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Up early today for our 6 hour bus ride back to Delhi, rained today and a lot cooler, which was nice. Can't wait to start walking again, fed up of sitting down, at this rate I will be the size of a house!!
Arrived back to our hotel at 12.30, had a shower and changed ready to go to Connaught Place, which is basically a big shopping centre. First wonderful surprise of the afternoon was the Metro. Wow, its like a whole new world below the streets of Delhi. Clean, quiet, well organised, easy to use and cheap. The trains themselves are double the width of the London tube, and AIR CONDITIONED. They also have women only carriages, some would call it sexist, I call it genius. What a nice thought to ride the tube without sweaty, smelly men pushing up against you (sweeping generalisation I know, but hey, it's my blog!) The passengers were also lovely, every time there was a free seat we were asked if we wanted it before anyone sat down, it really is like the Waitrose of the underground world.
On arriving, refreshed and cool thanks to the amazing Metro, the group split up and Rachel and I went exploring. Second wonderful surprise of the day, was MacDonald's. I feel I need to explain the excitement, as normally I save for special occasions, such as a hangover. In the olden days the Golden Arches used to serve THE best veggie burgers, then about 5 years ago they replaced them with the evil tyrant that is Quorn. I cannot eat Quorn, so until the recent ish addition of the veggie deli wrap, a the only thing I could order were the fries (which are s***e, let's face it). Back to the story, I'd read somewhere that India still served veggie burgers (obviously higher demand here), so wanted to investigate. We entered the restaurant, and I approached the counter, full of hope and excitement........I wasn't disappointed, there on the board (first item in fact) was my old trusty veggie burger, and it tasted better than any I'd had previously!!! On return to the UK I will be starting a campaign to bring back the McVeggie!!!!! After Maccy D's we walked towards the park and what looked like some clothing stalls as we could see a multitude of bright colours. So, onto wonderful surprise number 3, not only was the park clean and well maintained, but in the centre were 143, 8 ft high bear statues, each one individually hand painted to represent a different country. They are called United Buddy Bears and promote tolerance and understanding among nations, cultures and religions. So far the touring exhibitions of the bears globally has raised over 2 million for UNICEF and children in need. Looks fantastic, there are also two gold statues, called the Ethic bears, one of which has the words, Treat people how you like to be treated written on it, never far away from a reminder of good old Tesco! (On that note, have also noticed that TATA are everywhere in India too, knew they were big, but they provide everything, from the cars to satellite TV) Whilst walking round got stopped to pose for photos with a couple of people (haven't mentioned this before, but it's really interesting that everywhere you go, esp at key places of interest, Indian nationals want tourists to pose for a photo with them) I was very happy at this particular request as other than the cricket, no one had asked me, was starting to think there was something wrong with me!!!
After a quick tour round the bears, we met with the others and decided to go to visit the Ghandi museum, slight problem in that it was 16.40pm and the museum (a good 3km away) closed at 17.00pm! A mission on foot and Tuk Tuk ensued to try and get there in time, in the process losing Kathy and David! We got there at 17.01pm but thankfully were let in by a lovely security guard, and then even better, we were invited into the house to see Ghandi's room, even though it had all been locked up for closing. What a great place, will try and get back tomorrow to see the museum when open. Walk back to the metro was lovely, the contrast with the hustle and bustle of the city was interesting. We walked down tree lined, quiet streets, with 5 star hotels scattered along the way, could have been anywhere in the world.
Got back to the hotel, showered and left for our final meal, lovely food but if I'm honest bit of an anti climax, got back to hotel and as we were not allowed a beer anywhere other than in our rooms, the group went their separate ways with a rather subdued send off. Kathy and I plan to get up for breakfast to say goodbye to those leaving at 9am......
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