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Thurs. 19th May...It's been an eventful few days since the last upload..Unfortunately, with Songhi's days being fully occupied with appointments it was difficult to get about and do much sightseeing around Ranikhet...We did take advantage of the extra daylight in the evenings though, with a few forest walks to Col. Ram Singh's house off the main road to the village of Chaubattia..We were also fortunate enough to catch up with his son (also retd. Colonel from 4th. Kumaon) and his family who were up on holiday from the beautiful city of Jaipur.. An invitation to stay with them in Jaipur on our next visit was accepted without too much hesitation..!!!!..
Well, Songhi has decided not to stay with the hospital and continue & progress further with her practice in Australia.."I'm sure we both heard & felt a sigh of relief from a few"..!!!!!.. Our idea is to perhaps return to India once a year for a couple of months during the cooler season when Songhi would like to offer the lesser privelaged and needy her therapy on a totally voluntary basis.. She feels this will give herself much more personal satisfaction & happiness....
We left Ranikhet for Haldwani at 1400hrs. on the 16th. by taxi..Unfortunately, due to reconstruction on a bridge enroute our journey that would normally have taken approx. two hours turned out to be a four & half hour trip with a detour through Corbett Nat. Park...As our onward bus to Delhi was not due to depart until 2230hrs. we were invited to dinner by our good friend Raju Ahuja & family who had also kindly arranged our seat booking on the AC bus...Maybe Songhi & I should have taken up Raju's offer of staying with them overnite as little did we realise that our onward journey to Delhi was not going to get any better...We departed at approx. 2230hrs. and were making good time until 0730hrs. in the morning when we encountered probably our worst traffic jam due to the full moon celebrations on the banks of the Yamuna river...knowing we had a train to catch from New Delhi to Amritsar at 1400hrs. we were initially not too concerned with only 90kms. to Delhi...Having only moved five kms. in four & a half hours we decided to call and cancel our train booking which was fortunately refundable, less 10% of the full fare..We finally arrived in the searing heat of 44degs. in Delhi at 1530hrs. and feeling a little worse for wear decided to check in to the "Residency Inn" in Gurgaon for a freshen up & rethink of schedules...After almost two days of failed attempts to rebook our train to Amritsar we have now resigned ourselves on the decision to stay in Delhi and catch up with friends & family here, including taking the opportunity to see some sights we missed out on when we were here last... The Delhi metro system has certainly made a huge beneficial difference for the tourist & locals.It's probably the most economical, fast & definitely the cleanest way to travel around the city & it's suburbs...On Wednesday we shopped for gifts in Connaught Place & the underground Palika Bazaar to get away from the 40deg. dry heat...It was also great to catch up with friend Pankaj Dhyani & his family for dinner at their house in Dhwarka...As luck would have it, Nithin & Razni were down from Almora & on their way to spend their honeymoon in Manali, so it gave us the perfect opportunity to see them once again before we return to Australia.....
Wed. 25th.May...Well at least the cancellation of our trip to the city of Amritsar has not been in vain...Even though the Delhi heat has been around 40degs. most of this week, it has not stopped Songhi and I from getting out & about to see some of the sights...We are experts at travelling on the metro now and apart from the fact of it being extremely economical (The equivalent of around 80cents Aus. is probably the maximum fare) it gives you the chance to travel in air conditioned comfort and away from the hustle & bustle of the crazy city traffic....After an overnight storm on Saturday, Songhi & I joined the thousands of "Delhites" on Sunday and took advantage of the cooler spell with a visit to India Gate and the Parliament House & gardens...Built in 1931 India Gate is a 42mtr. high free standing arch at one end of Rajpath and stands in memory of all the 90,000 Indian Army soldiers who died in World War 1... We walked on through Janpath to Connaught Place before catching the metro at Rajiv Chowk for Huda City Centre which is the nearest station to our guest house in Sector 29 in Gurgaon...
For a change from indian food we both decided to give the local chinese restaurant "Chin Chin's" a try and though a touch more expensive from what we had got used to we were certainly not disappointed, or were we just too hungry ????...On the topic of food, Song & I have enjoyed a great variety of indian cuisine and have both fortunately been saved from the dreaded "Delhi Belly" on this second trip back to India..Obviously it is always best to stay wise & cautious, especially in this heat...Unless you dine at popular and higher end restaurants it is not worth the risk with eating any sort of meat or game, and we have been content with staying vegetarian throughout our stay here...The absolute look of surprise and excitement on Songhi's face at the sight of the korean "Gung Palace" restaurant in the locality was enough to walk in and book a table for two....I guess we both need to start building a taste & appetite for the last leg of this twelve month journey when we are with Songhi's family in South Korea...!!!!...The other local restaurant that has been a local favourite and comes highly recommended is "Bikanervala"...with a huge menu that consists of anything from north & south indian food to a variety of tandoori,chaat & thali's, with even a touch of pizza's and chinese...the food is freshly prepared within view and this place is continuosly busy, which is always a good sign..!!..Anyone with a sweet tooth like myself should not bypass the indian sweet corner..just give their "Ras Malai" a try and like Song & I you too will be hooked..Yum..!!!!!..
On Monday we spent the day at Lodhi Gardens with a visit to all the tombs and monuments dating back to the Mughal period of the 15th century, the most popular being Sikander Lodi's tomb which was built by his grandson Ibrahim Lodi in 1517... Humayun's tomb, a three km. walk from Lodi gardens is another fine example of Mughal architecture. It was built by Humayun's wife Haji Begum between 1565 & 1566 in his memory.Set in the middle of a large square garden this magnificent red & white building is said to be the precurser to the Taj Mahal in Agra and is just as spectacular...
26th. to 28th.....On Thursday we purchased a couple of day metro tourist cards for Rs.150 each (with Rs.50 refundable at the end of your last journey for the day)...It's by far the most economical way to get around Delhi now,as the majority of stops are only a short walk to the major sights & tourist spots..Our first stop was Kalkaji Mandir to visit the lotus flower shaped Bahai Temple near Nehru Place....Completed in 1986 and designed by architect Fariburz Sabha, he chose the lotus as a symbol common to the Hindu,Buddhist Jain & Islam faith... There is free entry to anyone who wishes to visit the temple for either prayer or meditation...With the heat in the mid 40's we headed back to Connaught Place (Rajiv Chowk metro stn.) for some lunch...while there we dropped into the New Book Depot and found an english translated copy of the "Mahabharata"...Not having ever read the book myself it was composed many thousands of years ago & consists of all literature that was thought to be worth preserving over nearly thirty centuries...."Happy reading Dana"..!!.... Purana Qila (Old Fort) was our next stop after lunch..Built in 1538 by Emperor Humayun, son of the first Mughal Babur it was the foundation of a city named Dinpanah...the ruins are on a small hill which once stood on the banks of the river Yamuna, though now the river has receded...Legends say this fort marked the site of the Mahabharata heroes, the Pandavas..Excavations recently unearthed pottery dating back to 1000BC and it still stands as another fine statement of that time in history....Our final visit for the day was Safdarjung's Tomb (Jor Bagh metro stn.)...Built as a mausoleum of Safdarjung by the Nawab of Oudh in 1753/54 it's a beautiful complex surrounded by parks & gardens where other smaller pavilions like the Palace in the Woods, Pearl Palace & King's Favourite are situated....The Mughal Dynasty period in India has always been of great interest to me, so this ended a perfect and interesting day with obviously lots of pics...Friday was planned for a fairly relaxed day except for a lunch date with cousins Vikas & Tutsie at our favourite local restaurant "Bikanervala"...Our evening was spent with a few Johnnie Walker Blacks and dinner at the hotel with the owner Abhay Raj....
Saturday, our last full day in India so we sorted out a little packing in the hope we were not going to be carrying any excess for our flight on Sunday morning...we took the metro in to Malviya Nagar and met up with friends Nameeta & Pankaj at Select City Mall (probably the largest shopping mall in Delhi with all the usual big name brands)...All going well though with no definite promises, we hope to get back to India for Nameeta & Pankaj's wedding around the end of this year in Haldwani...another good reason to practice our "Bhangra" moves & enjoy the celebrations of a typical indian wedding...We enjoyed a farewell dinner with Vikas, Tutsie & Dino (unfortunately Dina was away with friends in Nainital) and decided on an early night as we had the taxi booked with Quick Cabs for 0730hrs. in the morning....
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