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Early start to go on our city tour, along with Sam, a fellow Brit from Newcastle who is towards the end of her 11 month world tour. We set off from the hotel with our driver at 9.30am and were promptly stopped at the top of the Main Bazar by the New Delhi Traffic Police who gave our driver a ticket for driving the wrong way out of the bazar and not wearing a uniform!
After the short stop we headed into Old Delhi which is a muslim quarter and is just as bustling as where we are staying (Pahar Ganj). Our first stop was the Jama Masjid mosque, where we had to leave our shoes outside and cover our shoulders (luckily we had remembered our kaftans!). Inside the courtyard reminded us of Trafalgar Square with all the pigeons! But inside was so peaceful compared to the hustle of the city outside. Once we returned to the car we had the nice surprise of having to pay for parking, which we were not told about when we booked the trip, this became a regular occurance throughout the day (more later!).
Next stop was the massive Red Fort (Lal Qila) where we were shocked to see two green parrots on the outside of the building and to find the ladies queue was much shorter than the mens (at the entrance gate we mean), the women can only be searched upon entry by other women. During the bag scan Sarah was accused of carrying a knife, on second inspection this was revealed to be a banana! Immediately after entering we were met with a market hall of brightly coloured clothes, jewellery and bags, as well as the usual tacky souvenirs. After a walk around the gardens, where children shoke our hands and exclaimed 'welcome to India', and looking at the beautiful buildings and views we moved onto Akshardham Temple where en route we saw two elephants been rode along the motorway!
This was a massive and stunning new temple situated close to the site of the 2010 Commonwealth Games. We were advised that bags, cameras and mobiles were not allowed in - annoyingly as it was so breathtaking. We left these in the car but after seeing the designated cloak room we decided we didn't trust our driver and collected our belongings and left them in safety at the cloak room. Once inside the huge complex which had more of a theme park feel than a religious site (there was a boat ride through an exhibition available - influenced by the Commonwealth Games?), we walked into the temple. There were amazing marble carvings everywhere and the grounds surrounding the temple were beautiful. On reflection we felt much of the money spent on the temple could have gone towards the city's poverty problems instead of trying to showcase Delhi and distract visitors attention from the real issues facing the country's poor.
From here we travelled to the beautiful serene Humayun's Tomb, which was home to gorgeous gardens with hundreds of chipmunks playing in the trees and spectacular mosque like buildings which housed the many erie tombs. It felt a million miles away from the rest of the city! We couldnt decide if the bodies would still be in the tombs or if they were just a symbol of their life/religion.
After the drivers brief detour in an attempt to entice us into his 'friend's' shop, came the best part of the day (this did not help Sarah's headache!). The car broke down and the driver got out to 'fix it' (we were out of fuel!) on a fly over - could you imagine doing this on Spaghetti Junction!! After re-starting and realising he was out of fuel, he pulled into a petrol station, where he spent 10 minutes demanding we should pay the 100 rupees for the fuel. Eventually we gave in as we did not want to be abandond (it was only about 1.50 but thats not the point!).
We just had enough fuel to make it to the Lotus Temple (aka Bahai). Whilst doing our tourist bits we had our first experience of fame - an Indian woman asked for a photo of us! There were also hundreds of Indian schoolkids having their phot taken with an American woman, we were not kind enough to bail her out! When we got back to our car we were kindly informed that our time was almost up and we would have to miss out our next destination as it was too far out of the city, so we had to make our way back to Smyle with a brief detour via India Gate - a beautiful white archway resembling the Arc de Triomphe. We also bypassed a Sikh temple with a golden dome which locals referred to as the Golden Temple (not official name).
On our drive through Delhi we witnessed many sights, which made us feel uncomfortable but grateful and realise what we have back home. These included many people including children coming up to car windows at traffic lights to sell various items from fruit to the Ikea catalogue(!); beggars coming up to you (both when we were in and out of the car) including women and their babies (who looked at you with hands in prayer) gesturing for money for food; people at the side of the road and in underpasses with no legs or their feet in bandages begging, we even saw a man at the side of the road with no trousers or underwear on and flies covering his 'parts'. At once junction we had a young girl dance and do acrobats for us in an attempt to get money of us.
On our return to the hotel we were led through the preparation of a Sikh road festival by the driver as we made him come with us in order to get the money back he had promised us from the hotel for petrol and parking, as we believed this was included in our tour price. After standing our ground we got our money back!
Following a text from Anu informing us the Taj Mahal was closed on Fridays (which is actually in the guide book - doh!) we decided we would make our own way to Agra (we had to do it at some point!). We felt we didnt need to be in Delhi until Saturday and preferred to spend a day travelling and settling into Agra and seeing the Taj at sunrise the following day, than feel we were wasting a day we didnt need in Delhi. So after a quick internet search for accommodation, we made our way to the station to enquire about train times and costs.
A well deserved meal was the next port of call where we both enjoyed a chicken biriyani. We were joined by another Brit and his Indian friend but felt sure they were trying to sell us something as they were both based at the travel agents next door and we were relieved when they left.
Back to Smyle where we read up on our next destinations and got a good nights kip after a hectic day in Delhi.
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