Welcome to Delhi – A short guide for firangs

I always had the intention of writing about my experiences in India – New Delhi in particular – and to give all those firangs (foreigners), who are fully new to India, a bit of a crash course. After we just recently welcomed our new French flatmate and I got to know about such basic issues, I thought it’s high time I get started 🙂 So here you go, a short overview of all the basics you need in the initial days.

Where to stay

Let’s start with the basics. When you come to Delhi, where should you stay? It fully depends of course for how long you stay, what’s the budget and if you’re just here to travel. I aim at those, who intend to stay here for a couple of months.

The best and safe area to live in Delhi is undoubtedly South Delhi. There are of course again different areas to choose from which are more or less posh, but generally, you can’t go wrong with that. I’ve been living around the Deer Park area (Green Park, Safdarjung Enclave, SDA) for the longest time which is very safe, comparatively clean, a bit more spacious lanes, not that noisy and with good connectivity to everything, so I will always promote this area to live 🙂 Gulmohar Park and Hauz Khas which are close by are also great places to stay, as are the Greater Kailashs (GK1 and 2) as well as East of Kailash. Malviya Nagar and Saket are also some good places. There are some nice societies in Lajpat Nagar and Jangpura as well. It fully depends what’s closer to your work and on your budget. The first options are slightly more expensive in my experience.

How to find a place to stay

The first place I would suggest is a facebook group called yuni-net which connects foreigners in Delhi and where you find everything from houses to furniture and other things to sell. It’s usually without brokerage there and there are both posts from people who look for flatmates or an independent place. Some other facebook groups you can check out are Expats in Delhi, Expat Apartments Delhi, Flats and Flatmates SOUTH DELHI, Flats and Flatmates – Delhi NCR, South Delhi – Flats and flatmates, Rent flats in Delhi without brokers. You can either look for existing posts or post yourself about your requirements. If you’d like a broker, feel free to contact me.

For a short-term, you can of course also go for an air-bnb. If you need something cheaper, you can of course also choose a hostel. Who would know better than “A broken backpacker”, so check out this overview of the best hostels in Delhi.

FRRO Registration

If you’re here for more than 6 months, you’ll need to register with the FRRO. I’ll write a separate post about that. It got much easier nowadays because they made everything digital.

How to get a phone number

There are multiple options: Airtel, Vodafone and Jio, either prepaid or postpaid. To get a SIM, you need your original passport, photocopy of passport and visa and a passport picture. In the bigger offices, they have a photocopier and can get the copies done there itself.

Where can I buy groceries?

Vegetables & fruits
For basic vegetables or fruits, there will be always some street vendors with their carts. Just explore the area you live in. If you want anything rather fancy which is imported, there are again a couple of options. Check out Khan market and the market in INA.

Milk & yoghurt
You find it in any supermarket but there are also Mother Dairy and other milk shops for this which are usually cheaper. You can even get fresh milk which you can fill in your own can.

Basics
There are so many small corner stores which only have some of the most basic items like bread, eggs, butter and also snacks like chips. There are some other stalls where you can even get open goods like rice, chickpeas, kidney beans. You should be careful about the quality though, I’ve heard that it’s not always very clean. Explore your area to find the best stores around. The small ones are on every corner but there will be bigger ones also where you get a good variety of really everything you need. The number of modern supermarkets is also increasing, e.g. 24/7.

Meat
There are a lot of butcher shops around but a lot of them don’t even have refrigerators. The meat is rather fresh though (be warned, the chicken are often kept in cages right outside) but in summers I wouldn’t want to buy anything from those shops. Green Chick Chop is usually a good option and has a wide variety on any kind of meat.

Imported goods
For anything imported, you can check out the many stores in Khan Market, Defence Colony Market or INA Market, some are available in Hauz Khas Market and Green Park Market. Imported things are quite expensive though. You can find German original sausages and even salmon there but it costs double or three times as much as at home.

The most important apps

There are a couple of apps which are extremely handy.

Uber & Ola
For cabs and even auto-rickshaws, these two are the best apps to use. I’d recommend getting both as there are sometimes price differences and when there’s a shortage of cabs in one, you can try the other.

Zomato & Swiggy
To order food, these two are the best. I personally prefer Zomato. It has the advantage of Zomato Gold, a membership which gets you a lot of 1+1 or 2+2 on drinks and food in partner restaurants. It’s a great way to explore many good restaurants.

BookMyShow
For booking movies, plays or to get to know about any other events, sports tournaments or activities, this app is the best. Please note that in India, movies are not on for very long. Some movies are only on for 2-3 weeks and with waiting for too long, you’d risk that it’s only running in smaller theatres.

Amazon & Flipkart
For online shopping, these two are the best. With Amazon Prime, you can get certain things in only a day or two.

UrbanClap
Whenever you need any kind of fixing service, plumbers, electrician, cleaning, painting or even hair stylists, makeup and massage services, this is the app for you! If you book early enough in the day, they even come on the same day and you can easily choose the time window in which they should come.

bigbasket & Grofers
For online shopping of groceries, these two are good and quick options. If you want some fresh and organic milk delivered directly on your doorstep as often as much as you need, you can check out apps like Dhoodvale. There are multiple options.

Booking.com, MakeMyTrip & Goibibo
To book hotels for your trips, these three apps are great. I’d recommend to check in at least two of them to get the best prices.

redBus
If you want to travel anywhere outstation by bus, I just love this app! It gives you the options of local non AC busses as well as more comfortable Volvo buses, both semi-sleepers and sleepers).

Urban Ladder & Pepperfry
If you want to order furniture online for your new house, these are some good although compared to local markets rather expensive options (depending on what, even double the price). However, for the more modern designs, especially when it comes to any kind of fabric item, they have much more modern patterns than most local markets.

Where can I go out in Delhi?

You might be surprised how many good restaurants and bars one can find in Delhi 🙂 Some of the main places are Khan Market, CP, Hauz Khas Village, Saket and some very good and rather expensive restaurants close to Qutub Minar.

You can find any kinds of food here and especially in the beginning when you might get fed up a bit with Indian food or don’t like it much. I know people who don’t know where to go and end up at McDonald’s, Burger King and Pizza Hut, just because they don’t know what to trust. Please, don’t be so boring when you have the most amazing options around!

Where can I play sports?

There are lots of good gyms available if you like that kind of workout. If it’s not too hot and the air not too polluted, you can easily go for a nice long run in one of the big parks like Lodhi Garden, Deer Park, Nehru Park or Jahanpanah City Forrest. Lots of people play football, badminton and cricket in the parks. There are some sport complexes like the one in Siri Fort where you can find proper courts for basketball, badminton, squash and a big pool for swimming.

Some basic questions

Where do I get safe drinking water?

You can find water at any corner, either in supermarkets or at small street vendors. “Ek pani ki bottle” (one bottle of water) costs 20 INR.

Is it safe to have tab water?

Nope, at least don’t just drink it. You can brush your teeth with it but it’s not good to drink. There is RO water, which is filtered (you can get one of those ROs at home) and safe to have. Best to wash vegetables and fruits with this water, since your stomach might take some time to adjust.

How much does an auto rickshaw cost?

You can get autos on every corner. The basic minimum fare is 30 INR. Everything within a range of 5 min shouldn’t cost more than 30 INR, 10 min around 40-50 INR. Try to ask them to go by meter (“Metre se”) to get the real price. A lot of them will say that it doesn’t work and some might even try to take some detour. Whenever you don’t know the exact way, just use Google maps to ensure he’s not fooling you.

Of course, seeing a foreigner, there’s a high chance that they don’t start with that and will ask you for 100-150 INR, even if the price is 30 INR. I personally don’t think that we, as “rich” Westerners should mind so much paying a few 10-30 INR more than needed, after all, 10 INR are only around 10 Cents. In Germany, we’d even give a beggar on the street more than this. BUT at the same time, if someone starts with this ridiculous rate of 150 INR or more, I just ignore them and take a different one. It’s especially difficult close to sightseeing places – means whenever they’re sure that you’re a mere tourist. There, they start with even more.

Another thing to know is that the rate increases by at least 20 INR of not more during the night. When they tell you about a night charge, they’re not making it up, but they will definitely try to ask you for more than needed.

Where can I get a hair cut?

A basic yet important question. I was incredibly worried about my first haircut here – and was right to be 😉 There are lots of different kinds of beauty parlours, some cheaper, some very expensive. Geetanjali, Looks, Toni and Guy are some of the better ones which you find all over South Delhi.

The cheapest options for men are some of the street guys. I would not recommend that though, some of the foreigners I know regret it a lot 😀
I still remember my first hair cut in a mall in Noida after office. It wasn’t a super cheap place but also nothing popular. I had bangs and asked him not to cut it too short. Of course, I ended up with shorter bangs than Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction. But not to worry, I’ve never been disappointed at Geetanjali, with bangs and without 😉

Any other basic questions you have? Let me know in the comments 🙂