Delhi

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Nothing can prepare the traveller for Delhi, not Google, not Lonely Planet and not even other traveller's stories. We understood it would be noisy, chaotic and colourful but the degree to which these adjectives were appropriate was certainly understated. In just two days we visited sites from the north of Delhi to the south and thoughts of driving ourselves were very quickly dispelled after one minute on the road outside of our hotel. We were to find out later that the first rule of the Delhi Highway Code is that drivers must consider themselves immortal and that rule number twenty six is "Oh! and look out for pedestrians."

We spent a couple of hours inside the National Museum to try and get an overview of Indian history and culture and even though our research beforehand gave us some idea of the diversity of Indian life, the museum exhibits revealed other aspects not in the guide books. Our next spot was lunch in a local restaurant (pictured) where we didn't have a clue what was in the meals and took a calculated guess, as when we asked the waiter for advice his one response was "Yes" accompanied by much head nodding. With Shirley's averion to chilli and the indian's predilection to add it (when is enough, enough) to many meals we were bound to end up in trouble and we did. Shirley may have to live on copious amounts of naan bread. The restaurant was packed and we knew we were in a different culture when a young boy peed on a neighbouring table. Among the highlights of our first day was to visit Agrasen Ki Baoli (pictured). This 14th century step well was once set in rural land but is now surrounded by a commercial district and is unknown to most Delhiites. One hundred and three steps descend to the bottom -I counted them.

The next day we were accompanied by a guide and without his guidance we would have missed out on so much. We visited the Red Fort, Jama Masjid, India Gate, Rajpath and Humayun's tomb but a real surprise was a rickshaw ride down Chandni Chowk, 'the busiest street in India'.Words cannot convey the absolute chaos of this street as hundreds of rickshaws, pedestrians, holy cows(!), dogs and carts pulled by donkeys or pushed by men jostled for what available space there was. Surprisingly, forward motion was possible and we eventually ended up in the largest spice market in Asia. We finished the day in a Sikh Gurdwara (temple) where priests chant from 3.00am to 10.00pm and the whole service is telecast around the world so far flung members can take part. Attached to the temple is a kitchen that feeds 40,000 people a week-at no cost.

Jodhpur is our next port of call

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