Let’s go to India: Delhi

Tuesday 21st February

Today was travel day from Hell… which we always knew it would be. Get woken up by the alarm clock, hot foot it to Cairo airport, eat horrible airport food, get on a flight to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, wait for a few hours in the poshest airport ever, and then get a connecting flight to Delhi that lands at 3:30am local time 😩

Wednesday 22nd February

Hotel is hilarious — we have three of us sharing a bed and fighting over the single bed they’ve put in our room. GUESS how much sleep we get with three of us…

However, the hotel was perfect for a good, clean hotel room with a pool for the kids and a great breakfast. Link here.

First impressions of Delhi — much more developed than we expected. Really rather civilised. However, big caveat, we are staying at a business hotel with a pool in a non-touristy suburb.

Thursday 23rd February

Amazing day with the Salaam Baalak street kids charity — they do tours to talk about what they do.

The girl we met was called Kajal and had a really hard time as a street kid. Basically her Mum & Dad had HIV and her Mum went to go and live with him in the hospital…leaving Kajal (age 6) and her brother (age 3) to fend for themselves in their house. Mind blown. They managed 3 months with neighbours delivering one meal a day. Can you even imagine someone Henry’s age having to live alone. So sad.

So Kajal ended up at one of the Salaam Baalak homes for girls where she got an education, learnt English and is now doing the tours while she studies to be an air stewardess. It was such an inspiring tour and would recommend anyone to go if they are in Delhi. At any one time, they are looking after 15,000 street kids.

The kids played a game with the street kids which was a kind of shove hapenny game — they loved it. Such different worlds colliding. The kids go to that day centre to have shelter, games, food and some rest. It’s a safe place for them to go.

Henry did a lovely presentation to his class mates (live!) on Egypt which was really cool — showing them hierogyphics and the pyramids. They studied them earlier in the year.

Friday 24th February

Today was the day of the ‘slum tour’ — basically a tour of an unofficial place where people live called Sanjay Colony. But with 50,000 people!

Our guide was Vijay who grew up there and heard about the charity so learned enough English so he could work for them. He was such a nice guy and we had lunch at his house afterwards with his wife and two young kids. One of our HIGHLIGHTS of gap year. The tour was fabulous – here’s the link, highly recommend. Make sure you do the lunch and ask for Vijay.

It’s funny, his wife Maneesha and I were bonding over how tired it is being a parent — she has a 2 year old and 3 month old. Oof!

It was a pretty full-on area — open drains and only 30% of the population get water at a tap in their house for 30 minutes a day. Everyone else has to carry it from the large tankers that are delivered from the government. Apparently they have a great sense of community apart from when it comes to water!

Then we visited the famous Lotus temple which is for any religion. So beautifully designed and peaceful inside. The kids managed the 3 mins of silence whilst we were in there, haha!

Saturday 25th February

Big tour today — actually we’ve done a lot of tours, haha! So far we’ve found them interesting and insightful! I wonder if we might stop doing them for a while. The thing we love is the food tours. Which is what today was — along with a visit to a Sikh temple and a step well.

The Sikh temple was a huge highlight…anyone can go and eat at the temple, any religion, any person at all. They feed 20,000 people a day. That’s right, 20,000 people. Mad! We visited the kitchens where the kids got involved with making chapatis — learning from the experts! Everyone who cooks there is also a volunteer. Such an amazing thing they do. I don’t know that much about Sikhism but it seems such a welcoming religion.

The market bit was what people say about Delhi — SO LOUD and busy with tuk tuks, rickshaws, people. It’s a mecca for wedding outfits, jewellery, spices — anything you could wish for. And lovely street food to boot too. So far we’re really enjoying the food. The kids can’t eat all of it (spicy) and we are definitely leaning on Subway more than we should, haha! But I applaud them for trying everything even if they hate it. Massive steps for both of them.