So it's the third day now in Delhi and I've scheduled Safdarjung's Tomb and the Red Fort, in that order.
After hailing a taxi with instructions to take me to the Tomb. We arrived at a building that looked vaguely like the picture of the minerat of the tomb, on a small street that that certainly was not the tourist hotspot I was expecting.
Suppressing my scepticism, I paid the driver and got off anyway. After ten minutes of walking around the place, and looking rather foolish to the onlookers, I finally approached someone who looked to be in charge. After some discussion, it turned out the the building was actually a Sikh temple and not even on the same side of the city. In fact, the taxi driver had travelled 2km in the opposite direction.
Explaining my situation, the worshippers in the temple offered to help take me to Safdarjung's Tomb on the back of motorbike, and Mandeep is the name of my driver. So I'm now sitting in the back while Mandeep performs his chores before taking me to the Tomb. This has got to be the most fun thing I've done in a long time. Clinging onto Mandeep like a demented Lemming who's changed his mind and watching a pro navigate the Delhi traffic. I'll post the video clips on youtube when I work out how to convert the video.
But for the kindness of the worshippers and this gentleman, I would have been truly stuck. Thanks Mandeep!!!
Now back to the two sites that were my goal. Both were magnificant buildings, but in a poor state of repair. All that's really left is the sandstone buildings. Whatever facade, marbles, room decorations etc that once graced the building have all gone.
Here's a shot of the tomb. Sadly, the water fountains failed to make an appearance for me:
And the tomb. It's actually quite narrow, even I would have difficulty getting in:
Leaving the Tomb, I decide to just have a little wander and discovered this a very short distance away:
Delhi has a metro system??? I went in and got myself a Smartcard, basically a prepaid ticket loaded with some money like the London tube's Oyster card. I resolved to use the metro to avoid having to deal with taxi drivers and used the metro to get to the Red Fort at Chadni Chowk station.
Here's the Red Fort:
The fading day over the fort:
On the way back to the metro. The street lights illuminating the white domes make such a wonderful sight
I couldn't resist a little snack before heading back to the hotel. It's called a Gur Rasmalai:
