A culturally rich summer at Delhi..

Mid Summer Break (10th - 19th of July, 2012)

Recently I had an awesome mid summer break of 10 days at New Delhi - the capital city of India (Photos). It was a nice experience, visiting many worshipping places, such as Lotus Temple (The Bahá'í House of Worship), The ISKCON temple (The International Society for Krishna Consciousness), Gurudwara Bangla Sahib, and Birla Mandir Laxminarain Temple. I have also paid a visit to India Gate and Qutub Minar (Photos of Qutub Minar and the surroundings). HOHO bus is an ideal option to travel around New Delhi for just 300 INR, in two days, where you can tailor your own journey covering 19+ tourists attractions of Delhi. India is a multi-cultural and multilingual country where you can experience a diverse cultural experience.

Roaming

Make sure to set your roaming to the correct network provider to get the cheapest roaming rates for SMS and Calls. I had mistakenly let the "Mobile Network Selection Mode" to be "Automatic". The rate was initially very cheap, as my mobile picked IDEA Cellular networks as the network in Pahar Ganj, New Delhi, as my mobile network is Dialog Telecom. However, when I moved to Chanakyapuri, the network changed automatically to "Reliance", which cost me 2000 LKR for just 3 calls, where I had taken around 10 calls for 1000 LKR in the previous days! So make sure to set the Mobile Network Selection Mode to "Manual" from Options -> Mobile Network -> Network Selection Mode, and Mobile Network to the relevant network, as advised by your local mobile network provider.

Graffiti on a road side wall

Pick your accommodation!
Pick your hotel carefully. Some economic hotels are located in a highly congested areas such as Pahar Ganj or Arakashan Road. Some of these hotels may be nice. But may not suit all the travelers. Travel  review sites such as TripAdviser provide useful information on planning your trips. Make sure to add your own reviews, once you come back home after your trip, like I did! During the summer days, Delhi gets really hot. 45°C is pretty average for a summer noon. Be prepared for that. Take a bottle of water or two, with you, always. Some of the economic hotels or hostels tend to have a limited water supply. That is an interrupted water supply in the high demand time such as the morning time, or water with very low pressure. Be aware of this, and be prepared.

Colourful India
Getting into a three-wheeler and paying only for what you traveled is an art, and it needs some experience. I have blogged it as New Delhi by tuk-tuk, as it tends to make this blog post longer. Make sure you read it. :)

Don't forget to explore the yummy North Indian food. If you turn on the Tv, you will be impressed by hundreds of Indian channels, with local movies and songs! Road side walls are often filled with graffiti in many parts of New Delhi. Some of them have interesting messages too. Some roads have rickshaws that run in the local roads, which sometimes create traffic jams, along with the other careless drivers, who never seem to obey the traffic rules.

Love India
India is full of cultural marvels. It takes lots of time to explore it completely. This was my second trip to India, where I had already visited Bangalore and Hyderabad last year. Hope to see more of India in a later trip.