India Trip!
Adit was a superhero this trip - and it really wouldn’t of been possible without him. The best tour guide, he was just so genuinely giddy to share his culture, food, just it all with us. Immensely grateful!
Josh was a huge help, big time planner and providing juuuust enough Type A energy to keep us on time and on track
Ryan is the definition of a glue guy, and held up to his end of the bargain with bits and good vibes galore
Very thankful to these three, made for such a memorable trip
Day 0: The Flights & Landing in Delhi
I met Adit, Josh and Ryan at the last leg of their Priority Pass lounge tour as we prepared for our first flight leg, a 13 hour haul from JFK to Abu Dhabi. I was lucky enough to get a window seat without someone in the middle seat (woohoo!) and spent the first ~5 hours watching some movies and eating dinner. That was until Ryan and Adit encouraged me (via a brief visit and airdropping me photos of texts) to join them in the back of the plane. We spent the next 7 hours in the back of the plane doing calf raises, making friends with the flight attendants and hydrating. Suffice it to say it was an unexpected way to spend the flight, but did really help make time fly!
Got our first taste of Indian food in the airport lounge, and spent the second flight leg (five hours to Delhi) soundly asleep, even through dinner service.
Landing in Delhi and walking out of that airport I was really hit with a “We’re not in Kansas anymore Toto” moment! The air, the smell, the pollution (time to mask up!), so many people / cars — a very cool moment. Our ride to our first hotel was our first exposure to Indian traffic, and goodness is it crazy. There were probably almost 6 vehicles squeezed side-by-side together on a 3 lane road, and cars were far from the only thing on the roads! Trucks, three wheeled rickshaws both manual and motorized (called “autos”), motorcycles and a literal horse and buggy joined us on our trip. Also - they tied our suitcases on top of our taxi like a christmas tree!
Once we arrived and got settled, we headed out for a late, reaaaally good dinner of Thali (a classic meal which is essentially Indian tapas) and went to a rooftop bar for a nightcap! We were hawked by like 30 dudes trying to get us into their bars, but after a few duds ended up selected a really nice one with some live music! Successfully got our sleeping schedules somewhat reasonably adjusted and headed to bed! A successful day!
Day 1: Big Delhi History Day!
Waking up in the morning we realized how beautiful our accommodations were! It was essentially this really large house with a bunch of rooms and each day we would eat breakfast with the hosts and whichever travelers happened to stop by. We got a solid base layer of Delhi history as well as our hosts’ perspectives of India over breakfast, including how rapid the urbanization has been as well as good validation that our planning was solid as they essentially recommended our itinerary for the day. Other than Adit not fully vibing w/ the American hosts “karma”, breakfast was a huge success!
First stop of the day was Qutab Minar - a truly breathtaking giant tower from the 1100s surrounded by the sprawling ruins of Hindu temples and later built mosques. It is fully built out of brick, and is the largest structure of its kind (72.5m)! It is so intricate and well preserved in both color and detail, a sight to behold especially considering the gorgeous grounds that surrounded it. Funnily enough, another king who wanted to outdo Qutab Minar set out to build a tower twice the height and diameter maybe 200ft away, and the incomplete mound still sits there today as a reminder of his hubris!
Right in the courtyard was the Iron pillar of Delhi, which was this nearly 2000 year old metal rod / column with inscriptions on it. Crazy that it was so old and not rusted, and apparently there is evidence that it was shot with a cannonball at some point but it still remained standing tall to this day!
On our stroll to our next destination we passed by this religious procession celebrating a minor holiday. They were dancing, singing and generally being merry, but were fully walking down the wrong side of the street and causing so, so much traffic.
Our next stop was essentially an old estate lost to time that was unearthed / refurbished recently by some British dude. Had a really nice mix of nature, ponds and structures from the past where we saw a couple taking wedding photos! Also had a nice little history exhibition that detailed how Delhi is essentially the union of 7 cities over the past 1000 years (maybe more that were lost to war and time), which makes for such a unique place home to 37 million people today! We found a little spot for tea, snacks and some shade!
This was also the first time we saw how many people are doing such small tasks for their livelihoods. Raking leaves, bathroom attendants, every shop had a person to open the door and 1-2 people to fetch the goods / make tea in addition to the shopkeeper, restaurants 2-3x overstaffed with so many people who didn’t really ever seem to do much — Adit loved to say India just has “so many dudes” and as the trip progressed it was evident how right he was.
Next stop was a Ba’hi temple that was built in 1986 called the Lotus Temple. Had a big line but was more than worth it once we got inside the walls. Just look at that thing!
We got to go inside and have a moment of mindfulness, and learn a bit about the religion itself. Ba’hi as a religion essentially strips away a lot of standard religious tradition and ceremony, and sticks to the core of spirituality; connecting with a higher power, taking care of the community and is fully acceptant of all religions. [Disclaimer: I have been doing some further research and hearing mixed things about the “cultiness” of it… so beware — pretty building though!]
Lunch was curries on curries (yum) and our first of what became a trip favorite: grilled paneer (a firm cheese) in this tech/repair shop area. As we kept learning Delhi is so multi-faceted; a five minute drive away from the temple we were in this highly urban area. Some fellow customers were celebrating a birthday and set off a bunch of confetti cannons inside which was kinda wild and definitely couldn’t get away with in America!
Next up was Humayun’s Tomb, a giant set of structures that were stunning! Unfortunately I also got absolutely covered in bird poop there from an evil, evil pigeon, so this memory has been somewhat soured for me…
Adit took us to Haldiram for dinner (a quintessential experience in his opinion), which is this chain restaurant that serves a ton of street food (without too much risk of the dreaded “Delhi Belly”). It was delicious, but lunch had us so stuffed we didn’t eat too much. Hopped over to a few bars and got some really solid dancing in, although it was funny that one of the bars only let couples and single women onto the dance floor (“No stags allowed” — again, too many dudes). Everything in India was incredibly affordable other than the drinks, those were basically NYC prices!
Final stage of the night was getting back to the hotel only to realize Adit had lost the keys to his and Josh’s room at some point that night… definitely added some chaos to the night! Luckily an extra room eventually opened up and everybody was able to get a good night’s sleep in a bed (and Ryan was thankfully unsuccessful in his campaign to sleep on the floor)!
Day 2: Aman-umental Day!
Today was one of my favorite days of the trip, so let’s get into it!
We spent the bulk of today on a fantastic tour of Chandni Chowk — a really famous market in the heart of Delhi. We met our (spoiler: favorite) guide of the trip Aman, who was so considerate, informative and well-intentioned. He really made the experience incredibly memorable and was able to squeeze as much as humanly possible into our tour! We essentially spent the day bouncing between street food vendors (that were vetted to avoid the dreaded Delhi Belly) and temples.
We met up outside Delhi’s Red Fort and our first stop was a Jain temple — a religion dedicated to service, their community and is hugely non-violent. To drive the non-violent point home a bit, they are vegetarians but won’t eat any produce that isn’t the fruit of a plant (otherwise they believe they would be killing the plant), and sweep the street in front of their monks to avoid killing even the smallest ant. They also have a robust bird hospital attached where they rehabilitate thousands of birds brought to them from across Delhi. The temple itself was beautifully ornate and detailed a lot of their principles and stories in artwork, and seeing such a beautiful array of birds while walking thru the hospital was quite the experience!
We picked up some Jalebi (think funnel cakes donuts covered in syrup) and samosas, and got to begin witnessing the hectic-ness of the market itself! Throngs and throngs of people from all walks of life, and learned that it was a HUGE market for wedding materials as well (and Adit had been shopping there for that purpose before!)
Next we went into a Sikh temple (absolutely breathtaking) and got to observe the worship for a while. Just like the Jain temple there was so much to look at between all the religious murals / scenes, but unlike the Jain temple this was covered in gold! We also got a quick tour of their kitchen where they feed 30-50k of people for free every day!! Each of us also got to roll out a roti (shoutout to mom for preparing me w/ muzza fame experience - it was nice not to embarrass myself!).
Heading back into the market we tried a number of other sweet & savory treats — and Josh & Ryan got interviewed by these two people outside a famous shop who ended up being somewhat instagram famous (>500k followers)! Also - Adit & Aman had warned us about how many dudes there would be, but its hard to describe how so many would follow our group around, join our circles, take photos or just listen — very strange and persistent.
Other spots of note from the tour:
A stunning mosque almost hidden in the center of the market (a really nice spot of tranquility)
The largest spice market in the world (including a whole chili pepper section that was literal chemical warfare… including for the shopkeepers since apparently the human body can never build up a resistance to it)
Some pretty tasty lassis and chai
A super hectic rickshaw ride back through the market to where we started!
The final adventure was taking the metro back to our hotel, and it really was an adventure! Once we got thru the crowds the metro itself was super clean and modern, but getting through the crowd was no simple task! A big theme of my time in India was that people there do not treat personal space in the same way as America at all. In the market you were constantly being bumped, touched, just a real wall of people. But even in non-crowded places people would get RIGHT up onto you. Not good or bad, just a different way to live (and something we definitely needed to adapt to). Getting thru the metro turnstiles was by far the least personal space I’ve ever experienced. No less than 200 people trying to squeeze through four gates while scanning tickets that seemingly failed 1/5 times, causing a RUCKUS as people had to turn around and try to salmon their way back. After ~5 minutes of legitimate squirming I was able to make it thru and actually celebrated with a little fist bump (to the humor of a few passersby), but as Ryan, Adit and finally Josh (who had some ticket issues) got thru they each also did a similar celebration — evidence of how much of a battle it really was…
We cleaned up and headed to the nearby city of Gurgaon to meet Adit’s uncle and grandma at their house — a really precious experience. We grabbed dinner with Adit’s uncle, got to hear some interesting geopolitical perspectives, and the three of them had some tiramisu that they said was to die for (sure). After deciphering how Indian night life worked, we were able to find a few spots to dance the night away and pick up some Bollywood-esque dance moves!
Day 3: Agra-nd Old Time
Started the day off with a 3 hour drive to Agra (home of the Taj Mahal) which had three highlights:
Some of the best “gas station” food I’ve ever had - the dosas were just delish. Ryan got Indian Pizza Hut which was… a choice
We saw two buses pulled over and seemingly everybody on said bus peeing onto the side of the road side-by-side, quickly making a lake
We had 3+ people get out of their car to knock on our driver’s window to let him know how bad of a job he was doing
We got a tour of Agra’s red fort which was mindbogglingly large and stunning! We spent a few hours inside and only saw a fraction of the whole thing — it has 50+ palaces and could house 9000 soldiers (still utilized by the Indian army for that purpose). The fort predates the Taj Mahal, but has a stunning view of it across the greenery and lakes from a number of palace windows. Funnily enough, the Shah who build the Taj Mahal was imprisoned in this fort by his son because he couldn’t stop commissioning larger projects (like a second Taj Mahal made entirely of black obsidian in contrast) that would have probably bankrupted them.
The palaces were so intricately and intentionally designed — and I was in disbelief of how many optical illusions and little tricks were leveraged to add to the grandeur: secret windows, storing cool water in the walls as a pseudo-AC, optical illusions playing with your brain’s reference points to make the Taj appear larger, spots you could talk thru the walls too each other and other neat tricks. And it was already gorgeous, but I couldn’t imagine how much more beautiful it would have been when painted (and with all the gold / gems that the British had pillaged from it), hard to fathom how opulent the palace would have been in its prime.
We were taken to some art shops and ~nearly~ successfully scammed, but we pulled out at the last minute! Grabbed a rooftop dinner while a bunch of 60-year olds were really going after it on the dance floor that was in the middle of the restaurant.
Finished up the day with a moonlight tour of the Taj, which is only available a few days of the month when the moon is bright enough! It honestly wasn’t the best since they didn’t let us get particularly close and the pollution was really obstructing our vision — but it was a really good appetizer to tomorrow and added some mysticism seeing the Taj peak thru the mist.
Day 4: Taj Taj Taj!
Sunrise Taj! I feel like the Taj is similar to the Grand Canyon in that no matter how much you hear about how breathtaking it is, it still absolutely knocks your socks off in person — cannot be overhyped and vastly exceeded my expectations! The entire setup is so well intentioned and beautifully established. After walking through a gargantuan gate (that commemorates the length of construction with domes on top for each year) a bright blue pool stretches out and runs right up to the Taj. Most of the campus is dedicated to gardens, and a number of other buildings frame and really enhance the view of the Taj itself.
The Taj itself is somehow both gargantuan and intricate, the level of attention to detail in its construction is evident. For example, the entire campus is perfectly facing north (both inside and outside), the Quran lines inscribed in the marble slowly increase in size as they climb higher up on the Taj so that the words all appear the same size from the ground, the columns are all designed in such a way that it looks like they have zig-zag patterns when they are actually a smooth surface, etc.
Both inside and outside are incredibly detailed, ornate and intricate despite being fully made of marble. They utilized a technique where they cut out perfectly sized holes in the marble, fit a carved semi-precious gem into said hole and then glued them in place. Incredibly difficult, time-consuming work but a gorgeous effect. The marble and inlayed-gems interact with the light in such interesting ways; depending on the time of day and strength of the sun the Taj can sparkle, look pink, etc.! The inside I’d honestly never spent much time thinking about, but what a treat. It was one of those places that just had weight. I did stub my toe in the Taj though… which I did not have on my bingo card for the trip.
The Taj itself was built for the Shah’s third wife (and his true love). The first two marriages were made for political reasons, but his third wife the Shah saw her in a courtyard when they were 14 and they allegedly held a lot of love for each other. His other wives are buried in truly gorgeous buildings on the campus, but let’s be honest, they are no Taj Mahals…
Continuing the theme of intentional craftsmanship, the Taj was built to LAST, and it has since 1639. The towers that sit on the corners of the Taj were all built at a 3.5 degree angle outward so in the case of an earthquake they wouldn’t damage the Taj itself. They built artificial wells under the Taj itself to dampen vibrations from earthquakes as well. And they completed construction in only 7 years!
Sour note of the day was learning how much the British had plundered… I can’t imagine seeing the Taj in all its grandeur and saying ummm let’s steal that giant gold top off of it, scrape all the gold and precious gems off the walls & ceilings, etc. but some people sure did! Both the red forts and the Taj were plundered in seriously damaging ways, and you really feel like maybe the British could give the top of the Taj Mahal back at some point!
There were so many nooks we kept stealing glances from, played with some TikTok tricks to get some great photos and gonna be honest it was really hard walking away not knowing if/when I would see it again.
We recharged at breakfast prior to heading over to another real architectural feat — Fathpur Sikri! A huge mosque built by Akbar the Great (grandfather to the creator of the Taj). The tour itself was a bit lackluster if not strangely impressive — since our tour guide (who had a pretty serious limp) found a second group to sneak off to and give a clandestine tour to. The dedication to the grind was definitely impressive, as was how little he cared about how obvious it was. Anyways… Akbar has 3 wives and 360 mistresses all living in this giant estate, and a complex bedroom system with many hidden staircases to enable this “lifestyle”. The estate had so many pools of water and interesting aspects, including a giant life-sized Parcheesi board with no lifesized pieces because they would use 16 real women as the pawns!
We reached the giant mosque at the end of the tour and it really was quite a site to behold. It was built on a hill, providing a gorgeous view of the surrounding area, and it had some really cool architectural feature such as mono-directional marble lattices (meaning while inside you could see out, but not vice versa).
There were also a ton of hustlers, especially kids, and they kept calling me Ali Baba and shouting Michael Jackson and Obama at us (interesting which American figures stick with them).
Lunch was us and 100 kids on a field trip at this tasty buffet place, and we finally got pakora (think like tempura but Indian)!! Then we continued onwards towards Ranthanbhore and the tigers — and we got the first of many Chicken 65 meals that had Ryan and I reminiscing back to our Duke days.
Day 5: Earning our Stripes!
Today was a big safari day, and a gamble whether we would see tigers or not!
Our sunrise safari was pretty but chiiiilly! And these seats were like 30% too small, making for a lot of falling out of the seats on our bumpy ride. The region we were driving thru was absolutely stunning; such green forests, ruins, cliffs, rivers and so much wildlife — but our tour guides made it very clear: we were on a singular mission and there would be no other animal enjoying until we saw a tiger. After a long morning of peering into the thickets to no avail, we were graced with a tiny little glimpse of Noor thirty minutes prior to the end of our safari! An eagle-eyed passenger and the guides spotted her, and we were able to trail her for a few minutes as she stalked about 30 feet away from the road. Seeing glimpses of her, and how elegant and graceful she was, was super exciting and took a lot of pressure off. We did in fact see a tiger! We got to more slowly appreciate the monkeys overhead, the birds and deer all around, and the beautiful blend of savannah and Banyan tree forests on our ride back.
After getting back I was able to soak up some rays as we recharged post-brunch (during which Adit made sure we got our electrolytes for the hot day) for safari number 2… that bouncing takes a lot outta ya!
The second safari was an absolute treat! The sun was shining and we took over the back row which let us stand up a lot and stretch the legs. And we saw Arrowhead [wonder if she was a Chiefs fan pre or post T-Swift] for the better part of 20 minutes, and she was really showing off maybe 10-20 feet from us and completely in view! She gave us yawns, she gave us prowling, it was simply electric. Really breathtaking how giant but cat-like these guys are! So so so so so so so cool.
When we got back the resort was having an ambiguously titled “cultural experience” that we figured we should probably check out. It consisted of two musicians and a dancer who kept pulling audience members (mostly us) out of the crowd to learn the dances from him, which was…. an experience. To be precise, it was an experience that involved a lot of spinning, jumping and laughing. Then they started a conga line and dance circle which Adit and Josh (super lamely) ditched, but jokes on them because they missed the highlight of the performance… the fire-breathing at the end!
Josh (unfairly I might add) imposed a Chicken 65 ban on us for dinner (I don’t see what woulda been so wrong w/ 3 consecutive meals of such a tasty treat), but other than that, and a mild salt/sugar snafu, dinner rocked!
We got some thematic pajamas and headed off to bed!
Day 6: Travel Day
Today was primarily a transition day, and will be short and sweet! Drove to Jaipor and grabbed a massage ($20) before washing up, hitting a mall and then heading to dinner!
The clothes were incredibly affordable and we all had a great time running around trying on a lot of different styles, but none more than Ryan who totally revamped his wardrobe with 10+ items!
Dinner was in the so-called “pink city” of Jaipor right by the Wind Palace (which we would learn more about tomorrow). Pretty deep in a labyrinth of alleys where more than once we would turn a tight corner to come face-to-face with a bunch of cows munching on trash — never got old. Dinner itself was in this fancy hotel right out of a movie, and had Josh’s favorite meals of the trip! We may have had our only non-Long Island Ice Tea cocktails there (for some reason India loves LIITs), and they were really interesting! Despite how nice the ambiance, drinks and food was — bill was still <$15 a head!
A great find, and then off to bed we went!
Day 7: Gem City, Pink City, Jaipur
Unfortunately Adit woke up feeling a bit under the weather today, so we set out on our day without him :(
We had a big tour day with a guide who was quite an interesting fella, for what he lacked in knowledge he definitely made up for in riffing. Lots of jokes and weird music recommendations, but his dad and best friend were also tour guides we saw throughout the day which was really cute!
Our first stop for the day was at Amer Fort, which had the 3rd longest wall in the world… and they were incredibly nonchalant about it. Once we climbed all the way to the top of the fort and the guide mentioned it, it was like hey wait that wall is part of THIS wall?!? Right outside the fort was an ancient well that is still in active use today. The town itself had a bunch of beautifully painted Indian elephants around (much smaller, cuter relatives of the African elephants) that were a tourist gimmick at this point, but they have been used by humans here for a very long time.
The fort itself had a series of four gates you continued to pass thru as you made the climb up, and goodness were they stunning. The first gate opened into a large courtyard where they were playing giant drums and the elephants were trumpeting — really good vibes!
The second gate was simply breathtaking; tall, incredibly colorful, ornate, and vibrant despite never having been repainted… because it was painted in crushed gemstones!!! Jaipor itself is a world class gem carving city, and in its heyday they were so wealthy they crushed up literal rubies, emeralds, etc. to paint this 25ft gate and the subsequent rooms inside. Breathtaking and hands down one of my favorite sights of the trip, I just couldn’t believe it.
Walking thru that painted gate and turning a corner we toured their really fancy bathroom / spa setup where we learned it is postulated this royal family (and their servants) may have invented perfume. Coming out of the dark spa we immediately came face-to-face with the so-called “Mirror Palace”; and while we had heard a lot about this place I wasn’t actually expecting it to actually be an entire room (floor, wall and ceiling) of decorated mirrors inlaid with marble, paint and gold engravings.
It was absolutely beautiful, and I can’t imagine what it would have looked like when all the mirrors were freshly polished and painted! It was their so-called winter palace because the mirrors reflected heat and light to better warm it… but don’t worry they also had summer and monsoon palaces depending on the season! Having both a summer and winter palace was pretty standard fare for all of the palaces we visited (as India has really big weather differentiation depending on the season) and really cool as a microcosm for how well people adapted to the varied climates — if not a bit excessive when you have a mirror palace already.
While these were the highlights, walking thru the rest of the palace was still beautiful — oh, and the palace’s ruler placed a lot of merit in the zodiac and had a wife for each sign, with decorated rooms for each. Didn’t get many answers to the logistics of this unfortunately, but kinda crazy!
After lunch we visited this astrological park that was full of sundials and different buildings that used the position of the sun and corresponding shadows to tell the time and date with a shocking amount of precision. The normal sized ones gave the time accurate to a few minutes, but they then commissioned a giant 50ft one that was incredibly precise!
We walked thru the pink city, named because the stone used for construction made the buildings have a beautiful pink hue, and got to witness Ryan’s expert negotiating skills. In case anybody wants to follow the Ryan-negotiating playbook, it mainly consists of refusing to lowball or counter-offer, kindly and quietly declining their egregious offers and then awkwardly leaving the premise. This would result in the shopkeeper chasing us out of the store at 15% of the initial asking price — sincerely effective (if hard to watch at times)! Adit’s meds had started to kick in by this point and we went back to scoop him up, stopped by a stunning Hindu temple and went for more massages!
Dinner was one of our best meals, and it was $5 a head. It was outside in this beautifully designed area full of plants and cool architecture. We were fully in our dosa era at this point, and the first one was so yummy we immediately ordered another one. So many yummy curries, and in typical fashion we had many, many servers but one in particular stood out since he was so goofy and kept messing things up and getting clowned by his fellow servers and bosses. Didn’t really need to know the language to be able to laugh along haha. Really lucky to stumble across this place, and had my favorite chai of the trip (and Adit and I had a lot of chai this trip)!
Day 8: The Return to Delhi
With the end of the trip looming, Ryan and I started taking our dosas more and more seriously and were able to get them for both breakfast and lunch (and more than one at that)!
We had a long drive (6 hours) back to Delhi for the final leg of the trip where we finally got some of this chocolate bar Adit had been searching for all trip (only for a reasonable price though, I think we walked away from 3 vendors across the trip for overcharging).
We hit up the government sponsored emporium to pick up some gifts, knick knacks and items we had seen all trip at various stores — but here we were able to avoid all haggling and ripping off… would highly recommend! This place was like 7 stories and an absolute labyrinth to navigate where we kept splitting up and having trouble reuniting, but all in all a successful shopping trip! They had everything from little fridge magnets to entire sets of marble furniture (this marble side table w/ a chess board on it was really calling Josh and I, maybe one day…), and was very cool to take it all in (and learn what a reasonable price would be)!
We wandered the street markets for a while after that, and the assortment of goods being sold was crazy… maybe 20 vendors walking around selling vibrating brushes vendors (which they would literally put up against you) were an absolute jump scare for me, so many pieces of clothes with slightly off English words and phrases & we pulled off a successful haggle for some sunglasses (Ryan employing his tried-and-true walk away trick, Adit translating and haggling & me pretending to only have a few rupees left).
So many sights, sounds and crowds later we were pretty worn out and real hungry, but this was the perfect moment for Adit to force Ryan to finally throw out his hole-ridden shoes he had been wearing all trip and buy some new ones. It had been a mission all trip, and preying on Ryan’s exhaustion and hunger was the right angle!
We got a really late dinner where we supremely over-ordered (the whole mutton leg may have been a bit optimistic) but dang were those peas good. Ryan had also been having these “cold coffees” all trip (important to note Ryan doesn’t like or drink coffee, but these were essentially milkshakes) and we had an incredibly disappointing final one here, but otherwise tasty tasty tasty!
We finished off the night with some paan! These are hard to describe, but they are essentially a leaf that is folded around inner contents, which can vary greatly, but the classic one is VERY flavorful and somewhat breath-freshening at the same time(?). Ryan and Josh were absolutely offended by them, but Adit and I loved them and even got seconds! Pretty disappointed that we only had one at the tail end of the trip, but Adit did bring us the shop where they had literally served Obama so maybe it was just an exceptional product! [disclaimer: they are typically served with tobacco in them, so be careful!]
Day 9: Sticking a Fork in it
Our final day was a jam packed one, and we started it off at the Swaminarayan Akshardham Temple! Built in 2005, it was way more recent than most of what we had seen on our trip, but it was absolutely STUNNING. Hundreds of stone-carved elephants wrapped around the outside, and the temple itself was ornate and gigantic. The inside had incredibly stonework and engravings, and we took three laps around just to take it all in. It told the story of Swaminarayan, a child who was believed to be a manifestation (think reincarnation) of Krishna (one of the three main Hindu gods) and detailed his incredible life thru a series of detailed engravings, as well as his five successors. Swaminarayan preached returning to the fundamentals of Hinduism (and for that matter, most religions), prioritizing self sacrifice, service to others and kindness, stripping away all else. A bit ironic to commemorate that within a huge temple, but it was actually breathtaking. Lunch at the attached cafeteria was so tasty as well, and Josh finally got to eat samosas to his hearts delight!
After a lot of discussion within our group, we decided to spend the second half of our day on a tour of one of Delhi’s slums. We had reached out to our favorite tour guide Aman for any recommendations for our last day in Delhi, and he had strongly recommended this tour. The tour was given by one of his good friends who had grown up with his family in that very slum, and given that a third of Delhi (9 million people) currently live in slums, it felt important to see.
The legal status of the slums are complicated, as they are technically illegal residences on government land. This makes obtaining a passport or other forms of government ID very difficult, as these people don’t have a formal permanent address, emblematic by our tour guide having to pay a number of bribes to obtain his. With that being said, there have been a number of improvements and investments made by the government over the past 10 years which have helped improve the standard of living here. They installed water lines in the last six years, which are inconsistent and only run for a few hours a day, but help alleviate some of the water insecurity these people face. Public bathrooms were also installed about a decade prior, helping to improve the health and quality of living of these communities. Government-sponsored doctors also make weekly rounds through the community, and although they are resource constrained the biggest improvement has been in maternal care with most women now giving birth in hospitals free of charge — which has seen significant improvements in health outcomes.
The tour started walking through streets filled with scraps of fabric from nearby clothing factories, and it was jarring seeing so many common brands you could find in America there. There were many, many women who were sorting these fabric scraps into piles based on size, color and material, which can then be sold back to manufacturers at a higher price. Huge bags were constantly being loaded, unloaded, and dumped onto the ground — a really hectic sight. The women typically work for 10-12 hour shifts sorting this fabric, and have to get their early enough to ensure they get employment for the day. They make 10-30 rupees (about 25 cents), enough to buy dinner for their family each day, while the men are bussed to factories and make the lion’s share of the income. The men only get paid once a month though, so it is important for liquidity that the women do this job, despite how little they are paid.
We then walked through more of the residential area, and along alleys that meandered around tight corners and packed, jumbled buildings. These were very colorful but also had this “stacked” feeling as residents and landlords continue to build up to make more space, but these vertical extensions are sometimes different materials or just not the same footprint of what was below. Fortunately more and more of the building is being done with bricks as opposed to packed mud, so the stability is continuing to increase. The apartments are small and humble, but interestingly they are mostly electrified and about 75% of houses actually have a TV.
We saw a number of rooms being used as classrooms, and visited the main school itself. While these classrooms have 30-40 students per class, it was hopeful seeing so many students studying. The community places a high level of import on their education, as given India’s largely egalitarian educational testing system it is a way up. The kids were also very excited to see us: following us around on our tour, saying a few of the english words they had learned, and we probably gave out 200 or more fist-bumps each before they would run away.
We also walked through the more commercial area which was filled with convenience stores and so many tailors packed with men working sewing machines. It was interesting to see a lot of the clothes being sold in other markets and shops being made here. Surprisingly, a lot of people were also watching what seemed to be TikToks on their cell phones, which I definitely didn’t expect.
A few other takeaways:
Our tour guide made a sincere point of telling us how people want to live here. Much like his family when they had moved to this slum, many immigrants or Indians from rural areas can and do find a better life here. That is not to say that people should have to work in such conditions, or for such grueling hours, and have to live without food, water or healthcare security (among other things). But this points to broader systemic problems in India with employment. Our guide told us there is a lot of pushback from these communities against government plans to close slums and move those people to dispersed government housing, as they will lose access to these employment opportunities.
The most surprising aspect to me, and maybe it shouldn’t of been, was how similar it felt: children laughing and roughhousing, so many cellphones and music, normal smells and common products we saw throughout India.
There was absolutely no begging, in stark contrast to the rest of our trip
Our tour guide, like most of our tour guides, asked us our political affiliation. And unlike his other food and culture tours, he told us across his years of giving this specific tour he had only ever had a single republican on this tour… wow
The last part of day consisted of grabbing our bags and heading to Adit’s family’s to debrief his uncle and grandma on the trip, grab some dinner and take a quick shower before heading to the airport for a long journey home. We stuck to our guns and had zero self control when ordering (mostly due to Adits uncle’s generosity, as he would order anything anybody showed even a slight interest for in the menu or reorder anything anybody showed too much gusto in while eating). It was such a tasty meal, and a great way for our taste buds to say goodbye to India (ugh).
Prior to dinner we went to two shopping centers the locals use, and while the second could have been found in a US mall, the first was an absolute labyrinth. So many teeny tiny stores crammed next to and on top of each other, I was incredibly nervous we were going to knock an entire stores worth of goods over (and a different customer did knock over so many cups), and it took us ten minutes, two laps and two guides to find the spice shop we were looking for! We came back chock full of spices and lofty expectations of recreating some of the wonderful food we had. Unfortunately we had no luck finding Josh his copper cups, but not from a lack of trying!
After dinner we took a lap around the area the restaurant was in, and it was absolute madness. There were about 20 night clubs with huge flashing lights and loud music next to each other in a big semicircle, and they had pretty absurd english names that didn’t really make sense and an army of people trying to hawk you. There were also so many little kids trying to sell balloons, pretty heartbreaking and that type of juxtaposition was very representative of India as a whole.
Then we showered off and headed to the airport for our 4am flight and long, long journey home!
Note from the author: I have been absolutely craving the food post-trip. Grilled Paneer and Chai primarily, but my mouth will literally water at the thought as I’m daydreaming (and it’s watering as I write this).
Fantastic Blog Jack! Inspiring me to consider a trip there myself! I will have to work on my narrow palate first!