Delhi

Rhaani braves the crowds to visit the Red Fort

Where: Delhi


Where (less detailed): capital of India

Weather: upon arrival the hottest it’s been since we left London, absolutely scorchio, and they said Delhi was on flood alert. Next day torrential rain from the minute we were woken up by early morning prayers at 6am until the minute we arrived back at the hotel and took our ponchos off.

Gandhi - he's kinda a big deal around here.

Temperature: about 36 degrees and about 21 degrees in the back of our AC car that chauffered us around (actually we might be getting the hang of this travelling lark after all)

People: Okay, except the two guys who “helped” us to an extra 2km walk after we fell twice for the “The International Train Ticket Office is this way,” as we ending up in two different travel agencies that clearly weren’t the ticket office.

Paul enjoys a brief respite in the downpour to feed the guns

Food: best Butter Chicken Curry I’ve ever tasted, although halfway through the second serving I was feeling a little sick, still finished it though as didn’t want to waste the £3.50 I’d just spent...after a night in which I dreamed of pizza and pasta finally succumbed to non-Indian food and demolished my Wimpey burger and chips...elsewhere best Sea Bass I’ve ever had...

Delhi train station 6am

famous footsteps

Adventures/Highlights/Lowlights: Rhaani being locked in our bus from Jaipur as it stops for a pee-break... Paul enjoying a tasty Cornetto as Rhaani tries to escape... experiencing the “queueing system” in the Delhi metro ticket hall – I understand they rejected British imperialism but you would have thought they’d have kept the idea of an orderly line...marvelling at being able to get from the suburbs into the Old Town in only 20mins, then taking 90mins to fight through the crowds to our restaurant... our waiter being aghast at the thought of having a beer with our curry – I thought it was mandatory... wading through 9inch deep puddles of water during our historical tour of Delhi, at least it cut down on the crowds...Live ESPN in our hotel room, Man U 3-2 Liverpool, hi Raj... the preference of the locals to get absolutely drenched rather than use umbrellas or even hoods... Red Fort, now that’s what I call a Fort, Kochi... the Humayan Tombs, now that’s what I call a pimped-out tombstone.... the Gandhi museum, following his marked final footsteps from bedroom to assassination point (I’m pretty sure they were put in afterwards)... Rhaani finding a cappacino, Paul finding some awesome ice-cream but having to let it melt while he ran to find a working toilet....stunning sculptures in National museum...best comedy moment so far, after 5 minutes consulting our map, agreeing where we were, were we wanted to go and exactly how to get there we walk off in complete opposite directions...annoyingly missed great photo op: Delhi metro station information poster: “No human remains allowed on Metro”...first experience of ordering blindly off Menu – Dosas, pretty tasty...Rhaani buying a pair of MC Hammers cast-off pants...mystery of middle-aged men with bad Ginger hair dyed hair...the look of disgust on the hotel managers when Paul, trying to make small talk, asks him who the fat Bollywood actor with the big moustache is? [ed note: I still contend he was actually confused because 95 per cent of Bollywood actors meet that description]...the specialist builders brought to try and get the city ready for the Commonwealth games, namely women who just bang on the pavement with stub-nosed hammers for 8hrs a day....the Delhi official in charge of the Commonwealth games project: Sheila Dikshit...minutes before boarding our train discovering our cattle class seats to Amritsar, which we thought we could just about suffer for five hours, was in fact eight and a half hours....realising our 5.30am taxi was headed for the airport, not the train station....stepping over the sleeping bodies to get to the most manic 6am train station ever.... Paul’s first interaction with an Indian that hasn’t ended with “one more stuffed paratha please” or “no I don’t want a frigging ride in your tuk-tuk not matter how ‘special’ your price is”: an Indian kid called Jackson, named after Michael Jackson, who sat next to him on the train....

all set for an international sporting event

Overall: awesome, in fairness coming off the back of Jaipur anywhere would be great but a really impressive city...had been warned of countless scams and hassles from the locals but it was a breeze in comparison to Jaipur, have I mentioned we didn’t like Jaipur? Regarding the Commonwealth games the eagerness of residents to piss in the streets and the abundance of mud and sludge everywhere suggests it’s not going to be the smoothest of events.

Up next: Amritsar, still India