South Asia
Republic of Incredible India, the world's biggest democrazy
New Delhi
Paharganj
Smyle Inn +911123589107 smyleinn@hotmail.com
Clean and modern double room, including wifi and breakfast, for only INR 655.- or US$ 14.55 per night. Very friendly, helpful and professional staff; our number-one budget place in Paharganj [1], [2], [3]; book directly here.
Click below for an interactive road map of the Smyle Inn in New Delhi, which we would highly recommend, and for directions:N 28° 38.50' E 077° 12.88'
Overnighting in India's capital city, catching up on some overdue admin work (travel blog, photos and financials) and deciding to team up with the well-managed Amazon Services LLC/EU Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for websites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.de, Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.ca, exploring thereafter the exotic and anarchic heart of Delhi’s backpackerland, Paharganj, squeezed between wholesalers and cloth merchants, cheek by jowl in the ultra-narrow lanes opposite the large New Delhi Railway Station, and trying to understand Lutyens’ and Baker’s silly dream that “… first and foremost it is the spirit of British sovereignty which must be imprisoned in its stone and bronze... ”, in view of the fact that simple and sophisticated, traditional and modern, East and West were all juxtaposed in
"Lutyens, after all, was a far, far greater architect than Albert Speer."
Leaving the crowded streets and the perceptible air pollution of New Delhi by rail, thus zipping with the air-conditioned, ultra-modern (equipped with laptop/mobile chargers) and cheap Delhi Metro (INR 8.- per person) from the New Delhi Railway Station to the Old Delhi Railway Station aka Old Delhi Junction, taking the Shalimar overnight express (fare for the 600-km long trip: INR 964.- or US$ 21.90.- per person in “2-tier a/c, sleeper class, 2A”) from the Old Delhi Railway Station to Jammu upon Tawi, the second largest city in the state of Jammu & Kashmir, a Bosnia-like cocktail of Hindu Pundits, Shia Muslims and Buddhist Tibetans, which marks the transition between the Himalayas in the north and the dusty plains of the Punjab in the south, bridging these two extremities by a series of scrub covered hills, forested mountain ranges and deep river valleys, and reading en-route in Salman Rushdie’s Shalimar, the Clown: “In Kashmir it is paradise itself that is falling; heaven on earth is being transformed into a living hell...”
Click below for more blog posts about Asia's big cities
18 Jun - 23 Jun 2013 Kyoto
22 May - 04 Jun 2013 Seoul
13 Mar - 18 Apr 2013 Bangkok
13 Dec - 17 Dec 2012 Hong Kong
08 Dec - 13 Dec 2012 Canton
Click below for a summary of this year's travels
18 Jun - 23 Jun 2013 Kyoto
22 May - 04 Jun 2013 Seoul
13 Mar - 18 Apr 2013 Bangkok
13 Dec - 17 Dec 2012 Hong Kong
08 Dec - 13 Dec 2012 Canton
Click below for a summary of this year's travels
Visit the Konni & Matt Online Albums and order high-res travel photos
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| Facing India © Konni & Matt |
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