Dilli aaj aur kal

We took the hoho bus to 18 Delhi hotspots and loved the journey. If you are tempted, just hop on for a smashing tour of the capital -- both old and new

It was a foggy weekday morning in Delhi. A short distance away, ITO was waking up to a busy day, and I was on a mission. My aim -- to find the real Khuni Darwaza. On my previous criss-crossings across the Capital, both old and new, I had managed to locate three Khuni Darwazas, in different parts of old and new Dilli. Also, I wanted to revisit Delhi's monuments and popular hotspots. But there was a catch. I had only a day or two for the trip.



I was in 'trippy' mood anyway, and decided I'd try out one of Delhi's recent attractions -- the Hop On Hop Off (HOHO) bus that was introduced right before the Commonwealth Games. For once, Delhi was at par with cities abroad. From London to Sydney to Paris, Vienna, Brussels, Dublin -- they all have their own HOHO buses for tourists and citybreds.

Hop scotch
The advantage of these buses is that you get to cover a host of places, get up from any of their pick-up points, get off, do your own trek and take the bus again from wherever you fancy. So you don't have to follow the boring routine of regular tourist buses, take as much time as you want at any location and don't have to keep looking behind your back to figure out if your bus was leaving.u00a0
The brochure here said the bus goes to 18 hotspots across old and new Delhi and covers a wide variety of places -- from historical monuments to popular shopping destinations, museums to even temples.

'Ruined' affairs
So I dragged myself out of the comforting quilts one crazy cold morning and hopped on to an auto to Baba Kharak Singh Marg -- the starting point of the bus.

It's best to start from the very beginning. I started with Feroze Shah Kotla -- a fortress built by Ferozshah Tughlaq that he named Ferozabad. The place is in ruins and even that early in the morning, there were people offering prayers at the mazar inside the premises. It's beautiful, and the view when you climb up the structure which houses the Ashokan pillar, right opposite Jami Masjid, is breathtaking.

It was close to noon by the time I got out, and decided to head to the next location -- the Red Fort. The huge area including Selimgarh Fort and the museums, and the adjoining colourful Chandni Chowk takes quite a while to cover. More so if you want to go to Jama Masjid and have lunch at Paranthewala Gali or at the eateries that dot the lane opposite Jama Masjid.

The next on my list was Raj Ghat -- Mahatma Gandhi's Samadhi. While here, you can also see Shanti Van, Shakti Sthal and Vir Bhumi, all of which are interconnected. I skipped the next, the National Gallery of Modern Art and went to India Gate. The bus stops here for exactly two minutes for photo-ops, but that much time is not enough even to get down from the bus. So I moved on to Purana Qila -- the first cityu00a0 of Delhi.

Indraprastha was supposedly inside the walls of the fort. Next stop was Humayun's Tomb -- a world heritage sight which is said to be the inspiration behind the Taj Mahal.

The bus also covers Lajpat Nagar (popular for good ethnicwear), Lotus Temple (for the sheer calmness and resemblance with Opera House, Sydney), the malls of Saket (could excite mall rats), Qutab Minar, the quaint Hauz Khas Village (for combining designs and history together so well), Dilli Haat (for its sheer variety), Safdarjung Tomb (spruced up now), Nehru Museum, Indira Gandhi Memorial Museum, National Museum and ends at Jantar Mantar. During anytime in the trip, you are allowed to go away and do your own exploring.

Like I did the second day at the Mehrauli Archaeological Park, to be fascinated by Balban's tomb and Jamali Kamali and caught the bus from Qutab Minar to explore Hauz Khas Village. The place is famous for its designer shops, Dadi-Poti tombs, the Hauz-e-Alai and its adjoining complex.

The advantage of HOHO is that there is a bus every half an hour and you can board a bus according to your timings. They give you a timetable stating the times of arrival of the bus at every point of attraction. There is an executive on the bus who will explain and give details about places of interest that fall in the way.

However, it is very important that you prioritise. It is not possible to cover all the places even in two days if you wish to see them properly. So choose your points of interest beforehand and move accordingly.

Their new offer (valid till the end of this month), allows you to board the bus for two days using the same ticket. So go explore your city with a new angle.

At: 18 locations around Delhi. Or get up from Baba Kharak Singh Marg or Qutab Minar
Ring: 40940000
Timings: 8 am onwards, every half an hour
price: Rs 300