(For clarification: We recently finished our summer field placements in the big city of Chennai and flew to the bigger city of Delhi to spend our last few days in India.)
Honorable Mention: Ajay Guest House - selected by the brilliant Ms. Caroline, this guest house couldn't be much better located for the many things we are doing in Delhi, and it even puts us close to the New Delhi Railway Station for our day trip to Agra. It's clean, colorful, air conditioned (usually), and there's hot water for the showers you always need. What's more, there's a ground floor bakery and a rooftop restaurant that are open 24/7 and will bring you food through room service for no extra charge.
10. The Delhi Metro (Allan, you were right!) The metro is clean, air-conditioned, efficient and cheap! It's the latest in a long list of transportation means we've used in India.
9. Our guest house forgot to send a car to the airport, but that meant we got into the city for Rs. 250 rather than Rs. 900...never mind that our driver was reckless and his horn was pathetically dying from overuse.
8. Everywhere, but especially at Jama Masjid, the largest mosque in India, dozens of people (usually young guys and kids with cellphones) have been taking our pictures more or less obviously. So we took some pleasure in starting to take pictures of people taking pictures of us.
7. After a rather excessive detour, we re-energized with food new to our Indian palate: Dum Aloo & an ice cream milkshake. The dum aloo was a sweet tomato and onion curry with cottage-cheese-and grape-stuffed potatoes. The milkshake was "new" because India usually understands a milkshake to be made with milk...they have a point, but with ice cream is best.
6. We saw monkeys in Wayanad, where they seemed to belong, but on a major thoroughfare in New Delhi, they were sort of startling. Especially when Aimee knelt down to get a picture and they charged her.
5. We weren't supposed to walk down Bazaar Chitli Qabar Marg and we're not sure how we ended up there. But at last, here was the chest-to-back, shoulder-to-shoulder, bustling alley-posing-as-a-road, packed with bicycle rickshaws, scooters, vendors, fruit carts, trash, drying laundry, and street food aromas.
4. Foreigners are always charged more at national sites than nationals, to the tune of Rs. 300 vs. Rs. 20 at the National Museum. But when we flashed our international student IDs, we got in for Rs. 1. Boo ya!
3. We're taught not to accept rides from strangers, but when the alternative is rickshaw-wallahs fleecing you because you're a tourist, they might just be your best bet. Kids, don't try this at home.
2. We took a shot on a restaurant not in our guide book and ended up with a family-style feast made especially for us at Al-Arabi on Main Bazar Rd. Falafel, babaganouj, greek salad, hummus, marinated steak and dry-roasted chicken...we could not recommend it more highly.
1. The number one reason we like Delhi so far is that the "room service" knocking on our door turned out to be Molly Pike and Megan Rafferty! Indian reunions strike again!
Honorable Mention: Ajay Guest House - selected by the brilliant Ms. Caroline, this guest house couldn't be much better located for the many things we are doing in Delhi, and it even puts us close to the New Delhi Railway Station for our day trip to Agra. It's clean, colorful, air conditioned (usually), and there's hot water for the showers you always need. What's more, there's a ground floor bakery and a rooftop restaurant that are open 24/7 and will bring you food through room service for no extra charge.
10. The Delhi Metro (Allan, you were right!) The metro is clean, air-conditioned, efficient and cheap! It's the latest in a long list of transportation means we've used in India.
9. Our guest house forgot to send a car to the airport, but that meant we got into the city for Rs. 250 rather than Rs. 900...never mind that our driver was reckless and his horn was pathetically dying from overuse.
8. Everywhere, but especially at Jama Masjid, the largest mosque in India, dozens of people (usually young guys and kids with cellphones) have been taking our pictures more or less obviously. So we took some pleasure in starting to take pictures of people taking pictures of us.
7. After a rather excessive detour, we re-energized with food new to our Indian palate: Dum Aloo & an ice cream milkshake. The dum aloo was a sweet tomato and onion curry with cottage-cheese-and grape-stuffed potatoes. The milkshake was "new" because India usually understands a milkshake to be made with milk...they have a point, but with ice cream is best.
6. We saw monkeys in Wayanad, where they seemed to belong, but on a major thoroughfare in New Delhi, they were sort of startling. Especially when Aimee knelt down to get a picture and they charged her.
5. We weren't supposed to walk down Bazaar Chitli Qabar Marg and we're not sure how we ended up there. But at last, here was the chest-to-back, shoulder-to-shoulder, bustling alley-posing-as-a-road, packed with bicycle rickshaws, scooters, vendors, fruit carts, trash, drying laundry, and street food aromas.
4. Foreigners are always charged more at national sites than nationals, to the tune of Rs. 300 vs. Rs. 20 at the National Museum. But when we flashed our international student IDs, we got in for Rs. 1. Boo ya!
3. We're taught not to accept rides from strangers, but when the alternative is rickshaw-wallahs fleecing you because you're a tourist, they might just be your best bet. Kids, don't try this at home.
2. We took a shot on a restaurant not in our guide book and ended up with a family-style feast made especially for us at Al-Arabi on Main Bazar Rd. Falafel, babaganouj, greek salad, hummus, marinated steak and dry-roasted chicken...we could not recommend it more highly.
1. The number one reason we like Delhi so far is that the "room service" knocking on our door turned out to be Molly Pike and Megan Rafferty! Indian reunions strike again!
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