Aligarh to Delhi

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Geo: 27.8938, 78.0681

After going to bed at 2.30, (well I did, Clint went a lot earlier) we were up at 6am, a long day ahead of us, travelling back to Delhi today. Luckily I had packed up almost everything last night, there wasn't much really to pack. Clint woke up, still popping the pills to hopefully make him feel better. We checked out of the hotel and waited for Shymal, our driver, to collect us. He was working on Indian time, but he wasn't too late! After we jammed all our luggage in the rear of the car, we were off back to Delhi. Hanh and Thanh are flying out today and need to be at the airport by 11.30am. Clint and I are going back to the same hotel we first stayed at in Delhi, the Golden Grand Hotel. Not much happened along the way, we kind of all slept a bit, apart from hopefully our driver Shymal!!!
Back into to Delhi, we arrived at the airport in time, and we said our farewells to Hanh and Thanh, such a blast we've had with them! Lucky they only live just out of Brisbane, we'll be able to catch up easy. Shymal, our driver, then drove us to our hotel, and stayed with us until we checked in. We said our farewells to Shymal, and then he left us. We had a short time in our room rearranging our bags, and then we went out across the road to the local shops, (crossing the road, we just shut our eyes and walked!!!!)
We went right up to the next Metro station and then crossed back over the road and down a side street to more local shops, not going too far as we may have needed to dash back to the hotel for a toilet stop!! The state of the road we went down was like we were in the middle of a war zone, it was a dirt road, full of potholes and looked like there was bitumen there at some stage, but had all been ripped up, cars were trying to pass each other with only centimetres to spare, even found a dog sleeping on the roof of a car, must be less dirty and definitely safer! We found a menswear store and ordered a shirt to be made for our friend, it will be delivered by 9pm they say, so paid for it and we left.
A quick trip back to our room, we then went the opposite way up to the next Metro station, by now Clint was feeling hungry so we went into a burger shop so he could eat. We kept wandering this side of the road before crossing the road and exploring the other side. We found little bits and pieces to buy, including little snack packets of savoury Nibblies to take back home. We meandered through the many laneways, some only 1.5metres wide, and still there was motorbikes zooming in and out! There were many little rooms with people sewing clothing, some were only as big as a bathroom.
We received a phone call from Praviin wishing us a safe trip home, but most of all he was ringing to check on Clint's health, he was happy to hear Clint had been eating today, always caring for us!
We went back to our room for a small rest (like 5 minutes) and then went to the street nearby and ordered Indian takeaway!! On the way back, we went past an ice cream shop where we bought Matku Kulfi, a traditional Indian ice cream, made from reduced full fat milk, flavoured with cardamom or saffron, and then these were topped with almonds and served in a little terracotta pot for 50 rupees ( $1.00)
We ate back in our room, both meals were quite spicy, although I only had vegetable biryani (rice). The ice cream was really nice, but that just topped me off!!
We made sure we had everything packed up ready for the morning as we had to leave by 6am for the Airport, Clint went to bed, and I waited for the delivery of the shirt that was being made, then getting delivered to our hotel, I waited in the lobby, calling the man a couple of times, he too was running on Indian time, only 2 hours behind schedule, but at least he arrived! I checked the shirt while he was there, all good, and then went to our room to crawl into bed!

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