My first experience in New Delhi
After sleeping, I was ready to explore the city.
Being an optimist, I decided I wanted to walk around. So I took on some not-to-fancy clothes and decided to walk towards Connaught Place; a famous area in Delhi full of restaurants and shops.
This just cemented my first experience. At no time did I feel truly comfortable. So much noise. Cars and motorbikes swarming in and out. Dust everywhere. People peeing on the streets. Trash everywhere. Every minute someone trying to approach me. And to conclude all this, the smog/fog so you couldn’t see more than twenty meters at best.
Not a fan.
I got to the Connaught Place, expecting it to be a fancy area resembling a modern mall. Well. It was closer than my hotel. At least we had asphalt, some nice-looking restaurants, and the beggars had stopped. I got my first late-lunch, a butter-chicken, and loved it. Gotta admit, I’ve had lots of Indian food before, but this was the best tasting butter-chicken I’ve ever had. Perfectly spicy and good taste.
When the bill came, 150 rupees (~2-3 USD).
And some hours later, I also had an amazing dinner at a roof-top cafe in the Main Bazaar – 250 rupees (~4 USD).
While I hated the traffic, I loved the food.
Another thing the surprised me, was the people. As I started out, I’ve had a bit of a … challenge… with Indian developers. I feared I would have the same problem with the people in general, but I was wrong.
Everywhere I ended up having a conversation: in my Uber, hotel reception, tour guide, restaurants or wherever – they were genuinely very nice people. Most people I spoke to had a fine English. Not fluent or advanced, but absolutely enough to have a fine chat.
I don’t know why. I had this “wrong idea” that I should be very careful and I would mainly meet scammers. Looking back, this is largely racist and stupid, but this a big reason why I travel: I’m usually wrong about how things are, and I’m usually always positively surprised!
Now, I’m largely convinced the main reason I haven’t work well with Indian developers so far, has more to do with me not truly understanding their world, situation, and culture.
Refference larsholdgaard.com
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Edukasi