DELHI ROUND 2

---

DELHI - ROUND 2

We managed to get the train back to Delhi without too much hassle. For a while in the station in Haridwar we thought we might not make it because there was a complete lack of information anywhere at all in the station. We finally worked out the platform, after running around like headless chickens for half an hour and asking about 6 different people!

Delhi, we were pleased to report, was a lot better the second time around when we knew what to expect. The people were still a little pushy, but we felt that our feelings and attitudes towards the situations had altered slightly, and as a consequence we didn't seem to keep people around us for as long. They could maybe sense that we didn't want a Rickshaw, or to buy underpants, or to have our ears cleaned at that particular time, and for that reason they were not as persistent with us. We had perhaps lost that innocent “wow” first time traveller look from our eyes!

The hotel that we stayed in Delhi was amazing. For our last night there we decided to treat ourselves to a night in the five star Metropolitan Hotel. I have never stayed in a five star hotel before! As we pulled up in our Auto Rickshaw with our backpacks, the gate staff got a bit of a shock! It was a real treat for us to get a proper scrub, especially as Robbie had bites everywhere.

We also saw a few more of the sites that we'd missed the first time around. These included the Jantar Mantar, which was amazing, and consisted of strange red concrete structures that rose out of the ground at peculiar angles and kind of resembled a skate park, and the National Zoological Gardens, which were as hot as a vindaloo, but we did get to see some rhinos and a white tiger. We also seemed to be one of the rarest species in the zoo that day, and kept catching people videoing us. One man was not too happy when Robbie growled at him like a camp tiger! We also found the National Gallery of Modern Art, which was pretty impressive and we even managed to blag student discount there! Delhi managed to win us over by giving us a really good nights sleep (apart from both having a bought of the infamous Delhi Belly). We were both happy with our second visit to Delhi after the first had been such a difficult experience and despite us both secretly dreading going back there we had a really good time!

---

Comments

[Raman]

hi there
hi, I'm a design student and an architect here in India and I'm researching on the problems that tourists face while finding there way in Indian Cities. Please mail me your comments, ideas, observations on this. I'm based in Delhi and this research is for the improvement of signage systems in the city. Thanks Raman