open mind, empty stomach

A lot of people say Delhi is a place you fly into, then get out of as fast as you can to experience the real India. While I make it a point NOT to do what a lot of people say, my relatively brief amount of time to spend in India (5 weeks) led me to do just that.

I ended up staying in India’s capital for just three fairly inactive days. My one touristy day was spent in Old Delhi, where I checked out Red Fort and the narrow, winding roads of the ancient city. The fort was pretty cool and I even found my way up a questionable looking ladder to the top of a building that I’m pretty sure visitors are not welcome. The view was amazing.

What wasn’t amazing was the scale and omnipresence of abject poverty. The smells, sounds, sights and smells were everything you’d imagine them to be, and they were everywhere. It was raw. It was real. It was eyeopening.

The food, nearly all vegetarian and served with some sort of bread, was different from any Indian I had prior. The flavors were complex, mouth-warming and delicious. Prices ranged from 20 cents to around a dollar, further enticing me to eat as much as possible. I subsisted entirely on street food and never developed the infamous Delhi Belly.

After a few days of adjusting from an essentially “normal” life in Penang to a traveler’s life in India, I left Delhi to do as so many others do: visit Agra and see the Taj Mahal.

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