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Day 1 - London Heathrow to Delhi - Monday 17th October 2011
After a gruelling 9 hour flight from London Heathrow, with two babies directly behind Sophie continuously crying through the night, we landed in Delhi. The actual flight was pretty decent which was a bit of a surprise, as neither Soph nor I had ever heard of the famous 'Kingfisher Airways'. Anyway, Ravi, our driver was there to meet us and we jumped in the Tata Estate and were off to see Meera at our homestay. Conversation in the car was at a minimum as Soph and I were both shattered and I think Ravi may actually be a mute?! But Meera, our host, more than made up for it and was standing at the front gate with a warm welcome. Delhi here we are - so far, so good!
After eating lunch with Meera we learnt some more about Ravi our driver (or Ravi the mute!). After a very long story the basics are……… Ravi's father arranged a marriage for him which Ravi was not too happy about and did not want, so he sent his brother to check out the girl, who took a cheeky pic of her on his mobile. Ravi saw the photo and it was love at first sight (so far, so good). Then Ravi and his soon to be wife exchanged phone calls for months but were not allowed to meet. Then the girl's father called the wedding off for money reasons, so devastated Ravi would drive to see the girl's village but was never allowed in to see her so he would drive 4 hours to sit outside! Now the girl's father wants her to marry another man so to stop Ravi from seeing his daughter and to deter them, they were both beaten as a lesson to never see each other......India culture is tough hey, no wonder Ravi doesn't speak!
Anyway, today we popped to the market had some passport pics done in a studio for 100 rupees (£1.50) - strange, India obviously hasn't thought of photo booths yet! This is so we could buy an Indian sim card and make a million phone calls for cheap!! We then headed to Sri Guru Granth Sahib which is a massive Sikh temple that also helps the poor and feed 20,000 people a day FREE! Me and Soph tried some, it tastes like mashed Weetabix. Felt really relaxed walking around the lake of Holy Water watching people bathe and bless themselves. After this, we jumped back in the car with Ravi 'the mute' and off to Lodi Gardens, this is lots of tombs set in 20 acres of lovely grounds. As the sun was starting to set, Soph got some awesome pics. We were starting to get pretty tired so we stopped at Khan cha cha which is a famous street restaurant in Delhi - we sat in there and watched the cricket (Soph still thinks its rounder's!), had a chicken tikka roll, it was amazing! We then grabbed an ice cream and walked to India Gate, this is a massive arch which was built in honour of the 70,000 Indians that died fighting for Britain in the First World War. Back to our home stay - knackered, full up, mosquito bitten and tired so showered and in bed, Soph says 'Shall we check if the internet works' so I accidently clicked Skype and low and behold there online, ringing us, was nan!! Chatted for 5mins then ZZZ…….
Day 2 - Delhi - Tuesday 18th October 2011
We woke up this morning to beautiful soft sheets, a lovely chilled room and a yummy smelling Indian breakfast cooking downstairs - the culture shock of Delhi that we had been warned about was nowhere to be seen! Maybe I'm writing this too soon………
After a delicious breakfast of homemade yogurt followed by roti with egg and spices on top, we jumped in Ravi's car and headed straight to the train station to buy our train tickets. Meera had been slightly taken aback the previous day when we had boldly stated that we didn't really have any plans or tickets booked for the rest of our trip - apparently train tickets are like gold dust around this time of year because of Diwali. So, panic stricken, we headed off to New Delhi train station; given that we'd been warned about scams and the wait, it was surprisingly straight forward and we walked away with our train tickets to Agra, then Varanasi and then Kolkata only costing us a total of £47! The only catch was that our train to Kolkata is sleeper class which apparently is so bad that even Meera's staff do not travel on - and its 14 hours!! Dear god, that train journey, should be interesting!
With the fuss of the train tickets sorted we headed to our first stop of the day - Humayun's tomb. This place was beautiful, the buildings sublime and it was so peaceful and there was hardly anyone there. Next onto the lotus temple - another enchanting place that encourages all religions to come together, nice idea. Although it's got to be said that we were most definitely the only westerners there, come to think of it we have hardly seen any other westerners; this is great for us but after about the 10 millionth Indian taking our picture it got a bit tiresome - made worse by the fact that they are so indiscreet about it! Back in the Tata and onwards to our next destination Qutub Minar - again, amazing but by this point our little brains was crammed with so much culture it was starting to hurt! So the sight of 2 cute puppies playing on the grass was a welcome sight - Cath, there's a picture especially for you.
Come evening we headed to a well talked about veggie fast food type restaurant called Saravana Bhavan; we had a masala dosi and a rava kirchanda - absolutely no idea what they were but it tasted good. Ad and I practised eating with just the right hand (harder than you think) and Adam got stoked up by several men and a couple of women - much to his delight! I, on the other hand just seem to get ignored - maybe, it's the new very short haircut and they think I'm just a strange looking boy?!
Back at our homestay Meera and her staff prepared us another delicious meal so we stuffed ourselves stupid and headed to bed. As of yet, no sign of the official Delhi belly but I've got to say I am developing a more rounded pouch courtesy of the delectable curries on offer, and I thought I was going to lose weight in India……
Day 3 - Delhi - Wednesday 19th October 2011
More of a culture shock today as we took the rickshaw to Karol Bagh metro station, for 20 rupees (30p) it took us to Chandni Chowk (The Red Fort) with a quick change at Raj'v Chowk (Connaught Place). Now the India metro does have a luxury, just not for me. Soph gets to go in the front carriage which is for women only and very spacious, whereas me and 1000 Indians get jam packed into the rest, I have never been so squashed in my life & the smell…. Wow! Anyway we arrive at our stop and went to the Red Fort, it was amazing and big but after a couple of hours we got a bit bored and decided to spice it up with a 2 hour walk in Old Delhi…… This place is loud, smelly, unforgiving and pretty much as in your face as it gets. After 20 mins we arrived at a Muslim temple which has a huge spiral tower so Soph and I climbed it. We saw great views of Delhi but were completely knackered after so we stayed at the top a tad longer than anyone else!! We then grabbed a rickshaw and went to the spice and cotton markets, the smells were amazing from perfume to fresh jappati's cooking, to sweets being made. Our cycle-rickshaw then took us to a park where Gandhi was rested so shoes off and in we went. There on a black marble slate was a continually burning flame and flowers for Gandhi - few pics and off we went. We hadn't drunk all day and its 33 degrees so we headed to the metro, bought water and a coke plus a juice for a little beggar girl and went home via Connaught place where we saw a park and water fountain! Back at our local station at about 7pm local time so we headed into a local market where Soph bought an India tunic and trousers in blue and gold all for about £13. Then home for the usual - Curry and a beer (me) water (Soph). Up at 5.15 am tomorrow for our train to Agra - Taj Mahal here we come…
Ps. we would/will make the blogs shorter but we just too excited!!!X
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