Hopperycafee

  Delhi is the first taste of India for so many travellers, and it was mine, too in October 2015. Feeling unprepared for my trip, I turned to my guidebooks in a flurry of last minute reading, but they didn’t exactly set my heart at rest – filled, mostly, with instructions for avoiding Delhi’s infamous scams and tricksters (who it seemed from my reading would all be poised at the doors of Delhi airport to welcome me). Directions from my tour company to absolutely not leave the airport terminal until I had been met by the ground rep did not exactly help. Like many, I was nervous visiting New Delhi for the first time. On my first trip to India I spent only two days in India’s capital, and did not have to plan my own things to do in Delhi. Along with the others in my group, I was guided through the winding lanes of Old Delhi to the fragrant and colourful spice market, towards the stunning Jameh Masjid mosque. My eyes gawking at the mass of dangling power cables and narrow streets as cy...