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Published: October 17th 2017
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A misty start, can't even see Gibraltar After a misty start to the morning of our flight out of Gibraltar I was worried we might get diverted but even the EUR 200 each offer to bump us off the flight due to overbooking didn't stop us from getting the connection and making it to Delhi on time. The E visa on arrival process was a bit random with one queue forming and all the english joining it then a splinter group went off to another desk but we missed the boat on that one and finally another queue seemed to form and we did join that one which proved a good move as this queue moved really quickly and we were out and meeting our driver on time.
I was expecting immediate chaos on arrival at the airport but Delhi was well organised and sadly Westernised ( i even spot a costa coffee), first impressions were it was much more like Singapore than Bangkok. The drive to the hotel was along three lane highways and as we approached the area of our hotel it seemed to be a leafy suburbia full of very large and imposing government style buildings. Not the Delhi i was expecting thats for
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Description of the temple sure. We did see a some of the poverty we were expecting, a few areas where people were living on the streets.
Arriving at the Meridien it is clear that safety is a big issue and our driver had to open both the bonnet and the boot and we enter the hotel through a metal detector with the bags also being screened. The hotel is lovely and we are able to check into our room very early which we manage to get on the 11th floor with a view to India Gate. I think Amit might have had an influence here with his nephew so thanks for that.
After a quick shower we start a sight seeing tour and visited a temple which appeared to be dedicated to animals and there were a variety of animal statues everywhere including elephants, tigers, crocodiles and monkeys. There was lovely music coming from inside the temple and the grounds were very peaceful to walk around.
Next stop the red fort, Sandeep our driver leaves us at the parking and we make the mistake of not taking the moto rickshaw ride which would have cost 10 rupees (85 rupees is £1)
and walk to the ticket office which ends up being a long walk in the heat. When we arrive at the ticket office there are loads of people and its difficult to see where to go so we first are in the queue for the toilets then we end up in the women only ticket queue and finally get ushered over to the foreigner queue. This queue is the shortest of all but we do end up paying about 10 times as much as the indian price a whopping 500 rupees! When we pick up the audio guide the man tells us we are the first from Gibraltar.
As we walk around the fort I start to feel people are staring at me, there are very few Western tourists and I notice the men are staring so I put my scarf on even though i am dressed quite modestly. This doesn't stop the staring and I see that they are also staring at Shenton so I guess we are just a novelty. I get asked to be in a few peoples photos and politely refuse but in the end a woman just sits down next to me and her
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Monument to something.... friend takes our picture, all very odd!
The red fort and grounds are very impressive and huge and by the end we are ready to have a rest but we get convinced by a rickshaw driver to take a tour around the market as he says it quiet today! This is now the India I was expecting there are people, cars, and rickshaws all around us, all honking their horns and trying to get on. Our driver says his rickshaw is a Delhi helicopter which proves convincing as he seems to make easy work of getting passed everything compared to the maddening mayhem of all other vehicles. He takes us on a tour and finds a couple of material shops for me to look in and of course I have to buy a few bits, while Shenton sits back and drinks a dubious drink that was made on the street, he says he is not concerned with avoiding eating and drinking anything that is generally available. He said that once before I remind him, and he ended up sh..ting the bed and sitting on the toilet for a whole day, I believe he read the best part of War
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Great lotus position and Peace while sitting there. Quite apt really, or should I say crap. After an hour I am seriously flagging so we head back to our driver and after a pit stop at India Gate we head back to the hotel and manage to catch the tail end of the Sunday Brunch which was delicious, but the fat girl inside of me is really struggling to pop out into the world again, so I eat way too much food.
After lunch we read by the pool, which was really cold and refreshing, before we head out again to Connaught place to try and find a music shop Shenton was looking for, where they have been making musical instruments for over 150yrs. We end up getting side tracked again and take a moto rickshaw to a government shop but they only have one sitar, "sitting there" and nothing else. By the time we find the place we want its closed so we have a wander to find a bar for a drink. The first bar we go to was more like a some plastic nightclub back in the day back home, loud shiny with chrome and mirrors everywhere, we had
to take a lift up to the 'cafe' club, and once there the people running the place really wanted us to stay showing us a room we could use that was nice and "quiet", a room for smoking as it turned out, we didn't stay and got out of there to find a more sala tranquilo. Don't worry I am not trying to show off my limited Spanish, its just that the next place we went into, we did so because Shenton noticed the huge sign outside that said, Cervesa and Tapas. Here was a Spanish place, nice and quiet and ready to serve us beer, except they didn't serve any Spanish beer or tapas, inside they had a huge mural of a bull fight and a pueblo, but that was the extent of the Spanish on offer.
We get back to the hotel by 10.30pm and are impressed by staying awake all day we are really living la vida local then :-) This blog is being published from Rishikesh with very limited internet so photos will follow later....
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AmitM
AMIT MALHOTRA
You made History!!!!
Take a bow. First from Gibraltar to conquer the Red Fort. So you finally ended up in Old Delhi (real Delhi) which is a really fun place to be , eat and shop. Its very very busy but full of life (mayhem). But, not all of Delhi is like that. Remember, Delhi is the capital of one of the fastest economies in the world. Capitalism has its own colour. I am not sure which temple you visited that is dedicated to animals. Need to visit that myself on my next trip.