Indian Temptations

Yes, it is our favourite Indian take-away, but this post is more about the other type...the real Taste of India, but not Beyond India, just the Raj on Taj type.

After a long day of travel from Dubai to Delhi, we were glad to have arrived at our hotel in Vasant Kunj for some refuge from the traffic and noise of Delhi to prepare for the big day of our friends Marisa and Vik.  Together with most of the other travelling guests, we are staying at an upmarket hotel in the suburb where Vik and his family grew up and where most of the festivities are being held.

We made good use of the hotel 'free complimentary wifi' (since when has it become a luxury??) and found a highly rated walking food / heritage tour, and pulled the trigger for the next morning.  We have done a similar thing in other places like Buenos Aires and New York, both of which were excellent, but we didn't know what to expect for Delhi.  We were blown away at how authentic it was - a little window to the heart of Delhi.  Thanks to our tour guide who apparently was the grandson of the Governor of Delhi and has many family accolades for their service to India, we got to experience some of the best street food and hear about what it's like to live here.  We visited a market which services 1.5 million visitors per day!!! (That is all of the South Australians in one place at one time).  Considering there are over 20 million people in Delhi, people have to shop somewhere..!

       

  

     

Like many old-world city markets, there are specific sections for various types of wares - a kitchen supplies section, a flower section, a spices & tea area, and so on. The food sampling was great, the flowers bright and the spices very strong, but nothing could over-ride the sense of chaos and noise that was always in the background everywhere we walked, or rode in bicycle taxis or autos.

  

        

The tour finished on a high note with lunch at the guides house. This was no ordinary house - he told us it was the last of the traditional family mansions of old Delhi, with most such buildings divided up into smaller dwellings over time. This place had 17 rooms and 57 doors (not sure why door counts are so significant here!?). The food was all home-cooked by his wife and it was a treat to taste real northern-Indian cuisine in this kind of setting (J even managed to enjoy some curried cauliflower.)

         

Once the tour wound up we felt brave enough to have a go at Delhi on our own. Bravery may have been premature. Although it was fun, a few hours wandering this city on your own is enough to wear you out (if not prove fatal while crossing the road.) The noise and dust is incessant, and the traffic never-ending, and the efforts of locals to get you into some shop/taxi/restaurant etc is....... very persistent. The elaborate stories to garner your attention go on and on, and unlike other market areas we have been to, they don't give up after a few paces - these guys will walk with you for kilometres in order to get enough information to herd you somewhere that results in a little commission.

Completely cooked, we finished the day by meeting Vik & Marisa for a glass of bubbles and some nibbles at a decidedly flash and western, but clean and quiet, shopping mall near our hotel. Seeing them reminded us how soon the real reason for our trip will come around.

Tomorrow we head off on an overnight trip to see the Taj Mahal by moonlight (it is a rare event where the supermoon meets the red moon :)).  After that, let the festivities begin.

Arabian Gulf / Arabian Golf

Our first experience of Dubai was a ride in a taxi from the Airport.  Not just a standard taxi - a Lexus taxi which seems standard by the local standard...

The first 2 days were packed to the rafters.  Before check-in, we managed to walk 10km and view the tallest building in the world.  

In the afternoon, we signed up for a Safari tour, based on some awesome Tripadvisor reviews.  We need to describe the experience in excruciating detail as this will be the only true reflection of our torment.  We got picked up half an hour late and travelled in an old Toyota Landcruiser (which had 400,000km + on the clock) and with some non-English speaking passengers and a totally non-speaking driver to a random pre-desert destination. This place seemed to be a pop-up fun park for kids who want to play in the sand and burn petrol in 4 wheel buggies.  There were also weird stalls selling arabian scarfs, charred corn and you could even take a photo with a falcon.  

 

We were 'stuck' there for an hour and a half (after being told 20min).  Eventually, the tyres were deflated and together with 20 other white Landcruisers, we took off to the desert proper for some safari.  That was probably the coolest thing I've done (Gosia, not Jake- Jake was sort of bored after having done to tourists at Coorabie).

 

It was like riding a real-life roller coaster over the sand dunes looking out at the sunset.

After the sandhill, it all went downhill.  As part of the booked 'package', we set off for a dinner and a show at a desert camp.  We had no idea where and what the hell was going on, because our 'mute' driver failed to explain or give instructions.  Luckily, the other passengers and he shared some Hindi and the daughter a few words of English (the only reason we are still not in the desert now looking for a way home..) 

We slipped through a hole in the fence (in pitch black by then), stood in a pile of rubbish waiting for another car to take us all of 500m to said camp.  To this day, we don't know why we couldn't just drive there in the original car.  

Just when we thought things couldn't get much worse... they did.  We got left to our own devices in this weird place where people sat at tables on cushions, watching ridiculous performances like a guy spinning a piece of carpet over his head wearing a neon vest...

The dinner was a buffet where ladies and gentlemen were fed separately, after literally fighting their way through the crowded 'line' to get some tucker.  We decided that the safest way was to settle for a can of heineken that night.

Despite being really really tired after a long flight and a day out and about, we spent the entire hour drive back trying to stay awake just in case this was an elaborate rouge to steal our organs.

We felt a lot more enthusiastic the next morning after a big sleep and organs intact.  We spent the day on a hop on / hop off bus sightseeing.  As much as it seems a lame tourist thing to do, we've never regretted doing this in any city.  For us, it is a great way to get our bearings and learn a thing or two.  We might have overdone it a touch, as we left home at 6 am and returned at 11pm.

The 6am rise was worth it.  We booked a sunrise viewing at the Top of Burj Khalifa.  

(Even at 'The Top' there is a hell of a lot still above you)

How cool does the Burj Khalifa look at sunset?

As much as Downtown Dubai, and the Palm are impressive, the Old part is worth a mention for its' character, history and a lack of veneer.

 

Day 3 - Jake was in his element at the Desert Classic Golf tournament.  

The Emirates Golf Club and the whole event was a spectator paradise.  The likes of Sergio Garcia, Rory McIlroy, Miguel Jimenez and Henrik Stenson were literally close enough to reach out and touch.  The weather was perfect, crowds scarce and hospitality top notch.  Rory couldn't quite get the job done but we got to see the winner and a rising star in Li up close.

Cult hero Miguel Angel-Jimenez was the most fun player by a mile...

Off to India tomorrow to celebrate our friends tying the knot in real Indian style. So excited!

DUBAI - shiny-est, biggest-est, best-est

In the perfect blend of patriotic pride, and just plain showing off, Dubai wants you to know just how big, progressive, modern and luxurious it is.

For example:

- Their "Eye" (i.e. London Eye) is under construction, and is set to beat the size of any existing ferris wheels in the world and to carry 1400 people at a time.

- 7 out of the 10 tallest residential buildings in the world are all in the one suburb in the Marina

  

- Obviously the Burj Khalifa is a record breaker, including that the steel beams used to build it, if put end to end, would stretch a quarter of the way around the earth

- The Burj Al Arab hotel ( The Sail) is (they claim), the only 7 star hotel in the world (at $24,000 per night)

- The Palm is a bold move with the creation of a man-made island (ie. reclaimed land, which seemed much more impressive to Gosia once she actually learnt that reclaimed didn't mean it used to belong to someone else)
If you buy an apartment on The Palm,  you get two sets of keys - one for your new home and one for your new car as a small welcome gift.  A modest apartment might get you a Mini Cooper.  A standard apartment means a BMW, and a high end one - a Lamborghini Aventador (Kate and Liam - your house purchase gift of a seat bench all of a sudden seems quaint..)

- the next project is said to be a fully under water hotel...

...and all of this is rumoured to be only 10% of the vision of the ruler of Dubai - the Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.  He apparently loves cars and owns 150 of them.  He drives around Dubai himself with a simple rego: '1'.  So, next time you're in Dubai, don't cut off a car with that number plate, or you might get something cut off yourself.

The investment in infrastructure seems excessive by any standards, but perhaps they are in a rush to get themselves set up before the oil runs out by 2040.

Bags packed, Visas Ready, Boarding Passes Printed