Blogs from Delhi, National Capital Territory, India, Asia - page 38

A Word Association to tingle your senses India Charming Alluring Finding the shrine in the everyday in the taxis, hotels, tuktuks Temples Cows everywhere Shit everywhere Hungry packs of Dogs everywhere Food So good Crowds, alarming, uncontrolled, crossing the street?: watch out! Traffic rules...cute idea. Bike rickshaws with strong-legged men Colours: orange (my favourite), yellow, green, turquise, red Saris on the women All kinds of clothing Muslims in white Brahmans with head-wrappings Filth, on every level possible Slow computers Fast talking, "hello, where you from? what's your good name?" Money, money, money, all they want is my money Tender, sweet 12 year old boy helping me Man pulling over his car to give me directions Food food food yummm... absorbed in goodness brown skin I stand out Eyes on me all eyes on me Water purifier ... read more

Having left Pushkar, we made our way back to Ajmer to see several temples before our afternoon train back to Delhi. Unfortunately our taxi driver from the bus station to the first temple (actually it was a mosque) on our list decided to take us to a different mosque. Unable to decipher what the taxi driver's head nods in response to our questions meant, we headed off to see the mosque in front of us. We'd forgotten our headscarves and, rather fed up with the hundred people swarming around us trying to sell us new ones, and unimpressed by the mosque's facade (I know you should never judge a book by its cover, but in this instance we did), we decided to cut our losses and head over to a Jain temple we wanted to see ... read more

Ok, so 2 years on and I'm back in India. I always promised I'd come back to finish off my last trip. For those who don't know the last one ended in St Thomas's hospital , London,being treated for giardia and Salmonella paratyphi...probably due to my far-too-intimate knowledge of the inner workings of the Indian toilet system ( see last blog!) So, back into Delhi, it seemed appropriate that the first place I should visit would be the Sulabh International museum of toilets. I know, I know, strange place to visit, and obviously a way off the tourist trail as my driver drove 15 miles trying to find something 3 miles away from the hotel ( then tried to charge me for excess mileage- typical India!) . Anyhow,' this just has to be seen', I thought. ... read more

I wasn’t going to write again so soon, but its 1am on the night of my birthday and I’m feeling very smiley so I thought I’d share it with you all. Thank you everyone for all your messages in various forms. I started my day by opening the cards and presents you sent which was completely lovely, I also got lots of lovely emails during the day. Bless you all. Today’s Bengali class was uncharacteristically successful and my teacher also bought me a present. How gorgeous is that? VSO invited me to a special birthday lunch today with all the staff in the office. We had a gorgeous meal of all my Indian favourites and felt really spoilt. After Thali they produced this amazing cake on which they even scribed my name - I was so ... read more

So, end of week 2; time for me to regale you with yet more minutia of my world in Delhi. The joy with writing this blog is that I don’t feel I have to restrict myself to only the things that are interesting. You are all so different, it would be impossible to say what was universally interesting and so rather, I get a licence to rant onwards to my heart’s content. Indeed, I can write what I find interesting and let you decide for yourselves. Happily, Saturday saw the last of my ailments. So I was actually only ill for about 36 hours proper. All bar two of us have now been ill, many for upto a week so I’m counting myself lucky. I’ve now managed to strike a balance with the food. I’m having ... read more