3 weeks backpacking India: last days in Delhi

After my 3 nights visit to Rishikesh I headed to Delhi to spend my last days between the locals and visiting the city properly, this how it went.

Arriving

I walked from Zostel to Rishikesh bus station this time; I had to get up early but it was fine for me to have a early walk doing down hill.

I took the bus and as the way to there I had 8 hours travel to get back to Delhi, even though that it was expected to be 6 hours.

When I arrived to Delhi, around 15 hours, I had to wander until the evening to meet with Amit, an Indian guy who hosted me in Delhi my last days in India.

Amit, told me a few places to visit if I could manage to go around my backpack; I believed that I could do and I visited a few streets of Old Delhi, the outside of Forte and Shanti van and Shaktisthal, where I considered an interesting place to visit because it’s a huge park with a lot of vegetation and where I could hear very high the birds singing.

After that visit I went to the closest metro station and I headed to Ramesh Nagar metro station where Amit picked me up to his home and where he offered me a great homemade Indian dinner and thereafter I went to bed as I was so tired because I had got up very early and I had walked with my backpacks for several hours.

Day 1

After I got up and we had a breakfast with Amit with some delicious Indian food; he also got time to kindly spend it with me, so he carried me to Dilli Haat market, a cool craftsmanship market where you can see a variety of traditional products made in India by craftsmen an tribes.

We spend several hours there and we went back to home where he offered me another delicious homemade Indian dinner.

Day 2

Second day I visited the south of Delhi as Amit suggested me.

There I saw Quto Minar and the park which I was impressed to find another peaceful park inside of the noisy and stressful Delhi.

Thereafter I walked to Lotus temple and I observed the building from outside, due it’s close on Mondays, and right after I went to Iskon temple where I could see a ceremony, talk with one of the monch who gave me a tour an invite me to have a taste of prasha, which Amit had already informed me that I could do.

Right after the Isckon dinner I went to Amit home to finished my day.

Day 3

Third day was the lazy tourism day. I was in Amit home working quite a few hours meanwhile we interlaced talks about culture exchange and have a visit a few interesting places of his neighborhood, between them an awesome temple which looks totally different through the eyes of a western due the perception that we have temples.

As usual, Amit gave me to taste different Indian dishes for lunch, dinner and snacks between them some traditional Diwali sweets.

Day 4 & 5

Those days where the days that I started my journey to go back to London.

Day 4th I went to Delhi’s airport in the afternoon to take my flight to Delhi; yes I was in the air during the Diwali and it was a shame, but I didn’t know that when I booked my flight back to London.

In that flight I had an observation, Delhi or surroundings looked gorgeous from the air, the Diwali lights which people decorate the houses and the lack of illumination in the roads (I only could see one light stream, which probably was a main road) made that view special; I could see islands of lights with different tones and no lights connecting them only the darkness.

I reached Mumbai airport at 22.15 hours and there one guy tried to convinced me that he needed a tourist so send by post some jewelry and gold offering money to reward who help him as he would get tax evasion. Obviously it sounded very strange as nobody give money away easily; he also offered to take a drink from to discuss and if I would like to do it he’d also pay for a good dinner and hotel.

But I have to say that it sounded quite convincing because which is the risk to send by post something that you packed and it will be insured? At the beginning I didn’t come up with any idea of the risk, but of course I was in India and I don’t know that much about laws, etc, so the best thing is say no or ask to a local who you trust to know if the law has that flawness and it’s that easy to avoid to pay taxes for luxury goods. At that time I had to lots of balance in the mobile phone and I wasn’t going to use anymore so I gave a call to my friend before saying totally no; he mentioned that it sounds very strange so it’s better stay away but at the moment that I was telling him I came up with the idea that that luxury good could be stolen so you would be in the risk to be accused of a crime, so clearly that presumption is a huge risk and it was enough to say “no” and kick him out.

Thereafter in the terminal, I looked for in Google to see if I could find something related with this kind of tout and yes, you can read one case between so many which are public about how they use that trick to get money from you.

In Mumbai airport I spent the night working and sleeping a little bit, until 6 hours of the 5th day when I took my flight to Istanbul to take my flight to London 2 hours later.

Wrapping up

My last days in Delhi with Amit was something that I hadn’t ever expected; in those 4 days I could discover from a local a lot of things from India; I was able to discover things about society, changes, religion, gastronomy besides to have a experience of the current life of an Indian family.

I appreciate a lot what Amit did for me those days so definitely we have become close friends.

I had a good travel as I was healthy all the time and I lived lots of experiences which I could learn things from them, besides to meet very interesting people.

Let me know through a comment if you have any question.