Next stop: Lunch. Because it is a national holiday, there aren’t many choices of open restaurants, but there is one that is pretty good, Bhanu tells us, and tours normally can not go there because the bus can’t park under normal circumstances. But, since there is no traffic and no cars/bikes/tuk tuks clogging the streets, we get to eat at the PubLiq Bar and Kitchen. Upstairs, with a balcony overlooking the street (we eat inside though), the place is cute and sort of quirky with a large menu of typical Indian offerings. There’s Mutton Rogan Josh, Butter Chicken, all the Veg you could want, and naan, of course naan!
Good lunch, and equally good facilities (which of course is a priority!). Back on the road we trek over to Raj Ghat, the cremation site of Mahatma Ghandi. Situated along the Yamuna river, the memorial, a simple black marble platform, open to the sky, with an eternal flame on one side, is in the middle of a beautifully landscaped park that today is crawling with people – either relaxing or playing on the manicured lawns or circling the monument to pay respects to the man considered Father of the Nation.
After 20 minutes of meandering around in the beautiful sunshine, people watching (and watching people watch us back), we head back to the bus to continue our city tour.
On the way, Bhanu regales us with more Indian knowledge, explaining the colors of the Indian flag; Orange for Hindu, White for Peace, Green for Muslim and the circle of time in the middle. He also explains the symbolism of the red dot in the middle of the forehead – it is symbolizes the center of energy, the third eye, and reminds people that they should center themselves around perception (located at that very point behind the forehead). Unfortunately, many who get what is known as a “bindi” or “tikka,” don’t actually proscribe to the symbolism, but only do it out of habit or Hindu practice.
We arrive in old Delhi quite quickly, of course, there’s no traffic, and do our drive by past the Red Fort. We aren’t touring the fort because apparently there isn’t too much to see, only a small portion of the fort is available to tourists and we will be seeing lots of other forts in the coming days. So, on we go directly the Chandni Chowk, the main shopping district of Old Delhi where we find our rickshaws (or at least Bhanu finds the rickshaws for us) to tour the area. Once we are all settled, off we go in the rickety human powered mode of transport. Again, sadly, nothing is open, so we don’t really get the full experience of being carried through the shopping bazaar amidst thousands of people all bustling about buying their wares – but it’s still fun – watching the empty storefronts go by, the mass of electrical wires all strung together and all the other rickshaws in our group pass us. Our guy started out first, but then we crashed! A rickshaw coming the other way crashes into us, making Ed drop his phone (fortunately no damage done) and after the initial shock, causing us all to break out into infection giggles. Honestly, a rickshaw crash?
Maggi and Richard’s guy keeps getting off the bike and pushing them, our guy then decides he’s in a race and has to be first and takes off – and well – it’s all good fun, racing through the empty streets of Chandni Chowk.
All 18 of us make it back to the bus safely (crash notwithstanding) and head out to our next “scheduled” destination, a drive by of the Presidential Palace, Parliament and India Gate. This is where the entire Republic Day parade and festivities are being held, so we don’t know if we will be able to drive through there, but Bhanu and Suneel are going to give it a try.
On the way we pass by crowded local markets, and the occasional goat or two or three. Not so many cows here, but they will come later, we promise you!
As we near the Presidential palace, we don’t see too many road blocks or people, so Suneel thinks it is safe to drive through, but we are stopped by an armed guard and told to go the other way. Oh well, worth a try. The other way turns out to be right past India Gate, which is at the very end of the parade promenade, and oh my God, the people! The parade may be over, but the celebrating crowds are not. We had heard this was a huge festival, with somewhere in the neighborhood of 400,000 people coming to the city to see the parade, and let me tell you, it looks like 400,000 people are still here! Milling about the streets, crossing the road, selling grilled corn on the sidewalk, empty chairs along the parade route – holy cow – it is jam packed full of Republic Day celebrants. Wow!
That was worth the drive by, for sure! Now it is back to the hotel for welcome drinks and dinner with the group.
We’ve got about an hour to freshen up, then meet in a private room in one of the restaurants for drinks, introduction to each other and appetizers (which might as well be dinner, the amount of food they served us!). There are two groups of 4 (our group and 2 brothers and their cousin and husband) and the rest individual couples who all seem fairly well traveled and easy going – at least on this busy first day!
After an hour, we head downstairs to the first of our many shared buffet dinners (this one a late added bonus due, we are pretty sure, to Republic Day) which caps off a very nice first tour day. Now we have our instructions from Bhanu, our wake up call, our bags out and on the bus time for tomorrow – and it is time for a well deserved sleep before we hit to the road to Agra in the morning.
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