So Saturday morning, August 6th, I woke up around 1pm totally ready to begin my day, or so I thought. Once we had lunch we headed to Chandni Chowk. It took over an hour to get there b/c there was so much traffic. Along the route, we saw these guys coming up to the cars and selling books. Of course Diana, who was almost finished with The Help, wanted a new book to start so she rolled down her window and got bombarded by like 4 guys...hahahaa She finally settled on a book and we talked them down and finally got it for about 300 rupees (which was still too much). Definitely inflated prices b/c she was American. Anyhow, then a guy knocked on my window and asked me to buy a 'bouncy ball'....hahahaa All three of us said NO!!! He is like maam, bouncy ball...bouncy ball maam... I'm like, "mujhe nay chahiye," but he was insistent until we finally started moving again and even then I heard the faint sounds of 'bouncy ball'. All I could think was that we were 3 grown women, no kids and why the hell would we want a bouncy ball!?! hahahaa
The traffic was just unreal. If anyone knows India traffic, there are no signals and it's pretty horrid as it is. This particular day it was even worse. I guess it's b/c Independence day is coming up and they have started putting security in place. We finally got to Chandni Chowk and had to jump out of the car in the middle of the street b/c there was no place for the Marriot driver to pull over. Thank god he had a cell phone and we could call him when we were ready to leave! I don't know what I expected in Chandni Chowk, but I doubt words could do the experience justice.
I was literally dripping sweat as we made our way through the narrow street, from stall to stall. It reminded me of the Swap-o-rama flea market in Alsip, but crammed with 10,000 more booths in that space. We almost got hit by a bike rickshaw and a moped! I don't know why they allow those within such a small space. You have to literally jump aside. Nuts!!! The smell was indescribable, trash was everywhere...People passed out on the sides and dirty/stray animals roaming around. Even with all the grossness we are going to go back there since Lisa wants to experience it for herself and she had not gotten to Delhi in time for her to come with us. I will definitely try and take some pics on our next Chandni Chowk outing so you can kind of see what it is like.
Imagine 100 degrees/humid and then a breeze. The breeze isn't what you would think. It feels like you're sticking your face up to the tailpipe of a car. That hot exhaust is what the blowing air feels like. So whenever we take an open rickshaw, it's like having a blowdryer constantly in your face on the medium heat setting...gross!!!!
While making our way through this dreary, but colorful looking place known as Chandni Chowk (colorful due to the fact they have lots of saris, bangles, jewelry, etc... and dreary due to the fact that there is barely any light since everything in awnings that have been there for what looks like centuries. People (who look like they haven't bathed or had laundry done in 5 years) are cooking food at the front of their stalls or on top of counters, basically all over and it's so unsanitary. We refused to eat anything there b/c everything around us was so filthy. We waited until we got back to the Marriot in Gurgaon that night to order food and we ate the food at the bar and had drinks. We basically shut the bar down, but it was so nice after the craziness we experienced...hahaa Oh and my bar tab was like $45.00 (4 mojitos). Definitely comparable to being in the States even though it's a third world country....hahahaa
Needless to say it was an awesome day with such an interesting experience and I can't wait to try it again. This time around I won't be wearing flip flops though...hahaaaa
-Nisha
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