James & Clare, Coddiwomplers Inc: Delhi, India

We landed at Delhi International Airport at about 5am after a short 4.5hr flight during which they managed to feed us a very acceptable curry (of course!). The airport itself is modern and comfortable so we made ourselves at home for a few hours, sorting out a SIM card and drinking coffee. When it seemed a respectable enough time to turn up at our accommodation we made our way, with a short walk, to the Metro line. The train was surprisingly not crowded and quite comfortable. When we got to our stop though and had to find our exit from the train station?

Well, HELLO India! Wow, what a complete sensory overload ... right from the get go. India has the capacity to make one feel all kinds of emotions every minute of the day. But the people are so friendly, there is so much to be fascinated by and so much to learn.

Our hotel was a short walk from the station, up a side alley and we had to make like Sherlock Holmes to find it. Don't ever expect Google Maps to be very helpful in the micro environment in India.

The first thing we noticed was the smog. Oh dear. Delhi was experiencing severe levels of poor air quality which is quite common in the winter apparently. Yay for us!

Our room was comfortable enough, but reasonably noisy at night? This became a fairly common theme. Difficult not to always have something going on with so many people. One night the staff of the hotel seemed to be doing some building work or intensive clean of the room across from us .... well after midnight! It is difficult to complain as these peoples lives are difficult enough already. Sigh.

Our neighbourhood for the next four days, Paharanj, is a bustling, chaotic and vibrant neighbourhood famous as a hub for budget travellers. That's us folks. There is always so much to see, do and discover.

Spot the dog?

Fire safety at the service station.
Buckets of sand.

Ear cleaning anyone.

One of many bike parks. Not sure how you get
your bike out of the middle of all this.

Every time we stepped out the door we got asked by soooo many shoe cleaners, tuktuk drivers and street vendors if we would avail ourselves of their services. We were more than happy to eat the street food and really enjoyed it.

Chole Bature - chickpea curry and flatbread

We also enjoyed some sit down meals. The food is super cheap and James says the hygiene standards are much improved from his time here 18yrs ago. We both expected to get a bit of Delhi Belly, but it never eventuated. Thank goodness.

Thali - lots of vegetarian curries, rice, pickles and roti

Our favourite daily routine, throughout India, became our Chai (masala tea - ginger, cardamon tea) stops at the local Chai stalls. We are always welcomed with open arms. We feel like this is the place to feel the real heart of the community and therefore stop several times a day to partake.

We were delighted to come across the fruit and vege market at the back of our hotel but felt sorry that we didn't have any cooking facilities. Everything looked so fresh and inviting. It will all be locally (India) grown as even in the middle of winter there is somewhere in India warm enough to grow tomatoes. What a joy!

The carrots are always this colour

We took the Metro a few more times during our time here and finally became familiar with the station. The trains are always full, crampacked. You always have to put your bag through the security scanner and pass through personal scanner - women to the left, men to the right. Then when you buy a ticket you have to make sure to get all your change back. Eventually, we managed to download a UPI account with allowed us to make payment at all manner of places including - the train station, Chai guy, street food stalls etc - using a QR code. Such a great system.

Figuring out which line to take.

These gorgeous women sitting
opposite us on the train.

One of our jaunts out was the Red Fort. It is sad to note that there was a car bombing at this location as recently as November 2025, killing 15 people and injuring at least 20 more.

But here we are. Either stupid or brave, you choose.

The Red Fort was built mid-17th Century for the ruling Emporer of the time in the Mugal style of red sandstone. Today it is a UNESCO Heritage Site.

The entranceway is full of stalls selling tat

It's always nice to find a quiet spot

Solid marble

A more contemporary building

These workers taking a break

The inside walls workers resting

Another of our excursions was to India Gate. This is a memorial honouring the 70,000 Indian soldiers who lost their lives serving the British Army in World War 1 and the Afghan wars.

The memorial where the eternal flame burns

Just some of the soldiers honoured

Statue of Subhas Chandra Bose, and anti-colonial
nationalist back in the day

The gate itself

The side of the gate, fting a real life
freedom fighter

We also TRIED to visit a local (obviously popular) Hindu Temple. When we got there, after quite the journey, there were sooo many people lined up to get in we really couldn't be bothered to wait. We spent some time watching the madness of the road below and making friends with the lovely woman at the chai stall.

You can see the temple in the foggy background

Utter chaos

And were wandered through the upmarket suburb of Green Park.

There is something like 60mil street dogs in India. They have a hard road to hoe here as it is really hard to get any meat products. We did not find any meat to eat at all. But dogs, dogs need meat! There is obviously some animal charities at work here as quite a few of the dogs have coats on for the winter and there are stuffed sacks placed around for them to use as beds. Expect it's first in first served. We didn't encounter one aggressive dog and didn't see anyone being cruel to them.

Some of them even have owners!

Other wildlife we came across ....

There are a few cows wandering around. They
are sacred here so you often find the locals feeding them.

Not many, but a few monkeys.

Even worse than this, are the homeless people. The Internet would have you believe there are only apporx 2mil people homeless in India, out of a population of 1.5bil. We suspect it is A LOT more than this. How are they even measuring it?? Some of the churches and temples do a good job of feeding the poor. But it isn't nearly enough. We were asked on more than one occasion to join in and have something to eat. We politely declined, preferring to leave what they had for those really in need. Ever since we started travelling full time in 2015, whenever we find ourselves in a really poor country, we give to one beggar a day. It feels like nothing, and it really is. So heartbreaking.

The people of India are something special altogether. 99.9% of our interactions with the locals are nothing but positive. People want to help us where and whenever they get the chance. If only for the opportunity to practice their English. They are charming, inquisitive and welcoming.

With this concentration of people you do have to wonder how they keep on top of things like rubbish collection as you see so many people discarding their rubbish as they walk along. There must be some kind of service or they would be buried in the filth by now.

We did actually see the odd rubbish truck. They guy was just getting out every now and then and scooping up great shovels full of rubbish when he found a concentrated pile.