Exploring Magnu-Ka Tilla, the Tibetan Quarter
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| The view from the second floor of the White House Hotel |
18 April 2017
Magnu-Ka Tilla, the Tibetan Quarter, or the Tibetan
Refugee Camp in Delhi, as the gated sign announces it, is the location of White House Hotel, my home for 2 (well, 1.5 actually) nights.
Despite the fact that it was established in
1960 and consists of buildings as substantial as one might expect in this part
of the world, it is still referred to as a camp, both on the sign and in its
official address. One can only
hope that is terminology imposed by the residents, viewing it as temporary,
rather than the authorities hoping it might just be transient.
Trip advisor suggests that as an area it’s
a much gentler introduction to India than other parts of Delhi. All I can say is that’s a relief. It is a community of narrow streets,
and while bicycles (with or without trailers) and motorbikes are not completely
absent, pedestrians are far more numerous in the areas narrow lanes.
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| Street view in the Tibetan Quarter |
After a cold shower (the water heater was
flaking large rusty pieces and I was not sure that it would survive the
addition of water and the application of heat) a leisurely couple of cups of
coffee (well, black Nescafe brought from home) and a couple of apples from the
tree in my garden (I did look for customs officials to ask if I needed to
declare them yesterday…) I ventured out to attempt to buy a local SIM
card.
So, I not only need to provide a copy of my
passport and a photo but a local contact phone number. Hmmm .. back to the hotel to check when
Tashi might be coming to the hotel, as he is the only person whose phone number
I have in Delhi. The lady on the
desk helpfully told me 6pm and why would I buy a SIM in Delhi when it would
attract roaming charges when I go to Ladakha and Dharamsala. Ok, that wasn’t on my radar!
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| Nearby park - with plenty of prayer flags |
This little excursion did attract my first
beggar – a small boy indicating he was hungry and requesting a packet of
cookies. Thinking of yesterday’s
movie Lion and asking the price, the
vendor put a small packet of plain biscuits on the counter and told me 20
rupees. The small boy tried again
with pointing at the (presumably) more expensive and more tasty cookies but got
a shake of the head from the vendor.
I’m guessing this little fellow is an experienced con artist.
Asking the lady back at the hotel about
beggars, she gave me a definitive NO
– don’t give them anything as it simply attracts a bigger swarm and they hang
around the hotel door.
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| Wildlife in the park |
OK. I did relent with an older man who had
no hands – hopefully not a self-imposed deformity as I have read is not
uncommon in some countries. I did
attract a bevy of small girls with a baby between them who were attempting to
negotiate an exact amount to share between them.
She also provided me with some guidance for
temple offerings – I did have to rephrase the question and ask what she would
offer before I got what I considered to be a satisfactory answer – which was
around what I would have thought given instruction on the subject from my
Bhutanese friends a couple of years ago.
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| Crazy traffic in the lanes - needs video to appreciate fully |
The area is a mass of narrow lanes and
narrower alleyways that wind around – sometimes coming to a dead end at
someone’s doorway, sometimes leading to the main road, sometimes doubling back
to the lanes. There are shops selling
Tibetan handcrafts in abundance, cafes in abundance and vendors of clothing and
food everywhere.
The main road that passes provides a
cacophony of traffic travelling in no less a hair-raising way than I
encountered last night – why would it?
On the other side of the area is a very quiet road bordering some market
garden areas – that look way too dry to be producing the greenery that they
are, however there is a river running past. At one end, there is a small park with some shade, no grass,
some interesting birds and one small squirrel that looked as if it might have a
broken leg.
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| resisting gorgeous textiles |
There are also many men, both in the lanes
and in the park, offering their services to clean out my ears… Do I look as if
I have a serious earwax problem? I
was assured it was a cheap service, that the cotton buds were clean (the
alternative does not bear thinking about) but I managed to decline this
enticing offer.
Deciding that brunch was a good idea, the
hotel café offered momo – which I had to wait some time for as they were being made freshly for me. Very tasty – had not had momo made by someone else since Bhutan.
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| Probably "home sweet home" for someone |
Having explored most of the local lanes
more than once I asked the hotel receptionist for suggestions and she directed
me to a local market on the other side of the road (footbridge available). Another fascinating area - this one featured more vehicular
traffic than the laneways of the Tibetan quarter – and this did provide rather
a hazard to checking out the stalls.
Included amongst the stalls were a number of tailoring shops – some with
signs with correct spelling – some of which had wonderful arrays of tempting
textiles. R300 a metre for a
gorgeous pinky-burgandy brocade did take a bit of resisting, but my bag is too
heavy for the Dharamsala flight already.
I had thought after last night’s debacle with transport from the airport
that maybe a hotel closer to the airport might be a better option for when I
return from Dharamsala – but maybe not… I have a 30kg limit on my return to
Australia.
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| Street view of the market |
Feeling absolutely at melting point (today’s forecast was 43oC) I repaired to my room and switched on the aircon for an hour or so recovery.
A quick and delicious dinner of mushroom datsi (it's a Bhutanese dish madam, very spicy - nice of him to warn me, but not actually very spicy at all given the huge lumps of red chilli contained within) a bit of a walk in an atmosphere that still resembles stepping into an overn and back to the hotel to meet Tashi and my taxi driver for 3am. He is promising to be on time. I hope so.
Settling my bill (it's not going to be happening at 3am, that's for sure) and on Tashi's recommendation, visiting a money changer - better rates than at the airport, he said - and they were! We won't mention the rate that was offered me at Melbourne airport (when I told Tashi what that was, he mentioned the words "rip off").
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