"did we stay in Delhi too long??"

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Delhi Day 3 & 4

Old Delhi really had awoken us to the overloading nature of this massive city. So we decided we would head south to the newer parts of Delhi, all high rises and tree lined avenues. We first went to a 17th century 'observatory' called Jantar Mantar (literally meaning mathematic calculation). it was a park filled with crazy shaped structures which at first meant nothing, until our forced-upon guide told us what each structure was built for. One was to show the time in 5 places across the globe, one was to tell when the summer/winter equinox was, others were for solar and lunar months and for finding the Pole Star. it was a fascinating place. We met several lovely families there, Rhian got asked to pose with a family holding their tiny baby! ha!
After lunch we then decided to walk further south to Delhi Zoo, but somehow this took us two hours through getting lost several times and at one point ending up in this random market which had a row of expensive western designer shops behind it?! The zoo was rubbish. I have absolutely nothing good to say about it. It has loads and loads and loads of deer, 2 rhinos, crocodiles and a white tiger which was shut away. Hmm.
However, next door to the zoo was a fort called Purana Q'ila which was a beautiful site and made us instantly forget the 'zoo'.
A long walk beckoned for us to get back to the hotel... we walked some of it, past India Gate at sunset which was pretty special. But then we decided to go for it and got into a tuk-tuk having haggled the price at the roadside. it was a fantastic experience and we use them all the time now!

Day 4 started late as we may have slept in a bit too long.. our hotel room had no windows and constant air con so we had no idea what time of day it was! we wanted to go to see Humayuns tomb as the lonely planet guide said if you do nothing else in Delhi, see this. so we began our epic trip back southwards past India gate, past the 'zoo' and had to negotiate an 8-carriageway flyover... but my god was it worth it. The tomb was a stunning building having been restored 4 years ago (some still ongoing). It was the inspiration for the Taj Mahal and it's easy to see why! We spent some time there just chilling out before heading back to connaught place for some dinner (it may or may not have been Pizza Hut...)
We have both gotten used to the frenetic way of life in Delhi, sort of. The amount of people no longer phases us, and we worked out how to fend off touts (pretend you're French!!!) the pollution is one thing you can never get used to. You can't see the sun properly because of the haze of smog in the atmosphere, it clogs your lungs and you can't take a proper deep breath without dust coming on in to join the party in my lungs.
Our trip to the station at 5am on Saturday was amazing, Delhi is a different place at that time of the day, eerily silent of car horns and rickshaw bells. The, apparently only, departures board was broken, but a random old guy saw us puzzled and told us platform 2, where we waited for 45 minutes for the train. Once it had pulled up, this smartly dressed guy walked up to us and asked to see our ticket, he looked genuine so we showed him our e-ticket print out and he said that we needed to exchange this for an actual ticket at the foreign tourist bureau (which i'd spotted just inside the station entrance). He then said that this was closed an we needed to go to Connaught place to the 24 hour branch. At this point I asked for his ID which he unfolded and flashed at us. But crucially he wouldn't let me look at it, at which point we thought 'good effort mate but not this time. Funnily enough we were ok all along, our e-ticket was perfectly valid!! It's guys like that that do a disservice to Indian people on the whole. Idiot. Train ride was perfect other than that! :-D
Next stop, Jaipur!

In answer to the title of this blog, yes we did on reflection, 2 days would have sufficed but you live and learn and to be honest we wouldn't change it if we could. Delhi has prepared us for urban India more than any other city could (I imagine). So for that we are grateful for our over ambitious plans and it will stand us in good stead for the rest of our time here an across the continent!

G & R
xx

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