This trip was born back in November with one girl expressing a desire to see the Taj Mahal before her expat life came to an end this year and my response was - I'll go with you ( this seems to be my mantra, a willingness and eagerness to do or try anything new without any details involved, you don't have to ask me twice :) From this small statement a girls weekend plan was hatched. We started to spread the word around and low and behold 5 others quickly jumped at the chance to see the Taj Mahal too. Funny as the word spread that we were actually going on this trip and plans were laid more and more women expressed a desire to go.
Most of our correspondence with each other was through email. Dates were chosen, visas acquired, hotel accommodations were argued over, a tour guide company was found, airline reservations were made, yogurt with probiotics was eaten (hey Dehli belly is real ask my girlfriend, you'll do anything to keep it away, it worked for me ) and boom we were going to India. Now mind you this group of 7 women were not all close friends. 2 women didn't even know one another until they met at the airport the day of departure. Even myself I can say I really only knew 2 of them well. The other 5 I either knew of or sort of knew. We were a mixture of nationalities which can make things interesting. Countries represented by us were Australian, American, Sweden and Britian. This shows you all sevens strong desire to go to India.
Giddy like school girls we arrived at the airport and off we went flying away to India. All was good on the flight until toward the end when the flight attendant says something over the loud speaker that I don't quite catch except cover your mouth and nose. What? Turns out they spray a sort of Lysol through the plane for germs. Weird and gross. Okay well at least now I'm germ free. Lol! It worked because I'm the only one that didn't get the cold that all my girlfriends got. 😊 nor did I get Delhi belly. Though I doubt the spray had anything to do with that. ☺️
A few things I learned is that not all toilets flush the same way after completely soaking my friends feet in the next stall in the Delhi airport when I mistook the wrong knob as the flusher. Oops! Luckily it was just clean water I sprayed her with. The bathroom attendant was not happy with me.
Somehow after this incident we were ALL mistaken for Americans because we were being loud. What is it with bashing the Americans, are we really that loud of a culture. 🎉🎉🎉🎉. Not me of course 😜
Speeding through immigration (ok maybe not speeding more like crawling through quick sand, but nothing was going to ruin our excitement ), checking out Duty free (a favorite store amoung expats, you never know what a new country will have), finding our little Indian man the tour guide with the sign that had Ali's name on it. Away we went on our adventure. We really had no idea what we were getting ourselves into.
Driving through New Delhi was not what I was expecting. It was quite lovely. Very green with lots of trees and grass, traffic was not bad, monkeys everywhere, an occasional cow on the side of the road. Almost seemed civilized, almost being the key word. When we got to one intersection we did have several children hawking giant planes. It was a little disconcerting when they were climbing on our van so we could see them better. Some just came right up to the van with their hands out looking for anything. It was funny because the driver and tour guide said absolutely nothing and acted like they weren't even there. When the light turned green we just drove off.
Arriving at our hotel was so exciting. My girlfriend made all the arrangements but there had been some issues with her choice from a few of the other women. It was a 5 star hotel and I can't say it was the cheapest place. I was just along for the adventure so for me I was up for anything ( *remember my mantra). The Imperial Hotel was beyond any expectations that I had. It was a British colonial style hotel. Wow! The service, the rooms, the food, the artwork I'm beginning to sound like a tripadvisor review or my mother. The women in beautiful saris with a British twist, the men in very smart British coats. Everyone soooo friendly. They even said welcome home when we entered the building. We loved this place.
It will be a huge reality slap when I go back to staying at the Townhome Suites by Marriott in the US. 😊
This guy was like the head doorman at the hotel. He had like 6 other guys standing with him but he was dressed the fanciest. He always was so happy to see us.
First afternoon, high tea. I have been to high tea in NYC but never like this. Though I got chastised by the Aussie and Brit for eating my scone the wrong way. Geez who knew. I need different country eating lessons before I go on these kind of trips with other women. Lol. We had quite a few laughs and more food and tea than I could imagine. Never thought those words would come out of my mouth.
It was completely different from the beer and bar food I'm use to. 😜.
Much advice was given to us about safety. Women like us from other countries, traveling at night, not walking alone, keeping an eye on our purses were all reiterated over the days we were there. Fortunately we were very smart, had a tour guide and driver with us most of the time and we knew our boundaries. We always looked out for one another and therefore I am happy to say did not have one problem. Never did I feel unsafe, a few times uncomfortable, but never unsafe.
Shopping was a major desire we all had. We tried to fit it in everywhere and anywhere. To the left of our protected hotel gates there was a small Tibetian market. Ooh so much stuff to look at and touch, well of course buy too. We were like fresh meat off the market, these small shop owners looked at us like dollar signs. I have never been hounded so much to purchase something or just anything in my life. It was fun but by the end exhausting. Plus we were still getting our Indian feet and trying to get use to our surroundings. Besides bartering on everything, I would have to convert rupees into US dollars to figure out how much something costs. It's like 62 to 1. Do that in your head. Thank god for my handy dandy conversion app on my phone. Plus we were rushing because it was getting dark and first rule of safety from the hotel was be back before dark. First rule broken!
I could not wait to get back to our hotel and by then was really wanting a cold beer.
Women selling bedding/ linens on the street
Trying out sing bowls before we purchased. The sound had to fit our aura. Had to bring one of these home for Jack. After his trip to Nepal he knows all about Sing Bowls.
This is the Tibetain Market where we shopped. All these garage doors opened and little stalls are inside. This picture was taken in the morning it's only open in the afternoon and evening. In the evening people are all around and they display many of their items outside their stores.
Made it to the bar and it was soooo good. Cold beer served in a silver freezing stein. So classy the bartender loved us. Indian beer called Kingfisher was my choice. I'm a cheap date 400 rupees (like 6$) compared to my gin drinking girlfriends with their 1379 rupees (25$) GTs.
Again the argument of our 5 star hotel was revisited. Lol. I didn't complain. 😊
In my mind there was nothing wrong with this 5 star hotel. 😄
Next morning site seeing is on the list. Our tour company shows up after I went to the most fantastic buffet breakfast at the hotel I've ever had. It even had a "buffet guide" seriously I'm not kidding. He would show you around and even carry your plate. Food and tea, delish!!
First stop was Humayan's Tomb. It is a mosoleum built by the senior wife (they had multiple wives) of the 2nd emperor or India in 1570. It took 16 years to build. It is the first garden-tomb on the Indian subcontinent.
Bright green parrots are everywhere
Loved seeing all the school children here on their field trips.
Now off to Delhi, you ask is there a difference between New Delhi and Delhi! YES a gigantic one. Going from ND to D was wow. Delhi was what I was expecting India to be like. Chaos pure chaos!! Cannot emphasize the word chaos enough. More people and cars and filth and trash and slums than I have ever seen in my life. This was the India that soooooo many people had told and warned me about. I have always heard you haven't seen poverty until you see India poverty. Were they so ever right and I live in Thailand where there are some poor people. Poor is not a strong enough word to describe some of these peoples situation. More like desperate and destitute. Men laying all over with barely any clothes and filthy. These people live in the dirt and mud. It was like entering into a time capsule and being spit out into another world.
How is it that we all live on the same earth and can be similar in shape and size but be oh so different and have such different lives? Amazing and eye opening.
This picture was taken before we took the ride of our lives and experience a very small taste of what living in Delhi is really like. This picture was taken in front of the Red Fort of Dehli. We were like an attraction ourselves. More pictures were taken of us and not with our cameras. People were just following us around taking our picture. Men and Children were trying to sell us everything and anything. People and more people were everywhere. I guess this is what it's like being famous and having the paparazzi follow you around. Lol. Weird!
Our tour guide asked us if we would like to take a tuk tuk ride into the spice market. Of course was our answer, why not. So glad we said yes but so glad I had no idea what were about to embark on because I probably would have said HELL NO!
Up until this point we had been pretty well protected and shielded from regular Indian life. We rode around in what I nicknamed "The Bubble" our van with an English speaking guide. Oh how was I ever so excited to see the bubble after this journey.
We were split up into two tuk tuks with the driver not being able to speak a word of English. Our tour guide happened to ride in the tuk tuk I was not in. It didn't bother me until the return trip back from the spice market and we got separated. This was a 10 minute moment of extreme uncomfortableness.
All got happy again when the other tuk tuk showed up and we were back in the bubble.
They are smiling now! Lol
Mayhem, absolute mayhem. So close you can reach out and touch someone. You have to keep your knees, hands and toes in or they will get whacked. The cars, motorbikes, tuk tuks, ricksaws all touch at some point. People crossing the street are everywhere. Traffic was like a very carefully choreographed dance but no laws are followed or at least any laws that I have to follow when driving. Shockingly I never saw an accident or someone get hurt.
Primary school in the background. More men than I have ever seen in my life. We even asked our tour guide where are all the women.
As many pictures as we took of others someone was always taking a picture of us.
Ooh some women
My girlfriends playing real life extreme "frogger". I saw my life pass before my eyes as I made it across the street and looked up to see a motorbike barreling down on me. My girlfriend actually screamed out SLOW DoWN at the guy. He missed me by inches.
Flowers were so vibrant amongst the filth and dirt.
Spice and nut shop we went into. The owner gave us a demonstration of all the spices they sell and how their used in Indian cooking. Showed us teas from different regions and lots of different nuts.
Of course you get caught up in the moment and I bought all sorts of spices. Now I just need one of those lovely Indian women to come to my house to cook it. I have no idea, what I was thinking. 😊
Now you might be thinking after reading above what was the smell like. Those who know me well. I'm a smeller. I smell everything and am very affected by smells. Walter tends to think I'm crazy with what I can smell. After seeing the street photos with all the cars and people that the smell was as my kids would say rank! It wasn't. It smelled wonderful which really was quite confusing for my brain. The streets were so disgusting but if you saw the amount of spice shops in this area you would understand. Have you ever had Indian food or walked into an Indian restaurant? The spice smells were so powerful that this particular area smelled wonderful. Close your eyes and it was sitting in a beautiful restaurant waiting for amazing food, open your eyes and it was like walking through a garage dump.
Now as soon as we drove out of this area the smell hit you hard and fast in the face and it was not pleasant. Think of a bathroom at the end of a hard rock concert that 10000 people attended. Yeah that bad.
What an incredible experience this tuk tuk ride was. I really wouldn't trade it for anything. This ride gave us an authentic opportunity even for just a short hour what it is like to drive through the streets of Delhi. To see the life of how these people live.
As we rode around you see people everywhere. Have I mentioned the amount of men. 😉 They would just stare at us more like bore into your soul. Rarely did you see women. If you did they were so happy to see us and usually smiled or stopped for a picture.
These women were so kind. I guess tourists themselves from a different region of India. They stopped said hello or what we thought was hello ( didn't speak English) held our hands and were genuinely interested in us. They were beautifully dressed.
What an adventure it has been and it's only just begun........
India to be continued......
Cheers from the other side
😘 M
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