Survived from Delhi

Now I have plenty of time and energy, sitting in my little roomm recalling what just happened a mere day ago, an experience full of excitement and chaos.

I think this is my 5th or 6th time in Delhi, so I feel really calm when the bus pulled over at Kashmere Gate ISBT. Pick up the bag, rub my still sleepy eyes, take a breath, and step out the bus. Delhi in the morning is chilly and dull, not many people walking around, of course the rickshaw drivers are always restless when they see us and think we are some kind of dump ASIAN travelers traveling in Delhi for the first time and will follow them if they can speak some of OUR languages. So you can always hear they say : "Konichiwa" or "Aniang ha sa yo" (means HELLO in Japanese or Korean respectively). Unfortunately, we are neither of the both, so they deserve our ignorance. Delhi Metro acts like a totally different role in Delhi, big and clean, a really cool place compared to the hot and jammed hustle and bustle 20 meters above. We take the metro from Kashmere Gate to Rajiv Chowk, which is commonly known as Conaught Place, in the search of a coffee house which is said to be classic, but like any other "breakfast" places in India, it is not open until 10:30. McDonald's is right opposite the road, so why not try it? Turned out to be really nice and clean, with friendly staffs, we happily killed 1 hour enjoying reading newspaper and chatting in the AC restaurant.

Then I propose going to Main Bazaar to finish my task from long time ago, buy a backpack. At 10 o'clock, the main bazaar opposite New Delhi Rail Station seems to be recovering from the previous day's excitement. People just started business, rickshaw drivers are still not in the mood of hunting their prey. I found my way to the shop I targeted before, but it was not open. I believe all the good shops will open in a irregular hour, so does this is one, but I am sure will come back later.

We also went to the "International Exhibition Center" of Delhi for Gandhi's birthday show, but it didn't look as tempting as the newspaper writes. With a few booths of Gandhi's life style and photo gallery, blood-donation, HDTV shows and traditional Indian dance. We had something to drink there and escaped to Dilli Haat, a theme park with shops and eateries selling stuffs and food from different states. Spent quite some nice time there, eating food of Nagarland, and west Bengal. The thali we had in Nagarland restaurant was close to Cantonese food so we happily gorged ourselves with more.First time in my life that I realized simply boiled vegetables can be so delicious. Stroke by the Delhi sun, we both didn't perfect when we decided to go somewhere else. A mall with full AC, as we have decided is the best place to go. So 15 minutes later, we were seen in Ansal's Plaza, a shopping mall with a department store inside.

The mall is quite big and filled with nice brands like Body Shop, Marks and Spencer, but I have to say again the infrastructure in India is so poor that we experienced 4 power cuts in 1 and a half hour. After all, it's a mall and we feel happy being back to civilization. A dinner was planned by our French friends but rather tried some Indian food than Italian, we went straight to Old Delhi, where most famous restaurants hide in the winding and dark streets, giving out tempting aromas. Karim, the most famous restaurant in India according to Times Magazine, is not easy to be found. But if you ask any one on the street, they will show you the correct way in no time. Karim is famous for its traditional Mughal royal cooking, mostly relates to BBQ meat dish, curry dish and Biryani, a steam rice and meat dish. We had Chicken Burra, Mutton burra, Chicken Stew, Mutton Qorma, seekh kabab, shami kabab and romali roti there, all flawlessly delicious. Such a nice meal cost no more than 6-7 dollars for 1 person.

Soaked in sweats and tired of the heat, we decided to skip the birthday party of some friend's friend's friend and headed back to Conaught Place, found a bar and had a nice pint of beer. What a life in Delhi! Delhi is fun, and Delhi is dangerous, it's all the feeling you can find in life.