The Sites and Sights of Delhi // New Delhi, India

Before we came away, everyone was saying to us that we would arrive in India and ask ourselves 'WHAT are we doing here!?' So of course we were prepared to hate it and the first day was definitely overwhelming, but actually this warning may have saved us as we were prepared and have quite quickly adjusted. Though I would say to anyone else planning on coming, plan to hate it and hopefully you'll be pleasantly surprised.

The one thing we've quickly learnt is that in New Delhi, life happens on the side of the road. It is of course dirty, loud and busier than any place I've ever been - but it's also colourful, friendly and exciting. Some of the things we have seen happening on the pavements of the city:

• Fruit and vegetable sellers (whose wares are often beautifully arranged into pyramids)
• A man being shaved by another man on a sheet by the Metro Station
• Someone getting a haircut with the mirror propped against a wall
• Live chickens for sale on the back of a cart
• Parakeets for sale (in several different locations. V popular.)

We'e also spoken to a variety of interesting characters, from the extremely helpful taxi driver who ferried us around for a day to see the main heritage sites around New Delhi to multiple who want to come speak to you to test out their English. Of course we have also worked out a lot of people are wanting to get you on a tour or sell you something from their stall or shop - however we have found if you just say no thank you and move on, most let you go/leave you alone.

A few photos from around the New Delhi streets:

We've been around six or so heritage sites and spots which were amazing and like walking around the pages of National Geographic. In some places we were as popular as the sites, with lots of children and young people asking to take pictures with us and marvelling at our 'lovely heights'. Below are some of the my favourite pics from our favourite sites.

Lodi Gardens

This was the first place we went when we arrived and was a great way to ease into travelling around New Delhi and do some site seeing without getting stressed. We got the Metro here which cost around 14p each. I highly recommend the Metro as it's super cheap, clean and is basically the Delhi version of the London Underground, so was easy for us to navigate

Lodi Gardens is a 90 acre park situated in an area populated mostly by politicians containing several 15th century architectural works (buildings, tombs etc). This park is known as a meeting spot for couples, which we saw a lot of as well as dog walkers and people going for runs etc.

I really like this picture apart from the annoying hosepipe :(

Red Fort

I wasn't very good at taking pictures at this place as it was very early in the morning (we were in about 6 mins after it opened) as it was the first stop of an 8 hour site-seeing mission we embarked on on day 3. However after some coffee I woke up and started appreciating this humongous site (254 acres) that was main residence of the emperors of the Mughal dynasty for nearly 200 years.

Here are the few photos of the Red Fort that I did take, a lot of which are indeed very red.

Humayun Tomb

This was one of the most magical and impressive sites we visited on our 8 hour extravaganza - especially when you consider it was originally built for one guy (the Mughal Emperor Humayun unsurprisingly) in 1569. It is the first example of Mughal architecture in India and the inspiration for the Taj Mahal (which we will be going to soon!)

This was a very popular a busy site, so excuse the other tourists posing but (I managed to cut out selfie man in the right hand corner of the first pic).

So far I would say that New Delhi has been a pleasant surprise, but only because I think we took it quite slowly the first 2/3 days. Today Martyn met a couple who are back to visit Delhi, Agra and Jaipur for the second year running, as they rushed through the main cities on their way to calmer pastures and ended up overwhelmed. However I can quite confidently say we have both enjoyed our time in Delhi so far, though have come to the conclusion that everyone here is mad (albeit an endearing madness).

We're off to Agra on Sunday so only 1 day left in this crazy city!