Delhi Pictures
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Intrepid run 53 superb, good value holidays in India, many of which include |
Qutub Minar, south Delhi, India.
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Built in the 11th century this intricately carved, 72m high sandstone minaret was the first monument built by a Muslim invader, the ex-slave Qutb-al-Din. The largest mosque in India is the Jama Masjid in Old Delhi, built by everybody's favourite Emperor, Shah Jahan.
India Gate on Rajpath avenue in New Delhi and its surrounding grass is a popular destination for Indians on hot evenings and holidays.
Jantar Mantar, New Delhi. Photo by El Tonio.
Also called the Yantra Mantra, this astronomical observatory was a pre-cursor to the Jaipur Jantar Mantar, constructed in 1724 by the Jaipur Maharaja on the instructions of Emperor Mohammed Shah, another of the Mughal moguls.
The brilliant Akshardham, the largest Hindu temple in the world and loaded with interest, Delhi.
Photo by Swaminarayan Sanstha.
The Lodhi Gardens with a handful of tasteful tombs in 90 acres of refreshing greenery, New Delhi
© Ajay Bhaskar, Dreamstime
Getting around Delhi:
Metro: The new Delhi subway service works brilliantly though the network is not yet fully open. Trains are fast, cheap, cool and efficient. It definitely pays to find a hotel/guest house near
a Metro station.
Buses: As usual bus travel is the cheapest and least comfortable option, whether it's for getting around Delhi or travelling to/from other destinations in India. Buses go everywhere but are generally horribly crowded, hot and piloted by crazed, race-car rejects.
Taxis: relatively cheap and commonly hired for the day, there are four possibilities.
1] Pricey, modern, air-conditioned vehicles, roughly double the fare of...
2] Old fashioned black-yellow Ambassadors, with no air-con and frequently dodgy meters. Cheap, but best to fix the fee before setting off in case of fiddles.
3] Auto-rickshaws, super cheap but smelly, nauseating motion, possibly unsafe and with a tendency to try to rip-off foreigners, so haggle before travel and if there's a problem go to the nearest tourist police [who are surprisingly efficient...try that in Mexico!].
4] Cycle Rickshaws are great for short distances and for appreciating the environment but tourists need to fix a price in advance.
Rail: A slight complication with train travel is that they run to one of four stations on Delhi - New Delhi [central] and Delhi Junction [Old Delhi] are the main targets for
tourists and both served by the shiny new Metro Line 2; the new Anand Vihar station heads east and is connected to Metro Line 3 while Hazrat Nizamuddin goes south with no Metro stop. This last one is the station to use for trains heading for south India.
Delhi Photos © bugbog.com and licensors