Delhi

Delhi next and getting there by our first experience if Indian trains.

Packed and ready to go we mount the trusty tuk-tuk for the station. Yesterday's rain made this and the station pretty messy as the most common street paving is..........nothing. the station itself was manic even at this time but the train wasn't so bad we were seated together in a decent carriage that wasn't even full thankfully and 5 hours later we meet our contact at the station in Delhi.

Our accommodation here is The Smyle Inn hostel, cheap and ahem cheerful. Based in a narrow lane off the main bazaar it seemed to be a magnet for all manner of dreadlocks individual as well as utterly bewildered Chinese and Japanese. Yet another place that had never experienced a fine balding red head with a "very cool beard sir" (I'm guessing you can all hear the inferred as accent in there). Also 1 male travelling with 2 women seems to intrigue the locals here more so than the previous stops.

Given our early start we opted to grab a light breakfast on a nearby rooftop cafe before grabbing an hour's kip. As soon as I hit the bed I was out, really not like me but heat and exercise obviously take their toll. After the deep sleep we go a wandering again, up through the bazaar in search on Connaught Place which apparently is the place to be in Delhi. A city centre type location which is 3 large circles of streets inside each other. This was a disappointment as apart from the temperature and general shape you may as well have been on any UK high street with Nike, Starbucks etc, etc.

We headed back to the bazaar for dinner and picked another rooftop restaurant for dinner. On selecting from the menu we enquired about beer? Response was a cagey look round and then a quiet response of Kingfisher or Tuborg! 2 minutes later our 'tramp chic´ beers arrived in brown paper bags as we later learned it's very difficult to get a license to sell alcohol so most do not have it on the menu and are quite discerning as to whom it would be served. Our meal arrived shortly after and tasty it was too. As time went on in the restaurant the atmosphere became very relaxed as I slowly realised most other people in there had Brown paper bags and own rolled cigarettes used with tobacco from actual cigarettes!

View from the rooftop resturant

 Day 2
We have a driver to get to as many places as possible. Thankfully the driver was spot on, helpful, polite and not looking to enrage everyone. First stop, Jama masjid mosque in Old Delhi. Here you had to remove shoes and legs, shoulders and arms covered. If you had not already done this yourself someone was on hand to do it for you! Wrapping a shawl around my legs as I had shorts on the guy says quietly that I now owe him 100 rupees, government tax............needless to say he didn't look like a government official although they say actions speak louder so one could draw their own conclusions. The mosque itself was impressive with views all round the old city.

Jana Masjid Mosque

Next stop was the Red Fort. A good walk from the car park, ticket office (more than double the cost for foreigners) and another security check and we're in. Pass through the shy, retiring vendors who don't pester you in any way to look in their shops or buy their wares we get to the very large gardens with buildings dotted about mainly for prayers or stashing harems of women (clever sods). Nice place and well looked after with a seemingly very out of place WWII exhibit.

Us overlooking the gardens

On to the Gandi museum. Dedicated to the life of a great man, the only criticism one could consider was possibly too much detail including 2 teeth removed in mid life. Otherwise very interesting and educational about the life, struggles and sad untimely death of a true legend among men.

We came out to the start of another massive thunderstorm so took the drivers recommendation of good, Indian cuisine. It did not disappoint which is more than can be said for the weather as we came out to torrential rain!
We carried on then to Humayun's tomb. Given our clothing we considered skipping this one but thankfully the rain eased enough to let us carry on.

Humayun's Tomb (The Taj Mahal Design is based on this)

Moment in time to never forget : it was in this place I learned that I had become an uncle :) my elder brother Don and his partner Aimee had provided me with my first nephew a beautiful bouncing baby boy Lorcan Daniel Tuohy. Congratulations folks, so sorry I can't see him for a little while.

Lorcan Daniel Tuohy

Akshar Hamid temple is the last stop of the day. This is a massive complex with high security, no bags, backpacks or anything other than your clothes and wallet at a stretch. We learned that this was due to a serious incident which you can Google as I do not wish to get into this level of detail here. Having checked in our backpack we carried on through security into the complex. Temple in the centre as always and surrounded by very intricate gardens, a man made lake and 12 very detailed and life like elephants. The lake was also feed by many bulls head spouts made of bronze. The interior of the main temple was obsessively ornate with every surface carved with some design and perfectly symmetrical. This however this was nothing compared to the centre chamber of the temple that shone and sparkled like nothing I have seen before. It would appear that all religions have a very similar attitude to this in that their places of worship are far more ostentatious than needs to be considering the code of ethics they preach. It was however worth the visit.

Our travels continue again with another unexpected flight. Given the lack of availability of trains and considering the cost of accommodation it just made sense so a flight to Amritsar it is.

Amritsar.