Positive things about India

Alex still doesn’t feel very well, so he asked me to write something nice and positive about India, as a part of his life philosophy is: with a positive attitude, you’ll get positive attitude in return.

Right… well, mostly.

Although the traffic in Delhi drives me totally insane (just imagine how the car horns echo’s sound on the bottom of an ashtray!), as folks over here use their car horns all the time, even when they don’t have to! Our Indian couchsurf friend Aman made a joke on that matter, saying: “it’s because Indian people love music!” ;-)

… I’ll still do my best to satisfy Alexander’s wishes.
So here we go.

Good things about India

• Indian people are friendly (but those you meet at touristic places, like Rickshaw drivers and beggars at Connaught, the center of Delhi - are pain in the a$$!).
  When we get lost in the city for instance — and we get lost in Delhi all the time, as the city is approximately 40 km in a diameter.. people will ALWAYS be very kind and show us the way. No exceptions.
• Indian food is delicious and cheep!
• Even though it’s not a pleasure to see the police and security guys everywhere and all the time (it just doesn’t feel right), there is almost no visible crime! People can bug you on the street for many reasons (mostly to get the money out of your pocket) but nobody will attack you, steal from you or anything like that. The police and security guys are for the rest reasonably polite and behave correctly — it’s good to mention that too.
• Delhi’s metro has the most efficient air conditioning that Alex has ever seen. Far better and more efficient then he saw in Amsterdam, London and Paris.
• Indian people in general, are polite on social meetings and home parties. They laugh a lot and have a lots of fun.
• People in India smile and laugh far more more then people do in the most European countries for instance, even their life is a much bigger struggle, financially seen.
• Indian people have a great sense of humor.
• India is a huge country, so you have all types of climate here, from tropical and subtropical, all the way to extreme cold (Himalaya) ones.
• Mostly nice hospitality!
• There are no or very little car accidents on the roads, which is good, even though the traffic (in Delhi for instance) is a total anarchy… (Alex and I shall write about that topic too.)
• Delhi is getting new airport by the end of 2010. The airport is being built at the same location as the old one.
• Delhi is also getting two brand new metro lines. One of them is called: “Delhi’s airport express metro line” and is to be finished by 2010 as well.

Delhi’s airport express metro line, under construction.

Affordable Indian food, good restaurants and hotels recommendations in Delhi

There are couple of places Alex liked a lot, as far as it’s about Indian food.

Bangla Foods restaurant, Delhi.

Vegetarian Bangla food.

Vegetarian food

• Hotel Saravana Bhavan, South Indian high quality vegetarian restaurant with affordable prices and excellent food, 2 floors, fully air conditioned. Part of a restaurants chain, a good one is located at P-15 Connaught Circus (near Madras hotel)
• India Coffee House (Mohan Singh Place, behind Regal cinema, also at Connaught) is very cheep place where two persons can eat for only about 5 Euro, with no real air conditioning though but normal cooling in stead and a little bit less comfort then Saravana Bhavan for instance, but the food is excellent! By the way, don’t drink the water there when they serve it to you in a glass (unless you had diarrhea already). Alex says to rather insist on a bottle of mineral water in stead.
• Bangla Foods, bakery, sweet & family restaurant, located at 111-113 Bangla Sahib Marg (on a not too far walk distance from Connaught)… Bangla is Indian version of MacDonalds, only healthier! The food is good, tasty and spiced, mainly vegetarian …. with affordable prices.
• Delhi Haat (and Navadanya cafe), we haven’t been there yet but the place was recommended to us by our Indian friends. We’ve been told that even UK’s prince Charles visited the place because of it’s popularity and yet affordable prices.

Saravana bhavan, south Indian high quality vegetarian food.

On all above mentioned places, you’ll be sitting and eating exclusively among Indian people. No tourists there, that’s what Alex likes the most, although he wrestles with the food menu cards, as those are mainly written in Hindi. If you however want to meet some fellow travelers, then the Diamond Cafe, located at Pahar Ganj (on a walk distance from Rama Krishna Marg metro station), might be an option. The food is reasonable and also cheep.

I think I better stop now before I start making things up, or otherwise Alex is gonna kill me..

Greetings,
Ashtray

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Read and find out whois Lady Ashtray …

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