Delhi....A Pleasant Surprise by Abdiwali "Wordsworth" Elmi

On arriving at Delhi, poverty stricken Mumbai was still fresh in my mind, I thought surely it can only get better from here...after all it is the capital? This thought however was sadly unhinged by a quick blackberry messenger chat with Bal who went about explaining his previous experience there, some 10 years ago.
On arriving at Delhi Station we were harassed by a few locals, but by now we had come accustomed to this hustle and so proceeded without care as they fought for our attention to no avail. Outside the station looked much like sights in Mumbai and so looking at Marks & Fil’s face I could see they were already thinking....not this again! Some guy at the exit tried hustle us majorly. With no form of ID or Police badge, he went about trying to order us to a dark alley, Fil politely told him to go and eat Camel Shit. We knew our hotel wasn’t far from the station so we took a rigsaw, you know just to do the touristy thing, as you do. Before starting off we agreed upon a fixed price of 40rupees but upon arrival, which was incidentally only 150m away (but the guy choose a 5min scenic route around the ghettos), he was trying to get 140rupees per person. I think the guy was just trying his luck, because once quizzed he laughed himself before riding off.
The hotel we checked into was pretty good, well by that I mean it looked like what was advertised online. But by following the lonely planet guide we inevitably ended up at backpacker grand central of Delhi. That afternoon after lunch and a quick power nap we went sightseeing. We order a cab to whisk us around from sight to sight. We visited The Gate of India..a poor man’s Marble Arch, Numerous temples, Parliament (pretty impressive) , home of the president, Red Fort (a mohessive structure, again pretty impressive) and a few others. During this journey one thing that struck me was unlike Mumbai, central Delhi is a functioning city with effective roads, traffic lights, parks, lights, buildings etc. Further unlike Mumbai Delhi had little or no beggars, which made walking the street alot more relaxing. I mean you still had the people who wanted you to come into their shop every 10m, but that I can accept, people got to get paid. One thing I’m still amused by thou is the number of cows you see just roaming the roads in Delhi..these guys are chilling.