Delhi, India

Arrival: Andre survived his flight to Delhi making his tight connection in Hong Kong with ease. The only drama encountered was the precious business man in the next row who almost blew a gasket when the food wasn’t as good as business class. Oh the pain……

I met up with Andre at the Imperial Hotel later in the day.

Hotel: It is off season for tourism in Delhi. As a result, rooms in high end hotels are available at discounted rates. I am really glad that they were. This hotel was simply out of this world – over the top, unabashed colonial style luxury. It was like stepping back in time. There were people to help you out of the car, people to open doors for you – our wing had its own personal assistant to make sure that everything in the room was ship shape. There was marble everywhere. The interior of the Thai restaurant took artisans 7 years to create (by hand). There was even a Chanel shop in the lobby. I think that is enough to get the picture!

The only unusual aspect was the level of security at the hotel. There were armed guards everywhere. Every car coming onto the property is searched. There was airport style metal detectors and bag screening. I guess after the Mumbai hotel attack, they don’t take any chances anymore.

Shopping: After relaxing around the hotel for the first day, we headed out into the city on the second. We booked a shopping and food tour of Delhi through http://delhicookingclass.blogspot.ca/p/ shopping-and-spice-tour.html . We were met at the hotel by Farheen and her husband. We were escorted through a series of shopping experiences that included the Janpath street mall, the INA market (spices and food where Indians shop), Dilli Haat (government sponsored regional crafts mall), South Ex (posh, expensive shops) and finally Chandi Chowk (insanely packed market in Muslim area of Old Delhi).

Eating: We went for a quick snack while at Dalli Haat (where we had momos from Sikkim) to tide us over until we could gorge ourselves at multiple locations throughout Chandi Chowk.

We started at Karim’s, an amazing restaurant that prepares dishes once made for the Mughal royal court, specializing in meat. The mutton burra was just out of this world.

Next on the tour was Old Famous Jalebi Wala. Jelabi are deep fried lentil flour batter that is soaked in sugar syrup. Indians love their sweets!

After eating parathas at Pandit Babu Ram Devi Dayal, we had even more sweets from Chaina Ram and then indulged in a little papri chaat from Haldiman’s.

Street Fight: About half way through the food tour, our guide Farheen had a spectacular screaming match with our rickshaw drivers. At the beginning of the trip, she agreed to pay them 10x the rate that they would charge a native Indian to take us around Chandi Chowk. Each time we stopped, they insisted that they wanted more money. The situation escalated until we finally ended up getting out of the rickshaws mid ride. The shouting match that ensued was monumental! A huge crowd gathered around as she ripped a strip off of them. She even got a few people from the crowd involved. I certainly would not want to be on the wrong side of her. We ended up walking part of the way and grabbing a couple of more rickshaws after our next food stop.

Red Fort: After sleeping off the eating frenzy of the previous day, we headed to the Red Fort, the palace of the last mughal. The massive grounds were covered with ornate architecture that was built to impress. One of the most impressive features were the fountains and waterways that surrounded and even ran through the buildings to provide cooling on hot Delhi summer days. It must have been a spectacular sight when it was filled with the sights and sounds of the Delhi court, the mughal, the scheming courtesans and the brightly coloured array of servants, visits and courtiers.