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Published: December 23rd 2004
Delhi, Capital city of India since 1947. We arrived on the 10th of December after a twenty three hour journey. This adventure included three hours on a coach, a walk across the border from Nepal to India, two hours on a 'local' bus (never again!) and finally a seventeen hour train journey.
At the station we decided to save money by walking to the main hotel area, so armed with our increasingly heavy backpacks we walked towards Connaught Place. After about fortyfive minutes, and various disagreements about whether the scale on the map was incorrect or not, or whose sense of direction was best, we eventually arrived at our hotel having saved thirty five pence!
The next morning we spent sight seeing. We visited the Red Fort, which is constructed completely of sandstone. It was completed in 1648 where it was the centre for Mughal power, until the emporor was deposed and imprisoned by his son! We then spent a while visiting another main tourist attraction, 'Pizza Hut', although not as old as the Red Fort, after four weeks of eating dahl baht and curry it was well worth a visit!
That evening we visited India Gate (the
Indian version of Marble Arch), having once escaped the swarms of mosquitoes we decided to save money again and walk back to the hotel, where we once again entered into the debate on whos sense of direction was best.
After Delhi we boarded the train for a three hour train journey to Agra, home to the world famous Taj Mahal. We booked into a hotel and headed off to Taj Ganj, the area that houses the Taj Mahal. We went to the west gate where we were told that the Taj was closed for a visiting VIP but would be open at 1pm. As it was only 11am we decided to see some of the other sites, and we hired an auto rikshaw driver for the rest of the day (for only 3 GBP) and headed off to the 'Baby Taj', Agra's Red Fort and the rear view (also know as the 'student view' as it is free) of the Taj Mahal.
We went back to the Taj Ganj looking forward to seeing the Taj Mahal in all its glory. When we arrived at the east gate we were told that the visiting VIP was running late, and
Beautiful Decoration
Some of the main chambers are decorated with marble inlaid with precious stones and shells.that the gates would be open at 4pm. We waited, and waited, AND WAITED. 4pm arrived and suddenly there was some movement, and we were pushed back up the street and had barriers placed infront of us. Again we waited. Finally at 4.30pm a bus load of journalists went through the gate and we decided to call it a day (as the place closes at 5pm). Perhaps you can come to India and not see the Taj Mahal after all! Still all was not lost as we had a really good curry that night!
The next day we boarded another train heading to Bombay which arrived twenty three hours later.
Bombay is unlike any other Indian city we had experienced. The city is the finacial capital of India, and for the first time we saw expensive cars being driven round the roads alongside bright red double-decker buses. It is very obvious from the moment you step onto Bombay's clean streets that it is home to India's wealthy, beautiful and glamorous people. On the reverse side of things it is also home to some of the largest slums in the whole on the country.
We checked into the
aptley named hotel 'Volga II' and went for a walk, we just turned the corner when we bumped into Adam, who we had left nursing a bad blister at the hot springs in Tatopani (Nepal).
We spent the next couple of days wandering arount Bombay marvelling at the colonial architecture, the frantic markets and fantastic strawberry juice at Leopolds cafe/bar before booking our bus ticket to Goa where we were hoping to spend a couple of weeks relaxing over christmas. Ho Ho Ho!
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