Hey,

Back again! Its not that we have nothing to do , but the heat here is too unbearable during the peak of the day so we spend it inside with the aircon!! we have free use of internet where we are staying so am making the most of it while I can, as we don't know when we can next get online!

Yesterday we headed to the Red fort in Old Delhi, to be all touristy, and take photos. The red fort was built by an emperor, in the old walled city of Delhi. When the emperor was exiled out by the british indian government.The red fort was then used as a military camp by the british army, until India was made independent in 1947.

The Red Fort itself was very big, but at the time we had no idea what we were looking at as there were little in the way of information in the fort (in Indian or English) so we had to look it up when we got back. There seemed to be only a few tourists in the fort, the majority of those who were there were Indian, some came from the south.

The Indians do a lot of staring at you (because we are white and come from the west!), which was a bit strange at first, but we are getting used to it now. Whilst in the red fort some indians asked to have their picture taken with us. There was also another group of indians sitting on some benches not far from where we were sitting, who were taking photos of their group and not very suttlely (sorry dont know how to spell that!) edged further and further closer to us until we were in the picture!

We think we have got the metro sussed! We have found the metro station not far from our accommodation and have managed to navigate the roads to it! The maps here all have road names, but the physical roads themselves here have no names at all and they all look the same. There is a lot of queing, to get tokens and to pass through the search machines/people, just like airport security. Its easy for Charlotte and I to get through as we are ladies, but for ed who being male has to go through a separate security gate. There are a lot more males on the metro than females, thus Charlotte and I are through like a shot, but for Ed its bit of a wait!

After the Red fort, we headed back to Conaught place, which is the main centre of New Delhi, where most things seem to stem from. Here we had dinner at an indian resturant. The main place is a like a big circle, one outer circle and an inner circle. IT is so hard to find anything, as like the rest of Delhi, is under construction and any cafe or some sort of shop is like a shanty bulding. Its really hard to know where to eat and where not to eat. We got quite desperate yesterday and contemplated hitting macdonalds, which we would have considered a minor blip in our cultural experience! The food was good, and in total I think we paid around £8 for all three of us to eat a proper meal!

The Poverty here is still striking. Everywhere you go are people who live on the street, with nothing but the clothes they are standing up in, with no food or water. There are children in the street with their mothers with little clothing on, again with no food or water. The people who are walking around the city, are a real mixed bunch, with people fairly well dressed we assume on their way to work, and others what seemt o be aimlessly wondering around. The buidlings are also really mixed. As I said in my previous entry, there are people living out of tent like constructions on the side of the street, there are little shanty huts made of metal and cardboard, there are apartments wikth missing roofs and walls and there are a few normal looking flats. The people themselves are friendly, and will often start walking along side of you and asking you questions about where you are from. Well they always start walking and talking to Ed first as they cant speak to women first, but we can speak to them!They are all interested in where you are from and how long you will be in India for. They like to recommend places that we should go and see, which quite often ends in you should talk to my friend and they will take you there (eg in Taxi) or take my number and call me when you want to go to a certain place!

Today we are not going to be doing that much. We have had breakfast up on the roof top of the hotel (toast is the safest option with fruit juice) and later today we are heading back into the centre to find a supermarket, or somewhere where we can stock up on dried foods and water etc!We have got an early start tomorrow as we are getting a 6am train to Jaipur, our next stop in India.

Well I can confirm that any potential tan was dirt! HAd a proper shower last night (The other hotels bathroom facilities were a little scary to venture into having a proper shower!) and the floor was nearly black with all the dirt that came off! My feet took some scrubbing to get it all off, and I reakon by the end of today I will be back to thinking I have a tan again!

Thats all for now

x