We decided to ease ourselves into Delhi on our first day by starting with Connaught Place. We weren't overly impressed by it in all honesty, just some shops in a circle and no street names so you didn't know how to get back out! We also had several 'helpful' guys trying to show us where the 'official' tourist office was - given they didn't even have a map of Delhi, we weren't convinced that they were official!
We also visited India Gate and the Government buildings. They were more impressive and it was actually relatively calm while we were there (though I have a feeling it was because we were the only numptys who decided to go during the heat of the day!). There was a large police presence and people didn't seem to be allowed to flog us stuff so it was quite nice to wander around. We also had our first glimpse of the monkeys! They had clearly made themselves at home in the Government buildings!
As we thought 'India's not as manic as they say', we hit Old Delhi the next day. Oh my days, what a difference that was! Just getting out of Chandni Chowk metro station was an experience! It opened up straight into a market with tiny alleyways and people EVERYWHERE!!
We visited the Red Fort where we paid 25x the price that the locals did (still only £2.50!) but could then queue jump to get out of the glaring sun! Inside, the buildings were restored nicely and the grounds were fairly well kept but the you could see them burning rubbish piles behind the buildings! It was very odd... There was also a museum of India's struggle for freedom which was interesting, and also had some odd paintings...
After that we attempted the find the Jama Masjid (largest mosque in Delhi). We wandered in its general direction through cars, motorbikes, rikshaws, tuk tuks, stray dogs, cows and above all goats. HUNDREDS of goats. After negotiating all of this for about half an hour and constantly hitting a building site where we needed to turn, we remembered it was Eid and all of those goats were probably about to be sacrificed... We decided we didn't really need to see that and headed back to the hostel!
Getting the metro back from Chandni Chowk was an experience all over again! Thankfully we managed to find the concealed entrance again (mostly by being swept up in the wave of people) but then there was the security check... All metro stations in Delhi subject you to a bag scan, metal detector and frisk, so you can imagine it would take a while in a busy station. The men had 5 queues, the women had 1!!! Kirren had to queue for at least 15 minutes (she tried to push in Indian style but when people in front of her doing the same got a major telling off she scurried to the back of the line again lol! Who knew Indians queued?!).
After 2 days of sightseeing and the beginnings of Delhi belly for Kirren, we thought we deserved a day of chilling in the air con in our hostel! We went to watch a Bollywood movie ('Haider' based on Hamlet) in a local shopping centre with a few guys from the hostel. Given it started at 11pm, we only made it to the intermission before giving up and going home as Andy had already fallen asleep!
The next day we joined our tour group once we worked out where our hotel was! Our group is almost entirely English! Everyone seems pretty nice, though a bit shy. Hopefully they'll perk up a bit as we get to know each other! There are 2 of us who are Indian but live in England and it seems we both keep having the same conversation with locals:
Local: where are you from?
Me: England
Local; but your FACE looks indian..?
Me: (trying not to crack up) yes I'm punjabi...
The next morning we had an early morning train to Agra which was very pleasant compared to our transsiberian trains! Andy also witnessed the local morning toilet rituals alongside the railway for the first time!
We spent the morning in Agra Fort which was a cool building and got our first glimpse of the Taj Mahal. The Taj Mahal itself was absolutely stunning. Andy and I were both mesmerised by it. We took the obligatory selfies outside it and then we decided to cause trouble - we wanted to take a photo with a banner saying 'happy 40th birthday bob' but apparently banners aren't allowed! A man confiscated our banner and tried to take us to an 'office' on our own - we refused to go without our tour guide who said we needn't bother going back as they just make up rules as they go along! We reckon he was going to try and 'fine' us... Ah well, we tried Bob!
Agra was also the start of Andy's celebrity lifestyle... Everywhere we went the locals would want a photo with the tall blonde white man - so we decided to take photos too!
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