Delhi A 5 hour trip from the Airport with my wife

We reached Delhi Airport at 9:30 in the morning. Since our connecting flight via Air India was at 5:40 PM, we decided to go sightseeing from there. Both me and my wife had not been to Delhi earlier. Delhi is the capital of India and upon looking at Google map, we had decided to go to the nearby Aircraft Museum and get back to the Airport.

We took a ticket to Dhaula Kuah from where we agreed to pay an auto driver 130 Rs. to take us to the Museum. Upon reaching however, we found the museum to be closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. So we explained our condition to the auto-driver and asked him to take us to some nearby place instead, as we were desperate to see some part of Delhi that day.

He agreed to take us to Gyara Murthy  (11 statues – with Gandhi Leading), Indira Gandhi’s House and India Gate to which we agreed. Upon seeing Gyara Murthy, we were somewhat disappointed because we have that exact same statue right in front of our house in Bangalore. Then we were disappointed even more when we learnt that it was maintenance day on Monday and hence Indira Gandhi’s house was closed as well. On our way to India Gate we enquired if the auto driver could take us to Connaught place, which we had heard from our sister who had been to Delhi with her friends to which the auto driver agreed.

"To the dead of the Indian armies who fell and are honoured in France and Flanders Mesopotamia and Persia East Africa Gallipoli and elsewhere in the near and the far-east and in sacred memory also of those whose names are here recorded and who fell in India or the north-west frontier and during the third Afghan war" - India Gate

Even though he had told us we had 1 hour to spend at India Gate, we could not think of what to do beyond 10 minutes of exploring the place. Then we headed to connaught place which we learnt was just like a shopping place we go to on weekends in Bangalore and quickly checked map again. Our driver then agreed to take us to the Jantar Mantar in Delhi, which is the most beautiful historical structure I had seen on this trip. Jantar Mantar is clean. Near each Instrument, there is a clear description of what the instrument does and what its purpose is in the measurement of time and space. We went from one building to another, and within 30 minutes covered all the monuments located there.

 Then we saw Madame Tussauds Wax museum just around the corner in the left. We stopped by the Wax Museum. Upon enquiring at the reception, we learnt that a web booking was 50 percent less than an in cash booking at the counter.

It was my wife’s first trip to a wax museum. I was happy to see her fascinate at the life like images of various Film Stars (Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Anil Kapoor, Will Smith, Leonardo De Caprio, Scarlet Johansen, Katrina Kaif, Kareena Kapoor, Sunny Leone, Tom Cruise, Ranbir Kapoor, Raj Kapoor, Amitabh Bachchan, Marylyn Munroe, Shahrukh Khan, Kapil Sharma), Politicians (Gandhi Ji, Narendra Modi Ji, Dr. Abdul Kalam, Bhagat Singh, Subhas Chandra Bose, Vallabhbhai Patel), Sports Person (Sachin Tandulkar, Hussain Bolt, Mary Kom, Kapil Dev, Virat Kohli, Lionel Messi, David Beckham, Milka Singh, Christiano Ronaldo), Singers (Sonu Nigam, Asha Bhosle, Shreya Ghoshal, Justin Bieber, Michael Jackson, Zakir Hussain). The museum also has a kitchen like setting where a lady explains how was replicas are made, giving demo to children to make a replica of their hands.

We felt satisfied having looked at these attractions in Delhi. We stopped by some ancient Hanuman Temple near Shivaji Stadium. We ate Veg Biriyani and Parotha with Paneer Curry near the temple. We visited the temple after placing order. The temple had the dietees, Ram, Lakshman, Sita, Hanuman, Kali, Durga, Shani, Ganesh, Sai Baba, Eashwar, Parvathi, Dattathreya all in the same compound.

From here we departed to the Dhaula Kuan Metro station as agreed with the Auto driver. He agreed for the sum of 1100 as fee for the trip which we were glad to pay. We reached Terminal 3 in the airport at 2:45. Then we walked to the International Departure section which had beds besides waiting area where we rested for 30 minutes. We then ate Beetroot fries which were served at one of the stalls at the airport which cost us 162 Rs. It was nice to try something new at the airport.

We then departed at the scheduled time. Much to our surprise, Air India served us a heavy meal on our flight. Thus we completed a wonderful trip covering places near to the Delhi Airport in about 5 hours, and went back home satisfied with our trip.

Learnings:
In Hindsight, it might seem like we could have avoided wasting time by avoiding going to the places closed on Monday. But we are happy that we met this amazing Auto driver who volunteered to wait for us and ensured we had sufficient time to see each place. He took us around Delhi and empathised with our situation without taking advantage of us in anyway, for which we are truly grateful.