First Weekend Exploration

We officially arrived in Delhi, India last weekend (Friday PM).  However, because we were jetlagged and busy unpacking, finding our way around, etc. we didn't have any time to venture out.  This weekend was our first attempt to venture out a little.

On Saturday, we were home for the repairmen who came to fix our: 1) toilet leak, 2) guest room A/C, 3) kitchen cabinets, 4) caulk around the mirror where ants were coming in, 5) broken closet door handle, 6) broken desk drawer.  After that, we ventured on the brand new Delhi Metro to Connaught Place and Janpath Road where there is supposed to be great shopping and a few good markets.  Because we didn't eat lunch before venturing out, we were a little under-energized for the crowds and hectic scene that greeted us at the top of the Metro Station.  After wandering for a little bit with sunglasses and trinkets being shoved in our faces for purchase, we decided to head closer to home to eat at our new favorite restaurant: Side Wok.  We ate and then walked around Khan Market, which is only a 5 minute walk from our apartment.

Road scene from taxi

On Sunday, we ventured out after lunch and took a taxi to the American Embassy Club (ACSA).  Tim watched a softball game in action while I found the ACSA Commissary, the veritable "Oz" of Delhi - carrying food and other items from the US.  Tim isn't allowed access to that yet since he's waiting on his ACSA membership card.  Afterwards, we walked around the AES school campus and then took an auto-rickshaw (our first ride in one!) back to Khan Market and walked home.  Later in the afternoon, we participated in a Heritage Walking Tour of Lodi Gardens, a beautiful and treasured park in Delhi and only a 20 minute walk from our apartment.  A 1.5 hour walking tour for $4.50 per person is a deal!  Photos of this will be in a later blog post.

American Embassy School campus

Our first auto-rickshaw ride!

The neighborhood and area we live in is amazingly green.  The streets are wide and lined with huge trees.  Our neighborhood is near the Prime Minister's residence and the residences of some government officials and diplomats.  We haven't seen too much of the "India" seen in movies and on TV.  The poverty here hasn't been "in our faces" as much as I had expected.  We have come across a couple of people begging for money - particularly one woman at Khan Market carrying a small baby and touching my and Tim's arms and pointing at the baby, speaking in Hindi.  She followed us, repeatedly tapping Tim's arm, for nearly 2 blocks before finally turning away.  Today on our walk to Lodi Gardens, we noticed a woman holding a small baby with a young girl (maybe 5 years old) selling roses in the center of the street to passing cars.  When they noticed us, they called out something to us in Hindi the small girl ran over to us with her tin drinking cup.  She pointed to the bottle of Mountain Dew (filled with water) we were carrying and said something in Hindi.  We kept walking and she diligently followed, pointing again to the bottle and holding out her cup.  We gave her the bottle and she ran back to the middle of the road.  It's difficult to know how to deal with poverty.  You are warned never to give money in these situations because the money usually ends up going to a ring-leader and not to the person begging, which only proliferates the situation.  We will look into ways to give back to the Indian community that we are now a part of.