Edd's Travels: New Delhi, India

Well, I guess they call it Delhi Belly for a reason.

Ironically it wasn't even something I ate in Delhi. I started to feel queasy on my final day in Agra. It might have been the posh mixed kebab platter (see the last Edd vs Food), or it might have been my home-cooked bean stew, or it might have been some slightly-too-softly-boiled breakfast eggs. Either way I had a couple of days of feeling a bit off, with details that you don't want to know about. No real emergencies though, and I made it through the train journey from Agra to Delhi without any need for Immodium, and I'm fine now. But since then I've been eating very unadventurously, as you'll see below.

Obviously Delhi is a tourist hotspot, by Indian standards, so there are plenty of options for unadventurous eating. But the American chains do have other uses: generally, the only two options for decent coffee in India are a) Starbucks and b) McDonalds. Incidentally it seems the only two options for finding tuna of any kind are a) Subway sandwiches and b) cat food.

Delhi is full of monuments and temples and other interesting sights, of which but a very small selection is featured in my pictures below. Perhaps the most spectacular of all is Swaminarayan Akshardham, an absurdly huge Hindu temple completed only in 2005. But they don't allow photography there - indeed you aren't even allowed to take your phone in with you. I handed mine over on entry, and then when I left, it was given back to me by a bored-looking young Indian lady who belched loudly as she did so. Anyway here's what the temple looks like.

The hawkers and touts here are more persistent and impertinent here than elsewhere. Nonetheless Delhi gets my vote because it has lots of nice open spaces to stroll around in, for example Kartavya Path and Connaught Place (see pictures below). The Metro is excellent too. And I'm reliably informed that the food here is better than anywhere else in India, which makes me regret my slight digestive indisposition all the more.

But India is getting a bit hot for me. I don't mean that the police have got wind of my browsing history. No, I mean that it's literally too hot. You might have seen on the news that summer has started earlier than usual here (please don't google 'India Summer' if you're at work) and I can vouch for this first-hand. Between dawn and dusk, I'm having to hole up under the aircon and the ceiling fan. This is no country for old men, and no country for white ginger men either. Now that I've ticked Delhi Belly off my bucket list, it'll soon be time to head home and mess my guts up with cask ales and kebabs instead. One more blog to go.