Crazy $10 Challenge in Delhi, India 🇮🇳

Harry sets himself a budget of $10 for a full day in Delhi with Ali, and finds it stretches from morning until 4pm across six separate experiences. He starts with roadside chai and a papadum, submits to a street head massage that leaves him feeling like he’s been in a fight, haggles five tuk-tuk drivers down to a fair fare across to Old Delhi, eats cheese paratha at a shop trading since 1889, works through a box of mixed sweets, and finally blows the budget by about 50 cents on a “designer” sports shirt from a fixed-price stall. His conclusion is that Delhi is one of the most inexpensive cities he’s ever visited, and that Old Delhi — which he notes people often warn visitors away from — is where the real character of the city is.

Obs: this page is built from an auto-generated transcript that garbles several spoken words, including an Urdu expression Harry picked up in Pakistan and uses throughout. Running totals are quoted as Harry states them on camera.

Key moments

• [00:00] The rules: $10 for food, activities and exploring the city, with Ali along for the day.
• [00:49] First stop, roadside chai. A papadum costs 5 rupees — around 10 cents — and the chai 20, for 25 rupees total. Harry notes the vendor sells out and walks off immediately, carrying his whole stock with him.
• [02:56] The chai maker demonstrates the process: a portable burner fed from a gas canister, water, granules, milk, ginger and sugar brought to the boil, served in very small cups. Harry observes there’s no wrong time of day for it, and that ginger in chai was new to him before India.
• [05:32] The skin on top of the chai is the one part he hasn’t come round to.
• [06:19] Running total: 33 US cents.
• [06:49] A street head massage — asking price 200 rupees, agreed at 150, about two dollars.
• [08:28] The massage turns violent. Harry compares it to being slapped in the face, more effective than coffee, and jokes he’ll leave with concussion.
• [11:50] The vibrating massage machine goes over his head, ears and lower back — the strangest sensation of the lot.
• [13:52] Verdict: adrenaline like he’s just been in a fight. Fun, but he stops short of calling it enjoyable, and won’t quite recommend it.
• [14:53] A note that nobody in India ever has change, anywhere — worth sorting out in advance.
• [15:23] Running total: $2.30.
• [16:06] Tuk-tuk haggling to Chandni Chowk. First quote 400 rupees. Harry checks Uber at around 70–80 as his reference and sets a ceiling of 100.
• [17:09] Successive drivers quote 200, then 500. He works through five drivers before agreeing 130.
• [17:40] His read on why: drivers have an effective minimum for short trips, so a small premium may be unavoidable.
• [19:19] Why take a tuk-tuk over an air-conditioned Uber at all — the ride is an assault on every sense, and that’s the point.
• [20:22] Running total: $4, covering a drink, a snack, a massage and transport.
• [22:37] Arriving in Old Delhi, touts line the entrance and light up at the sight of the $10 bill he’s carrying for the thumbnail.
• [23:15] His advice on touts: they open with a friendly question, so once you know they’re selling, be assertive or simply ignore them.
• [23:45] Old Delhi described — a main street closed to cars, cycle rickshaws, markets, temples, mosques, sweet shops and stalls.
• [24:16] The food street, which he understands to be named for paratha.
• [24:48] Paratha World, trading since 1889.
• [26:19] Watching the cheese paratha made: dough rolled and floured, stuffed with cheese, vegetables and spice, deep-fried — start to finish in about 90 seconds.
• [27:56] 120 rupees, roughly two dollars, with a metal tray of chutneys included.
• [28:59] Tasting: stringy cheese, very crunchy from the frying, which he prefers to the grilled version he’s used to.
• [31:01] The banana chutney is his favourite pairing — sweet against the savoury cheese.
• [33:33] Confirmation that all the sauces are included in the 120 rupees; eaten alone they’re much spicier, and his mouth is burning.
• [34:04] Running total: $5.83, more than half the day done.
• [34:47] A sweet shop, where he picks a mixed selection.
• [35:55] The whole plate of sweets: 100 rupees.
• [36:26] Working through them — his favourite is a shortbread-like sweet that collapses into syrup, sugar and pistachio.
• [40:35] The shop is family-owned, in Harry’s understanding for about 30 years, right at the entrance to Old Delhi.
• [41:05] Running total: $7.70, with just over two dollars left.
• [41:38] Shirt shopping with $2.30 left. The stall holds firm at 250 rupees and Harry can’t move him.
• [43:51] A distraction: he spots a man wearing an Aston Villa shirt — his own club — who has no idea what it is.
• [45:14] The fixed-price rule holds across all the shops here; no discount anywhere.
• [49:25] He buys the shirt at 250 rupees, just over three dollars.
• [49:55] The wrap-up: about 50 cents over budget, five or six activities, out from morning until 4pm. Delhi is one of the most inexpensive cities he’s been to, and he defends Old Delhi against people who steer visitors elsewhere — it’s where the real characters are.

Extracted pages

• Places: Old Delhi, Delhi
• Country: India
• Tips: Haggle with a reference price, Carry small change, Be assertive with touts, Try the street version of everyday services
• Person: Ali