Diverse Delhi

It has been an emotional few days in Delhi.

We had essentially two and a half days in Delhi before the tour started and we got some direction, and fending for ourselves went pretty badly. Travelling Delhi independently can be exhausting, frustrating, exhilerating and overwhelming. Today, with the tour guide, we discovered the joys and inexpensiveness of the metro and good restaurants. That made a pleasant improvement from the masses of dishonest (yes, we will lay it out there) auto-rickshaw drivers (one stopped in a small alley and spent 20 minutes trying to sell us something, then when we refused he got out and looked for a new fare) and security guards ("here, I will give you some false information that you can't understand, now give me my fee"). We parted with a great deal of money in the end and spent hours wandering around unsuccessfully looking for food.

We think we have done a pretty good job of seeing what Delhi has to offer. Obviously we wandered past the monuments ...

And gigantic Mughal tombs ...

We had a large tourist map without a scale on it, so we set off on an awful number of long walks on dusty highways past numerous slums, begger children and scabby dogs without really appreciating how far apart things would be. Rickshaw drivers didn't help by regularly pulling up on the side of the road and lying to us about how far away things were. We can proudly say however that we have been off the tourist track and have thoroughly witnessed the real Delhi.

That was probably the way we saw the most interesting things. There are very few public toilets, so when we came across them photos were in order.

We have also wandered past a number of slums. They have been remarkably close to large government installations and government houses for generals and justices.

There have also been a few amusing signs. "Sham" is a common name, so there are "Sham Tyres" and "Sham Brothers Traders". Keep this firm in mind for your next childrens birthday party.
This morning we went on a guided walk to the city's largest mosque and, very interestingly, a Sikh temple.

The Sikhs are very generous. They run a free canteen for all people of all castes and all income levels. We wandered through their kitchen and Penny had a go at making chapati.



We then toured the local spice market in Old Delhi which was very nice, very cheap and smelt of a magical combination of human faeces, incense, anniseed and burnt samosas ...


We are now off on an overnight train into the wilderness, and then spening two and a half days on small (4-person) boats to float down the Ganges. We may head into the markets tonight to buy a sarong, which will be a DIY toilet screen on and off the boat. Wish us luck.