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Published: June 22nd 2017
Geo: 26.9847, 78.1019
To follow on from the previous blog, we took on New Delhi on Thursday 6th October. Firstly we went to an area called Connaught Place. It was sold to us as a more up market shopping area, however it was more a maze of run down buildings with faeces sprayed up the walls and people sleeping and living in every nook and cranny with the odd glitzy shop plonked in there! We swiftly moved on (after buying a top in H&M!) and embarked upon what we thought would be an easy enough 40 minute walk to India Gate... 2.5 hours later we arrived!
We had read somewhere that India gate wasn't really worth the hassle (and after plodding around for 2.5 hours in the blistering heat after taking a wrong turning you can't help but wonder is anything worth anything anymore!) but when you finally reach the Rajpath and you see the memorial India gate, you don't quite forget that your blisters have joined in holy matrimony and made one giant blister baby or the fact that you really need a wee and there's not a toilet in sight, BUT India Gate was definitely worth the hassle. As with most
of the architecture we have encountered in India thus far, the magnitude of India gate was breath-taking.
As you may already know, Indian people are rather 'starey'. Some of them pluck up the courage to come and ask for a photo with you, especially at landmarks such as this (we can never sit down for too long otherwise they begin to form and orderly queue). When we were at India gate we had quite a few photos taken with various people then when we were on our way out one fella came running up to us. He showed us a printed picture of Sooz and himself and we thought he was trying to sell it to us. Nope! He just wanted to show the picture
that he had paid for and thank Sooz for posing with him!
Once we returned to Connaught place, we thought we would take a stroll in Central Park. This was one of the nicer areas of New Delhi. Central Park New Delhi holds the 2nd largest national flag in the world. It sits atop a 207 foot pole and is 60 foot wide and 90 foot long! Pretty huge!
We were astonished at just how many people were in Delhi. After a bit of research we have found that the greater Delhi area has a population of almost 25 million people! To put that into perspective, London has a population of around 8.7 million. Delhi also has one of the highest population densities in the world at almost 30,000 people per square mile! We felt like we had met every single one of them too! Our time in Delhi was over and despite enjoying our time there we were definitely ready to be moving on!
Friday 7th October we spent learning a few lessons about Indian trains, where to book tickets and how to spend an hour walking around the station trying to find the tourist ticket office. The train journey itself was really pleasant and we arrived in Agra in about 3.5 to 4 hours.
We had every intention of seeing the Taj Mahal at sunrise like every reviewer has advised. However no one wrote that everyone else would have the same idea and we'd be standing in a queue for an hour to get in after rushing to get our tickets at 5:45am!
We eventually got in and despite missing the sunrise over the Taj, well what
do you think?! It's the Taj Mahal! Wow! Not only is it visually incredible, it has an amazing story behind it and even though it had thousands of people in it's grounds, it had an amazing serene atmosphere. It was surprisingly calming. If it wasn't for the heat or the fact that we had to check out of our hostel and we hadn't packed, we probably could have sat there all day meditating, people watching and chilling out.
Last on the list for Agra was Agra Fort. Again, breath-taking architecture amazing and a fantastic view of the Taj Mahal. We then got the train to Jaipur. We've spent the day relaxing today in Jaipur and will 'hit the sights' tomorrow!
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Barry Cahill
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Thanks Susie and Phillip for your fantastic blog, its lovely to hear and see where you have been. It really sounds like you are having a wonderful experience. all good here just back from Malaga and celebrating Tim,s birthday and retirement
, we had a great time. Keep up the blogs, take care Love Barry