Not much to do in Delhi

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We were apprehensive coming into Delhi. Was this going to be the biggest slum in the world outside San Paulo? As our super express train halved its speed from 20 mph to 10 mph we saw the piles of rubbish with men, women and children scavenging amongst them. We were then met at the station by the now usual mass of hassle and taxi/tuk tuk drivers. After a lot of argument we agreed 200 rupees (£2.50) and off we went to our hotel, which the taxi driver said he knew well. We were pleasantly surprised to find that Delhi is quite modern, smooth, wide and relatively quiet roads. Of course, the roundabouts still brought out the madness of all the drivers, who often go the wrong way round as it is quicker, and the noise of the horns can be deafening. Now, as you might guess the driver could not find our hotel and got more and more angry as he looked up and down streets asking other drivers who also did not know and only after at least 7 near fatal misses did we eventually arrive at our destination.







That night we walked to Connaught Place, a massive roundabout with shops of all types in the centre (even a Marks & Spencer). We took a cycle/rickshaw back for 30 rupees (37p). We were apprehensive about using these and it seemed demeaning to be taking advantage of a boney, skinny old man pushing and cycling along whilst we sat there so he can earn 30 rupees; however, we consoled ourselves in the knowledge that we are probably being ripped off and otherwise he would not be able to feed his family at all. Anyway in most cases we gave more.













Sunday we went to see Gandhi’s house and the spot where he was shot dead in his garden. The place was very moving but his house, which is now a museum, was not exciting. Upstairs was mostly turned into gimmicky games for children and downstairs were pictures/story of his life, most of which we had read at his house in Mumbai.







Back we went to Connaught Place and found Costa Coffee, only then to meet more hassle than we have ever had before, except for Luxor in Egypt. It is very difficult to continue to be polite we both have our own ways of dealing with it. Michelle tends to politely argue and Terry to ignore but eventually our patience began to wear out and we are sorry to say that we both failed with people who would not leave us alone.









Not much else did we find worthy of staying in Delhi so early morning taxi for our flight to Amritsa and the Golden Temple

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Photos

Chaiwallah on train
We had often wondered what the tea man looked like on the train so here he is but the tea was far too sweet for us yuk.

In front of the house of Gandhi
Nothing wrong with those knees then.

The street of our hotel
The street was even more dingy than it looks but the hotel was nice.

Traffic jam in Delhi
This was more chaotic than it looks and the noise of everybody using there horn made it difficult to speak. Taken from our cycle/rickshaw.