Driving in Delhi is Like Go-karting in Bahrain, Minus the Safety Features

After being just shy of having lived in Bahrain for seven months, I said goodbye to that small island nation and commenced my latest travel adventure. The team of The Scholarly Professor and the Raunchy Truck Driver are back together; and this time they're headed to India. That's right folks, Em and I are back together for a three week journey around one of the world's most populated countries...that's 1.8 billion people for us to potentially interact with and scar for life.

After saying goodbye to my co-workers and roommates, Em (who'd come to spend the New Years with in Bahrain) and I headed out, our first port of call, Delhi. Arriving surprisingly awake after a night of flights and little sleep, we got to put our lives into the hands of a young women driver in a country were I'm sure they have no rules on the road. 

Due to the crimes that are committed against women and  because of cultural norms where men and women who are not related don't touch, there are many options set up to help. One such option is women only taxis running and operated by women. It's a nice concept, but I'm pretty sure the ideas about "women drivers" originated here. 

There might be lines on the roads and stop signs on posts, but driving here is all about getting through whatever gaps you can find to get a little further ahead. Roadways contain cars, auto rickshaws, bike rickshaws, people, motorbikes, manual bicycles, and whatever else decides to wander into the street. People liberally apply use of their car horns in an effort to warn people they're inching over, to tell them they're too slow or in the way, to alert you to move, to show their frustrations, to tell you to stop or go; the use of horns is a very vital language to learn here. If there is more than a inch of space between one vehicles or person and another then that is an invitation for someone to move in and fill the gap. While in motion, there is no order and people whip around each other and squeeze through the smallest of spaces. This is definitely not the place for the faint of heart.

After a half hour of this craziness, we reached our hotel, dropped our bags, and headed back out. We decided not to let lack of sleep lead to a wasted opportunity to explore and set out for The Red Fort in New Delhi. We attempted to travel to the fort via the metro station, but got taken in by a friendly local that set us up with auto rickshaw driver that said he would take us to see another, closer temple and then to the Red Fort for a cheap fee. 

The auto rickshaw was fun and showed us a hundred new ways in which we could die while driving in Delhi, but the driver's knowledge of what he agreed to and ours of what we asked weren't the same. The driver did take us to what appeared to be a beautiful temple, but then said it was crowded and we should come back in the evening, he then dropped us at a shopping centre that caters to selling beautiful things at expensive prices to tourists that get lured in. We were forced to see the items before making our escape. Once back on the street, the driver pointed us in the direction of the metro station and told us how to get from where we were to the fort. $0.60 and and hour of time isn't too bad when you consider being ripped off and mislead. 

The metro was interesting and an adventure in and of itself (at least on the way back).  You have to buy a token for you journey and depending on the time of day and/or the station you're at, getting the token is the hardest part of the journey. At one stations, there was a "ladies only " line, so we stood in it, but all the males would walk towards the front of it until they could find a lady to buy their tokens for them. Other women also cut in front of each other and if their wasn't someone's elbow in your back and your knee in someone's spline, then you obviously had too much space. Getting on and off trains consisted of waiting for the doors to open and then packing on like sardines while the people trying to get off, punched their way through the throngs. The key we found was hold on to each other, stay as close to the doors as possible, and pray no one gets upset when you fall on them cause the crowd is the only thing supporting your weight since you've been squished onto the heel of a single foot.

The Red Fort is located at the end of the Chandni Chowk (aka Moonlight Square, a large marketplace built in conjunction with the Fort and designed by the Emperor Shah Jahan's favorite daughter, Jahan Ara). The Red Fort was built by the fifth Mughal Emperor, Shah Jahan in 1648 and housed his family for 200 years.  Fort is a bit of a misnomer as it's more of a village and series of palaces as opposed to a traditional fort. The Fort is considered to be one of the greatest creations of the Mughal dynasty and is a great example of the combination of Muslim, Hindu, and Timurid architecture.

When we exited the fort, we were set upon by bike rickshaw drivers. One told us he would take us back to the temple we'd driven past earlier in the day, so we climbed in. Once we were settled he re-looked at our destination and informed us it was too far for peddle power, but since we were already here, wouldn't we enjoy a nice ride through the marketplace and he would be our tour guide and show us around. He also offered to take us to a 1000 year old temple and some great photo locations. 

Being suckers we said sure for an agreed upon sum. Our guide pedaled his way down the congested thoroughfare of Chandni Chowk and pointed out all the different sections of the souk (sarees, spices, silver, books, food, etc.), he took us up to the top of a tenement where we could see  a great view and the rooftops of many other buildings, into a spice and tea shop when I told him a was looking for chai (although I meant some to drink right then and not the actual tea that needs to be prepared), through a Muslim parade that just happened to be going on, and finally to the temple. 

The temple was called Jain Sweitamna and is part of the Jain religion. If you decide to go visit, make sure you have two or more people because they'll only take one person at a time through so you'll want to have someone to watch your stuff for you. The inside of the temple contains a variety of beautiful art that was painted by the priests that maintain the grounds and there are many alters erected to the different gods and goddesses that are honored by this group.

Our guide was friendly and did show us a few things we never would have found on our own, but by the time we left him to head back on the metro, he'd increased his agreed upon price about 100x. We paid a fraction of that, but still significantly higher than we wanted and headed back to the metro to get back to the hotel to meet our fellow travelers.

The group we're with consists of 13 other travelers and a guide. The others come from England, German, Spain, Australia, Canada, and two fellow Americans. Our guide for the first 8 days is Shivraj, a local from the Rajasthan area. As this was our first night together, we had the customary information meeting and then went to a local tourist restaurant for dinner.

As our second day began, Em and I realized we had found a kindred soul in the form of Londonite Julia. Julia, like us, is interested in street food and local dives. While most were eating eggs and coffee on the roof of the hotel, we were perusing the boiling cauldrons around the corner and coming up with tasty curry and airy bread.

After consuming our hearty fare, we, as well as the rest of our group were whisked away via taxi to receive a tour of a neighborhood by one of the local street kids and to hear about the Salaam Baalak Trust. It is estimated that there are currently 400,000 street kids in Delhi alone. These children end up here for a variety of reasons including running away from home because their families beat them, being sent to the city to work or beg for money, or because their families can't afford wedding dowries or hospital bills. The Salaam Baalak Trust is an organization that helps kids between 6-18 years old. They give them shelter, food, clothes, schooling and attempt to reunite them with their families (if that is their wish). 

It's a pretty amazing project and Ejaz, our tour guide, was a great example of how they make a difference. Ejaz lead us on a short tour of the area and then took us to one of the boys homes where we got to meet and shake hands with about 50 young kids that were currently living at that shelter. The kids loved having their picture taken and constantly wanted you to take pictures of them and then show them the result. 

We said goodbye to the boys, piled back into the taxis and headed to Jama Masjid mosque. This mosque was built on the orders of Shah Jahan ( the same emperor that ordered the Red Fort to be built) in 1650 and contains an architectural mix between Muslim and Hindu designs since one of Shah Jahan's wives was a Hindi woman and he himself was Muslim.  The mosque is made from red sandstone (which seems to be very popular in the area) and contains a large open courtyard with a  fountain in the center, and the main building that is open on three sides. There are also two minurettes that you can climb to get a great view of the area. This mosque is the principal mosque of Old Delhi and can hold up to 25,000 worshippers during Friday prayer.

From the mosque we ventured through the Chandni Chowk market (the same area where we'd been given the partial tour by the bike rickshaw driver the day before) and ended up at the Gurdwara Sis Ganj Sahib temple. This temple was erected to commemorate the martyrdom of a Hindi that gave his life for the rights of Hindus to practice their faith. The temple also has a kitchen that is open to everyone, rich or poor, and feeds 40,000 people a day. We got to go into the massive kitchen and see them making bread and stirring large vats of curry.

After visiting the temple, Julia, another girl whose name I didn't catch, Em, and I set out to try a little something from every street vendor and hole in the wall place we could find for lunch. We tried pakora, a crepe like thing, something that appeared to be a grilled cheese sandwich but was filled with potatoes, chai (of course), parathas with curry, a foam type of dessert, and Indian ice cream, which I think was frozen condensed milk with coconut. If was a pretty good lunch excursion. We meet back up with the rest of our group and headed to Agra (about five hours away by bus), which will be our home for the next few days.