If the chilis dry black instead of red you go to the temple priest for some kind of blessing. This was all over the place. 

 It was really cool inside.

 There were 17 rooms, 58 doors, VERY interesting. We got some fresh squeezed lemonade, done with bottled water. The host has never had food issues with his tour, and it held true for us as well.

The cups were copper, the water was chilled and delicious, as was the food prepared by Drew's wife.

They had a rooftop patio area that was quite extensive. Cool murals and such.

I gave it 2 thumbs up.