Delhi Hotel & Tour

So on the way to our hotel we stopped off at Chaudran's office to drop him off and pick up the very helpful and beautiful Taraful! I forgot to mention that it was absolutely bucketing it down with rain in Delhi, worse than Manchester when we left! As a being from a UFO arriving Delhi you'd be forgiven for thinking they still have to invent waterproof clothing there, also shoes suitable for muddy puddles. The thing is the rain disappears and it warms up so fast you don't need either of those things really. Anyway Taraful was in charge of all the important paperwork, things like hotel vouchers (which no-one seems to ask for!) and train tickets. As we made our way to the Haveli Hauz Khas Hotel, in a very quiet side street, she gave us a smart hessian folder each with everything in, including the itinerary we organised with Graham at Ellison Roberts (they sorted everything we asked for and a bit more!). Eventually we made it there and met Naveem, our guide for the Delhi tour, he'd been waiting for us because that interesting traffic and weather had made us a bit late. We checked in quickly, dumped our bags in the very lovely rooms, having a quick wash and brush up. Still running on that cat nap, having missed a whole nights sleep we embarked on a tour of the city. It seems the only things that don't get honked at on the roads are cows (yes that seems fair as they're sacred) and dogs, even when they're in the middle of dual carriageways drivers skilfully swerve around them silently.

We drove by lots of sights in the pouring rain, The Red Fort, Raj Ghat where Gandhi was cremated, the colonial tree-lined avenues designed by Lutyens, lots of colonial bungalows, Parliament House, the War Memorial Arch and the Vice Regal Palace. It really was too rainy to get a good pic! Then we were dropped off by Tomasan our driver to explore the streets of Chandon Chowk including the spice market, this is lots of little alleys which house the whole of human life in a nutshell. We got quite wet and my feet were ridiculously muddy (like everyone else's). Naveem seem to think it his responsibility to give us the complete authentic experience which involved walking on the road, navigating Tuk-Tuks and cars , warning them off running us over by giving their vehicle a quick palm slap! The weather began to improve and we saw some amazing things, street food cooked under a brolly, barber in a gutter and bull with a cart in the middle of the city. Lots more pics of Delhi come! I have to make 40 pages so that I can order a printed book of this blog!! The pics are taking some adding on the wifi here in India so check back to see more later.
The last place we visited was the spectacular Humayun's Tomb, the Taj Mahal was copied from this apparently. It's a bit smaller than the Taj and more colourful, if you're going to Delhi I wouldn't miss it! Then we went on to the Lutyens Bar for a lovely meal and a nice beer/gin and tonic. This was to be my last drink for a good while as in the morning we were getting up to go to Uttarakhand, a teetotal vegetarian state in the north of India. When I say veggie, it's no meat, fish etc. like a usual veggie but also no eggs. Cheese is OK though, but just to say they only have one sort it seems, paneer! Thankfully I love paneer!