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Published: January 3rd 2007
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Hi guys,
Sorry for the delayed posting, but the internet was down in Delhi and this is the first chance we've had since leaving. I think we left it that we were waiting to find out about our hotel. Basically the outcome (after some deliberation) was that we got moved back to our original hotel, Sun City. Despite having a smaller room, overall the hotel was nicer and a lot quieter, which was a result.
The 30th and 31st were spent visiting the sights in Delhi. The Red Fort was pretty impressive from the outside but there wasn't too much to do inside, although it was a nice shelter from the chaos of Old Delhi. From there we fought our way through the rammed streets to Jama Masjid (the largest Mosque in India). We both thought it was pretty awesome and the views from the nearly 150ft minaret were amazing albeit very scary! From there we went on to Humayun's Tomb where we sought sanctuary in the stunning grounds and chilled out for a couple of hours. The tomb itself was designed by the same man as the Taj Mahal. On the 31st we visited the Spice Markets in
Old Delhi (although most of it was closed) and also Chandni Chowk (another market). It was all a bit too hectic there for Dani, so we didn't stay too long but instead headed off to the Qutb Minar, a victory tower over 200ft tall and nearly 1000 years old. Again the grounds here were pretty stunning and we spent most of our afternoon here relaxing and photographing chipmunks! In the evening, we headed into Connaught Place as this was supposed to be the place to be (excuse the pun!). But in fact it was a bit of an anti-climax. There was nothing really going on, just a rabble in the street going mad in front of the tv cameras. I swear I've seen the same footage in a Baghdad news report. We went to Pizza Hut for dinner (we had had Indian the previous night!) and then went on to a bar/restaurant for a massively over priced beer. We killed time until midnight when we ventured back onto the street to be mobbed by hundreds of little Indian men wishing us Happy New Year and trying to kiss Dani. Strangely enough there weren't many other white people around...although we did
see one couple who we ended up chatting with though they beat a hasty retreat when the mob arrived!
On the 1st we headed back into Connaught place to pick up a few necessities (Mc Donalds!) and visited an underground Bazzar where Dani bought some bangles. The evening was spent relaxing in our room with room service (a mix of Indian dishes) that were delicious!
Yesterday we caught the train from Delhi to Jaipur (sounds easy but believe me its not!). We were supposed to catch a train just after one but actually boarded just before four, us having arrived at the station about half 11 (just to be on the safe side). Nobody seemed to have any idea what platform we were supposed to be on (and there were 18 of them!) but we got there in the end and the journey itself was quite good. We arrived in Jaipur just before 10. After our experienced with hotels in Delhi, we were quite keen to look around before we booked anywhere, although we had an idea about the area we wanted to be in. The first few we tried were fully booked but we soon found somewhere,
The Gayatri, that's half decent although a little expensive. We were even lucky enough to get some room service, which again was very good. Despite being absolutely shattered, we managed to stay up and watch a little of the cricket highlights and then (Dani fell asleep) I watched Arsenal v. Charlton and then a bit later the Ashes (better tv than we'd have at home!).
Today, after a nice lay in, we ventured out onto the streets of Jaipur and were pleasently suprised to find a bustling city with a nice atmosphere helped by the well laid out streets and impressive Mughal architecture. First off we visited the City Palace which was quite interesting, especially the armoury(!).....they've got some seriously nasty pieces (daggers that open up like scissors once inside!). From there we plodded across the road to the Jantar Mantar, an 18th century observatory with an assortment of strange looking instruments/statues used, not suprisingly, for calculating eclipses etc. Next stop was the Hawa Mahal (after a quick stop to photograph monkeys strolling around the shops!) a palace built for the ladies of the Royal household to people-watch from - it's more impressive than it sounds and there were some amazing views of the fort (which we intend to visit tomorrow) from the top.
Hopefully tonight we're gonna head to the OM restaurant - 'a rocket shaped tower with a splendid, glitzy and emphatically vegetarian revolving restaurant at 56m' (Lonely Planet - India). Dani's very excited - but she doesn't know that we're just gonna have soup of the day!! We'll let you know how we get on.
We're running out of time so will try and get some photos on here tomorrow.
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