Capital City fun!
We made it in one piece to Delhi, new and old. Very much looking forward to this experience and seeing the many different sides to India in the one place. We met a lovely chap called Daniel from New York (no I'm not envious of where he lives in the slightest!) on the Shatabaldi Express train from Jaipur. His top tip is Sri Lanka - maybe next time (but think I've used up all my holidays for the next 3 years!) The train journey itself was the best, air con (posh) and I love how much the Indians love to snack - we got fed 3 times in about 6 hours. I kept shovelling it in, Pill had to admit defeat after the second round! Thankfully Daniel had been through Delhi before so knew the route from the station to all the hotels, dodging the cycle and auto rickshaw drivers and the stall holders in the bazaar (that never seemed to shut) We walked through at about midnight and it was still very much in full swing - I never knew I wanted to buy a babies top at that hour (for some Friends, no there isn't anything I need to be telling you all!!)
Delhi is a huge city - and it's fairly difficult to get your bearings. We figured the best way to do this would be to start in the middle and do some walking. Connought place is a big circle of shops and businesses with grass in the middle (well mud and construction at the moment, they're extending the metro and getting things in place for the up coming Commonwealth games) They've got Adidas, Nike, MacDonald's and KFC... it's like we never left Bristol! As we'd walked and walked we decided to treat ourselves to a 'bit of posh' this cafe had chandeliers, flocked wall paper and table clothes and unfortunately plinky plonky piano musac (could have done without that!) We then had the best afternoon, at the, wait for it... wait for it.... National Railway Museum, no really we did have a great time!! We got to pretend to be train drivers, play with the signals and switches and I pretended to get run over on the tracks by a huge steam train (just like a silent movie star...) I've also decided I'm going to start collecting 1920's - 1960's Indian railway crockery, so if anyone has any - hand it over!
Even though Delhi is busy busy busy, I felt quite relaxed and even though a lot was shut (Including the Ghandi, Mahtma not Indira museum) due to ANOTHER religious festival (365 days a year I tells you!) it was still great. I'd come back to Delhi. In parts of the city it really feels like you could be in bits of Bristol or London or even Paris - especially the area with all the embassies and around the presidential building it's really quite British looking. We've got really used to seeing men with rifles and assorted guns over here - they even have them outside cash points BUT blimey, Delhi has more than anywhere else (for obvious reasons I suppose) Even outside Mahtma Ghandi's house / museum.....
Because of this festival shutting stuff, we spent the afternoon in one of the towns municipal gardens - Lohdi gardens. Ahhh, ice cream and streams and flowers, lovely! I found the best toilets ever as well (I know you all want to hear about it) They'd put flowers in a nice pattern all over the floor and across the top of the loo!! There were loads of people there playing cricket and having picnics - it was very gentle and chilled.
The great thing about all these festivals is all the street processions and lights and music - we sat on a rooftop restaurant in the evening and watched huge floats with all the fairy lights, flowers and people dressed up as religious figures, wind through the tiny alley way streets below. They even had a couple of marching bands (was I in Bridgewater or a south Wales mining town...?) Lucky me - I got blown some kisses by the marching band chaps.... Does that signify giving me luck in the Hindu religion?!
We'd decided to only spend 1 day in Agra (Defo Agro!) got up super early and were taken to Agra to see the Taj Mahal - it was lovely to see parts of Delhi that aren't normally accessible when you're only there for a couple of days, it's so so huge it took us the best part of an hour to reach the outskirts, dodging the cows and monkeys. The Taj Mahal is more special than I'd thought - it was somewhere I'd thought I could take or leave and was only heading off there because people would be cross if we didn't! It helped that we had the most lovely chap showing us about - he was quite young and modern and full of information. He sussed me out straight away.... I was allowed 4 questions only at each stop point and I had to use all 4 up or else!! I didn't so much enjoy the white shoe socks we had to wear so that the marble floors wouldn't get scuffed. Lovely and sweaty and I kept sliding out of my flip flops after-wards, attractive!! Pill did the Princess Diana pose on the bench in front of the Taj - I refused as there was too many people around and I decided not to be in a million Indians photo albums this time... Pill posed beautifully though, just like her! The place really is impressive, it made me feel very small - when you think about the workmanship and time, blood, sweat and tears that went into its construction, it does make you stop and think. Saw loads of Agate too - which I'm a big fan of.
Unfortunately the day ended a bit badly when we had a bit of a train issue, the TK agency making a grand old mistake..... got resolved though and with only a 4 hour difference between the original train and the one we got... still it gave us time to make a friend at the station (the Ladies Son kept calling me Auntie which STILL freaks me out after all this time!) She was fab - she'd ask for my email address after only like 3 minutes so we could keep in contact!
Sleeper train to Varanasi - the city of ghats and the Ganges and all that float, swim, wash and sink in her....!
G&P xx
Top food tip - Aloo Jerra, potatos and cumin seeds. It's lovely. Top drink tip - apple mojitos without the rum (what??!)
