24 hours later...

Trip Start Mar 07, 2009

Trip End Sep 04, 2009

Loading Map

Map your own trip!

Map Options

Show trip route

Hide lines

Where I stayed

Pooja Palace New Delhi

(New Delhi hotels)

Flag of India New Delhi, India
Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Well we have gotten a lot more comfortable today..it's amazing how quickly you adjust! We had potato curry and jam toast for breakfast..odd combination i know! and then headed to the new hotel to meet our tour group. This hotel isn't as nice as the last one but i could be a lot worse. We are the youngest in our group of 8 and it was quite funny when we realised we couldn't drink with them as the law is 25+ here! Apparently they don't enforce it though. Our group leader seems nice as does everyone and he has a good sense of humour and kept telling us not to expect a lot from this tour or we will be disappointed! Nice!
We went walking through Old Delhi first and immediately noticed how much better it felt to be with someone who knew where they were. There are so many people selling bright things and whole stores of metal stuff or gold paper etc..it is very different to anywhere I have been. At one point, people were emptying buckets of (seemingly clean) water over us from the windows above the narrow streets with the shops and one got me directly on the head.. I was soaked but it was funny and it is so hot it dried almost instantly... not uncomfortaby hot though, it's a nice hot.
We went to visit a big muslim temple first which was massive and had no roof and lots of birds inside and you had to take off your shoes and leave them outside and we were worried they might get stolen but it was okay. They put me in a silly pink long jacket/dress to cover me up even though i had a cardiagan on and only my hands were showing!
Then we went to a gurudwara which was indoors and there was a service going on and they serve free food and let you stay if you want and everyone is equal so they have like doctors and lawyers serving you food! We only had some chai but it was lovely..really sweet and milky and Joe thought it tasted like gingerbread.
The people are very different! When you take a picture they all want to be in in and at one point when we were sitting down in the muslim temple this guy looked like he was taking a picture of us and i looked behind and a whole famil had silently edged behind us to get us in their family photo! How odd! But a very pale lady on our tour said that that keeps happening to her and the tour guide said that's because white is a sign of beauty so they want a picture with her. There are always beggers every few metres and sometimes they follow you but it is strange because its normally kids who smile sweetly to look cute and apparently they are mostly controlled by the mafia! Kids are all really independant here, I saw a kid who was 3/4 if that just walking along on his own stuffing some money in his shirt pocket!!
We went on a tuk tuk on the way back to the hotel and it was crazy..swerving all over the place and beepig all the time!
We have to meet the group at 6 tomorrow morning for the taj mahal trip so can't write anymore

Jaya x

Print this entry

Previous Entry Next Entry

Comments

pamandi on Mar 10, 2009 at 10:00PM

Wicked!
From Dad btw.
Wicked J, im sure its going to be difficult to keep the blog up and I wouldnt want you to do it at the expense of missing anything but ITS GREAT! I feel like im there with you. The sights, sound, heat and colours I can only imagine and it all sounds great. Tell Joe I want to hear from him too as im sure he'll have a slant on everything he sees and the experience for him. Keep it up guys. We love you and are missing you. x.