Delhi: The world's most amazing clean-up job?
April 1, 2007
After our first trip to India years ago, we learned to avoid Delhi as much as possible. Yes, it has some impressive things to see such as Humayun's Tomb (which I think of as the "Taj Mahal Junior"), but based on our experience, the city just was not worth the hassle. When we were last here in 1997 the city was terribly polluted, the air burned you eyes and throat, and it seemed to me that the place was headed towards being un-inhabitable. So for this trip, we assumed that we would essentially avoid Delhi, except for swooping in at the last minute in order to catch our flight out to Hong Kong.
It was with some surprise, then, that along the way in Rajasthan we kept running into people who had nothing particularly harsh to say about Delhi. Various folks told me that the city had been substantially cleaned-up, and in Ranthambore the well-informed Govindher said that a few years ago the Supreme Court (somehow) directed that heavily-polluting vehicles would be banned from the streets and/or convert to Compressed Natural Gas (CNG). Somehow this became a reality, and to my complete amazement, the air in Delhi seemed relatively clean. I cannot overstate what a staggering surprise this was, considering our previous visits.
I informed Hernandez of this news, but she wasn't buying it. I had promised her that we'd stay in a nice hotel in Delhi, so she was very content to spend two days within the confines of the Intercontinental Hotel, while I did at least a little exploring.
My priority stop was the old market area of Chandi Chowk, in Old Delhi. It has a reputation for being complete chaos, and that's certainly how I remembered it from our first trip almost 20 years ago. A big fan of chaos, I anxiously struck out one morning to make my way over there. I caught a tuk-tuk to a station for Delhi's new subway, which by definition I assumed would be the world's most expensive toilet. But once again Delhi amazed me: The subway was sparkling clean, and looked every bit as good as the MTR in Hong Kong or the MRT in Singapore. I must invent a new adjective to express my shock at this...
Chandi Chowk was indeed a happening place: A sea of pedestrians, pedal-rickshaws and auto-rickshaws. I had a great time taking a rickshaw up and down the main drag! And then it hits you. You think that you're in an untouched area where modern life hasn't yet really intruded; wild chaos of the past...and sonuvagun if I don't look to my left and see a McDonalds! Despite the presence of the Golden Arches, Chandi Chowk was still grade-A chaos that I much enjoyed. While "Old Delhi" still retains much of an old world, crowded and chaotic feel, "New Delhi" feels very modern.
Overall Delhi was cleaner than Jaipur, and if you're headed where the subway goes, very easy to get around. Auto-rickshaws are ok for covering longer distances between points within the city, which is how I got back from Humayun's Tomb to the hotel...with a little work:
Driver: "On the way we stop at shop. Very good."
Me: "Hotel. No shop."
He of course is hoping to take me to a place where he'll get a hefty commission if I buy something, so he won't give up that easily. "On the way, no problem."
Me: "Hotel. No shop."
Driver: "Only five minutes. You look. No buy, no problem."
Me: "Hotel. No shop."
Driver: "Only five minutes."
Me: "You say shop one more time I get out and get new driver." And with that, he finally took me to the hotel!
As big Asian cities go, and as India goes in particular, Delhi was surprisingly easy. It's absolutely worth more time than the 36-hours we gave it.
Bob's ratings (1=terrible, 5=ok, 10=fantastic)
- Humayun's Tomb: 9
- Chandi Chowk: 8 (if you like chaotic street scenes)
- Intercontinental Hotel Nehru Place: 9 (Nice business-class hotel; great value for Delhi)