Local Delhi

Once in the car it takes little time to make it from the airport into New Delhi. In 1911 King George V announced that the Raj would move its administration from Calcutta and make New Delhi India's capital city. Edwin Lutyens, thus far famous for his country piles, was commissioned to create the government district and provided a bold, arrow-straight royal mall, Rajpath, which is not unlike London's Mall. Rashtrapati Bhavan is the official residence of the president of India and despite the red sandstone and Mughal-inspired domes, is clearly a grand British building. It is flanked by more government monoliths, all gracious and clean and within view of India Gate, a Lutyensdesigned Arc de Triomphe-style monument built in 1921 to commemorate the 90,000 Indian soldiers who fought and died for Britain in the Great War. Independence, so appallingly handled by all involved in 1947, left New Delhi intact, despite the loss of life, and the area has a slightly odd atmosphere - truly all these British buildings feel more like relics than the crumbling, ancient Indian forts, mosques and temples that are dotted throughout Delhi.
The Red Fort, or Lal Qila, is the biggest and most imposing, but at the moment it's a bit depressing. Despite its 17th-century Mughal splendour, it was only recently vacated by the army and has yet to be opened up and cleaned out. Much of it is out of bounds and faded, with a lingering municipal feel, but it is worth seeing for the sheer scale and for a taste of Indian filigree carving and jaw-dropping marble work. The 16th-century conquering emperor Babur's son Humayun's tomb is a sort of mini Taj Mahal and a sombre peaceful edifice in parkland echoing with birdsong. The birds in India are something else. Parakeets, sparrows, doves and pigeons and so many others battle for singing supremacy.

It is best to strap on your money belt, pocket your wet wipes and get out on foot to explore Old Delhi. Eat nothing from the street stalls, nothing that the flies could have got to. Wipe your hands regularly, eat no unpeeled fruit, don't even look at salad, do not touch the cows or dogs, and only use straws wrapped in plastic. Try not to bite your nails. I know lots of girls who go to India and brush their teeth in tap water in the hope that a bout of Delhi belly will make them thin, but giardia or amoebic dysentery is honestly not to be wished for.

Old Delhi still feels medieval. We wandered through the marvellously crowded paper district where they make cards and stationery and where brides go to choose their intricate invitations, where the rickshaws are in total gridlock and the gaps between the buildings are an arm-span apart. Do not park here. If you do, you may return to your car to find a tyre missing. You will then have to go to one of the surrounding tyre shops, find your wheel, buy it back and lug it to your car, hoping that the other three will still be attached. It's a perky sort of crime really.

One big old tree provided enough shade for a fishmonger, two barbers and a cobbler to set up shop beneath its branches, and the piles of bright fruit and vegetables are as gorgeous as the tiny crates of balding, battery-farmed chickens are depressing.

There are bangles and sandals and paintings and pots and beads and marble plates, but my thing is fabric and I was directed, by a local friend, towards a wholesale fabric shop, HP Singh, in the run-down Nehru Place shopping complex. This centre was built 30 years ago as state of the art and is now full of booming software companies, but is nonetheless a crumbling mess full of poor, listless beggars. Once inside HP Singh, there is everything from Rajastani printed cotton to embroidered georgette, extravagant appliqué, rayon, gingham, wool and poplin - all at wholesale prices. Almost any hotel will find you a tailor to run up outfits within 24 hours, but I carry an empty suitcase, bring my material back and use it slowly over the years, which is a continuing joy.

Delhi has a ravenous appetite for shopping malls, which are springing up all over the place, but it is the outdoor complexes that provide the best boutiques - you are unlikely, after all, to be in India for Reebok and Sony. Santushti is the genteel option with its designer shops and cotton specialist Anokhi, a fast-growing chain that sells printed cotton clothes, bags, napkins, bedspreads and the like. The fixed prices are not local but they are vastly less than you would pay in London and quality is pretty much guaranteed. Khan Market and M-Block and N-Block Market are two other high-end complexes, while Connaught Place is the shopping heart of the city.

Some say that dining out is dicing with dysentery, but if you order sensibly then there's no reason to be neurotic. Bukhara is widely considered to be Delhi's best restaurant where you can only eat with your hands, you wear a vast bib, and the food is very expensive, simple and amazing. It is round the corner from our hotel, the efficient Taj Palace, still reeling from the recent terrorist attacks on its Mumbai sister hotel.

Delhi is perhaps the gateway to India. Even if you do not delve further, it offers a taste of every century and many of the surrounding regions as the villagers flock here, using motorbikes as people carriers to transport entire families, to make their fortune. Delhi still shows us that India is a beautiful, brutal place. And above all it is hungry. Delhi is a city that wants more, from itself and from the rest of the world. Go now - before it becomes London.

NEED TO KNOW: TAJ PALACE HOTEL

DECOR The lobby is rather flamboyant, gaudy and highly scented, but the newly refurbished club rooms are very impressive. There are muted colours, Indian textiles, marble bathrooms and a chic urban feel.
FOOD Masala Art serves regional Indian classics in a 'nouvelle' atmosphere and they flame-cook the roti in front of you. There is a coffee shop for international comfort food.
TREATS Molton Brown products, a phenomenal 3,500sq ft residential suite with private mini gym and massage room, and exclusive Taj Club private breakfast room.
FELLOW GUESTS Indian and international business people as well as Middle Eastern royalty and politicians such as Hillary Clinton.
TARIFF A tailor-made long weekend in Delhi costs from £950 per person including British Airways flights, accommodation, airport transfers, private car and guide. Valid for travel from 16 April to 30 September 2009. Contact Greaves Travel (020 7487 9111; www.greavesindia.com).

OUT AND ABOUT IN DELHI

GETTING THERE Indira Gandhi International Airport is well-served by many airlines. British Airways, for example, flies back and forth twice a day.
WHERE TO STAY The iconic Aman group has chosen Delhi to house its first city hotel, the Aman New Delhi ( www.amanresorts.com),
which is unlike anything the city has seen before. Dark wood, pale stone, suites with private pools, endless tuberose and a tapas restaurant. The Imperial Hotel( www.theimperialindia.com) is a classically grand option. Super-central, it is decorated in cream, gold and wood, has a charming bar and corridors like galleries hung with 18th- and 19th-century prints. Ringo (00 91 11 23 310 605) is a backpacker staple and a buzzy little hangout in a good location.
WHERE TO EAT Connaught Place is full of good restaurants such as Kwality, which is decadently decorated and serves familiar Indian dishes. Veda (00 91 11 41 513 535) is posher with smoochy, moody red and black décor and consistently decent food. Bukhara (00 91 11 26 112 233) is famous and rightly so with its fantastic tandoori specialities, nocutlery policy, high prices and cave-like atmosphere.
WHAT TO DO You could take months to explore Delhi but highlights include the 17th-century red and white Jama Masjid, India's largest mosque, with its wide staircases and immense open courtyard that can accommodate 25,000 worshippers. Chawri Bazaar is a wholesale paper market with a 19th-century atmosphere. Khari Baoli is the city's spice market, which also sells dried fruit, tea and chutneys. It is crowded and quite something to behold, particularly for foodies. Connaught Place is rammed with shops, cinemas, banks, restaurants and bazaars. This is the area where all aspects of Delhi - traditional and modern - combine and the buzz continues long into the night.
CELEB SPOTTING Jemima Khan and Mick Jagger descend on Delhi.