Travels4Yourself

I had to go to many places, but I haven’t been to India. Some friends stick out on Goa, relax and warm bones by the water, others offer a motorcycle trip to Tibet, where the highest mountain roads in the world and you can easily not part with an oncoming truck and fly away into eternity, others do not advise to go there at all - it's dirty, they say, and uncomfortable. You can’t listen to anyone, just make sure yourself, which I did in the month of April, sitting on the tail of a group of travel agents.


For eight days we visited a lot, looked, ate and drank. Regarding the latter, a very important point. The maximum amount of gin and tonic consumed during the day is a guarantee of your gastric health. Plus clean bottle water and wet wipes. In addition, spicy Indian cuisine is also not just spicy. Spicy, aromatic, burning food, mainly of plant origin in a hot climate, is designed to protect you from infections. Probably, you should not drink tea with masala milk, brewed right there in a dirty bucket of gas, or have a free lunch from plastic plates.


Delhi is a huge incomprehensible city with a wide variety of areas - from the completely insane Old Town packed with people and rickshaws, to the quite calm streets where the embassies are located. Cows, however, roam everywhere, like monkeys. He himself was not able to be attacked by the monkeys, but he heard numerous warnings. And they steal from ajar windows and doors, and can grab something from a leisurely tourist. They sit on the sidewalk, on the balconies of houses and trees, walk on the roofs, in a word, they feel bossy.


A lot of dogs that sleep peacefully everywhere curled up. The relationship between them and primates is complicated, because the monkeys fly in an osprey immediately, and the dogs keep alone. Cows and monkeys are sacred animals; they are not offended. Dogs do not belong in any way. Cows, however, are milked, but in urban conditions, milk can taste like gasoline, so it is the destiny of the poor. But the buffalo, you just can’t meet the raving one, the owner is next to it, valuable and fat milk.


On the market, a creature that turned out to be a mongoose crossed the road slowly. At the fence on the straw were some outlandish goats. I have never met a serpent in freedom, only cobras with removed teeth and poisonous iron removed by a “fakir” with a pipe from small baskets for curious tourists. Our wonderful guide explained that if you lie in the dark for years under the cover, curled up, you won’t be able to crawl quickly, not like biting someone. In general, animals in the city impress, and even in such quantity and variety.


Of course, all who come to Delhi are shown the Gates of India, the Presidential Palace (we just got to the polls and alcohol was banned everywhere), Qutub Minar and the luxurious express train Maharajas Express. In any hotel, at the entrance, they immediately put a red dot on your forehead, put on a long necklace of fresh flowers and bring a drink of emerald, turquoise or pink color - inhuman. At first it surprises, then you get used to it. Before entering the express train, everything was repeated, and the interior decoration was amazing. The rooms - you cannot name a compartment - consist of two, three rooms. Shower, toilet, telephone, internet, furniture, restaurant, all around gold ... Such a trip to India in the richest room costs about $ 10,000. (I'd rather ride a motorcycle). But some rich newlyweds from Kuwait, who have an oil fountain in the yard, can quite afford.


Tour operators began an exhibition where they disappeared for two days, and I, with the same free comrade Boris, asked the guide to take us to the market, not a tourist restaurant. The restaurant in the Old Town "Karim" exists since 1913. The ancestors of the owner were the cooks of the last Mogul.


Crown dish - “Matan poop” - stewed goat meat. Ghee is heated in a cauldron (very popular in this country). A spoonful of chopped ginger and garlic, 2-3 cloves, half a cinnamon stick, 3 grains of green cardamom and 2 - black. Lightly fry and toss the meat chopped into pieces (preferably ribs with bones) and simmer over high heat for about 20 minutes. Separately, a teaspoon of coriander, a spoon of black zira, and after three minutes, three chopped onions are fried in oil, then scroll, and then rush into meat. Add 100-150 grams of good sour cream and one spoon of “pandanus” (some special water)! On low heat for half an hour. If the gravy is very thick add water. After about an hour and a half, the meat will separate from the bones. After 10 minutes, under the lid without fire, two more spoons of pandanus. Oil should float on top of 2 centimeters. All taste in oil! They eat dipping the nan cake - yeast from the tandoor. So cook in the north.


A great connoisseur of Indian cuisine, our guide Ashu dictated to me this recipe, in which he asked me to pay attention to the number of seeds of one or another seasoning, emphasizing the importance of observing proportions. We have everything in Russia, even goat meat can be found, but the mysterious "pandanus" is unlikely.


We also tasted vegetable pilaf, onions with lemon, fried goat meat, and received neither tea nor coffee. I'm not talking about wine. That's somehow not accepted. I had to drink some water. It seemed strange to me such a way of boiling meat to fibers, before losing texture, but I live in another place. And here they finish the meal with a plate with anise grains with large crystals of sugar. Scooping a handful - and chewing it in your mouth - neutralized the smell of fresh onions, for example. I immediately bought such a bag home.


And the next day, as I was told, the best restaurant was not just Delhi, but, in general, in all of India - Bukhara. It is located in a five-star hotel, small in size, with prior appointment. The menu is printed on large oval boards. All dishes are cooked on fire next to the glass. Knowing about the ban on alcohol, we prudently took with us and poured into glasses, which was noticed by the waiter, and he asked not to deprive him of his work, but still managed to wave one by one. Well, think for yourself how to eat a hot lamb leg and a dry kebab ?! Everything worked out, and they even let me into the kitchen to look at the preparation of cakes. We also photographed our table and at the exit gave the lady a shawl and a photograph already in the frame.


The market in the Old Town is something incredible, both in volume and in sensation. Here they eat, throwing plates under their feet, drink a phantom handed out for elections, cut them and immediately sell vegetables and fruits, crush orange and cane juice, and, of course, sell everything they can. At the same time, the movement is on rickshaws, motor rickshaws, single motorcycles, which often fit a family of up to five! the person is very dense.


That is continuous traffic, endless traffic jam! But, by some miracle, we managed to move from place to place for very little money. No one is pushing, everyone is friendly, smiling.


Here the comrade lucky me and my friend on his ancient bicycle with a cab for two. It diverges from the ones they met in millimeters from each other, the road is rough, potholes, close, thin himself, and lucky, smiles and says something else, pokes a finger around. Someone is sleeping at his workplace, another is pulling a cart the size of a truck, children are running, repairing a motorcycle, selling white discs - it turned out to be condensed milk.



Everything is not like ours, everything is very interesting.


Now, I no longer fit my note in the designated place, but have not yet left Delhi ...