DELHI AT A GLANCE
by Andrew Mersmann
Delhi, the capital of India, is as chaotic and complex
a city as you are likely to never visit. The surging population
as well as the smells and sounds assault your every sense,
but the payoff for persevering through this commotion
is a fascinating cultural immersion into India. It is,
to American perception, spectacularly foreign and adventurous.
Being occasionally overwhelmed proves a small traveler’s
price to pay for engaging in a culture that is both spirited
and largely spiritual, as well as genuinely welcoming.
Winter is the time to visit since the summer (May and
June) can be blisteringly hot, and is followed by the
monsoon season (late June–early September).
If I had one piece of advice for a traveler visiting Delhi,
it would be to have someone meet you at the airport to
transfer you to your hotel. Certainly, stepping into the
hot night from the Indira Gandhi International Airport
I felt as if I had entered some computer generated virtual
world. It is more difficult to get your bearings here
than in many places, so the helping hand of a guide can
be a sanity saver. I made arrangements through the only
Delhi tour company offering gay tours, Yatrik,
and they handled my transportation and city tours flawlessly,
as well as giving me the somewhat elusive gay perspective
on the city.
Once we leave the airport and enter the fray, I am grateful
for my tenacious driver, Ashok, and the enormous and robustly
fragrant, flowered garland he drapes over my neck. The
acrid smell of smoke each day in the city stirred my imagination
to novels of old India and I could easily make the imaginative
leap that it was from funeral pyres. I suspect in reality
it was the many campfires of small enclaves of people
living on the streets and in the parks under plastic tarps.
Traffic in Delhi is hellish, even in
the middle of the night when most international flights
from the U.S. land. Cars, trucks, and three-wheeled,
motorized trolleys are all fearless and aggressive as
they vie for space. Road signs are few and never translated,
begging children swarm the car at every stop, and drivers
don’t even pretend to stay in one lane. For me
it would be the seventh circle of hell to drive here.
In one day I saw every imaginable conveyance from jet
airplane to tour bus to van to taxi to motor scooter
to motorized or pedaled rickshaw to elephant to camel
to pushcarts with steers or goats. Never mind the cows
that just hang out in the road making everything else
go around them.
There are two choices when blasted like
this—go with it and absorb the invigorating pulse
of the culture, or shut down. Clearly you should strive
for the former while understanding that you will have
at least a few exhausted spells in Delhi where you just
want to lie in a dark air-conditioned hotel room and let
your thoughts catch up to the pace you’ve been living.
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Carefully choosing a hotel, therefore, is important if
it is to be your oasis of calm. On a quieter side street
adjacent to a large park, the Hyatt Regency Delhi
towers like a geometric stack of earthen building blocks.
The large lobby of India’s largest hotel is all marble
and brass with cozy conversation nooks. Rooms are well-sized
and offer a comforting contemporary style with cooling
stone bathrooms. Two floors of “Regency Club”
rooms are a worthwhile upgrade (providing a business center,
food and cocktails throughout the day, etc.), and the
hotel’s Club Olympus health center is considered
the best gym in the entire city with indoor and outdoor
pools, sauna, steam, cold plunge, and spa treatment rooms.
Oberoi Hotels are considered synonymous with refined
luxury throughout India, and New Delhi’s outpost
is no exception. The relaxing muted colors and dark woods
are echoed by the picture window views over some of the
city’s most relaxing green spaces. The spa and fitness
center is an idyllic haven near the sunny outdoor pool
and dining options of several international styles abound.
For true British Colonial-style elegance, you can’t
beat the exclusive Imperial New Delhi with sublimely
comfortable rooms, impeccable service, over-the-top elegant
public spaces (including India’s only Chanel boutique
among the in-house shopping options), brand new spa facilities,
and great restaurants. This hotel will spoil you like
no other in the country.
If you’re at the end of your India journey, or only
in Delhi for a night, the five-star Uppal’s Orchid
Hotel near the airport is a spa-like, serene hospitality
choice that is also a “Leading Small Hotel of the
World” and icon of green, eco-friendly accommodations
for the nation. Warm neutral colors, deep wood tones,
soothing aromatherapy candles, and soft music may convince
you you’re not in Delhi at all.
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