Just a quick update from sunny Delhi before we depart for the Corbett National Park to meet those hungry tigers...
We've had three days in Delhi, staying in the Paharganj backpacker area in the heart of old Delhi. We spent the first night in a fiver-a-night dive complete with stained bedsheets, and quickly took the decision the next day to upgrade to the tenner-a-night Hotel Relax, which is indeed much more relaxing - though still in the thick of things with drummers going by every half hour or so to announce the latest wedding, birth, death, cup of tea...
Delhi is a bit smelly. But we've preferred it to Mumbai as it is a bit less hectic and has proper roads - and more things to see too. We've had a good look around the heart of the city and have visited the National Museum (5000 slightly exhausting years worth of Indian history in one building - phew!), the lovely Lodi gardens, which we shared with lots of Indians having their sunday stroll and picnics, and have also seen plenty of the other important buildings too as we've made our way round in the distinctive green and yellow auto-rickshaws (which make us feel slightly less guilty than the pedal-powered ones).
Overall we feel we've spent about the right amount of time in Delhi to see everything, and to be honest we'll be relieved to get away from the scammers who accost you on every street corner with schemes to take you shopping to emporia full of over-priced tourist tat (or any other means of stopping you from getting where you want to go as it sometimes feels!)
We had read about various scams in the guide book and managed not to fall for any, including the notorious touts at New Delhi train station, one of whom tried to tell us that the ticket office was shut, so we should use his office round the corner to arrange our tickets. He was actually getting a bit aggressive till an armed guard stepped in to have a word with him. The cheeky so and so!
Anyway, check out is in ten minutes so we'd better dash. Hopefully the next update will include some tiger photos - here nice puss puss!
Lots of love,
Sarah and Phil x x
