Taj Mahal Sunrise 1

Taj Mahal Sunrise 1
Originally uploaded by ampr1150gs.

Taj Mahal Arch

Taj Mahal Arch
Originally uploaded by ampr1150gs.

Aidan's Asian Blog

Aidan's Asian Blog
Easy Riding, Delhi to Agra 16th March 06

After being bogged down in Delhi for the last couple of weeks I decided that today was the day I cut loose. I got up early packed my bags and had a bite to eat and got on the road at 08:30. I’m man enough (don’t laugh) to admit that I wasn’t looking forward to the ride after my experience with the rush hour traffic on Monday, and this showed as I took a wrong turn within about five minutes of setting off. I wouldn’t mind, but it was at India Gate where I’ve spent plenty of time recently. But I realised more or less straight away that I’d taken the wrong turn (I should have been on the road I walked down to get to the fly-over). Once I sorted myself out it was fine, there was lots of traffic, but it wasn’t as heavy as the previous time. I’m glad to say that the traffic thinned out after about an hour when I passed Faridabad, and after that it was nearly all plain sailing.

I passed lots of weird traffic on my trip including (in order of appearance); cows, donkeys, bears (5 of them been walked on leads down the side of the road!), camels (two of them pulling carts) and birds of prey (flying above me, not on the road!). The bike was superb, she just purred along. I’ve got to keep her to a max of 60kph as the rebuilt engine has to be run in, but that was still fast enough to keep up with most of the traffic. I stopped after an hour and a half and got some petrol, I’ve no idea what the fuel consumption is like, but after travelling for over 200 kms I only had to put £3 GBP in to fill the tank. The bike gets loads of attention, it’s a classic bike and has been fully restored and is in immaculate condition and other bikers riding by always wave / make conversation (not easy at 60 kph), and when I pulled in for petrol I was surrounded by six workers from the petrol station; I don’t know where they came from as there was only one person on the forecourt when I stopped. I’ve been asked about the bike so many times, how old? How much you pay? You sell?

I’m always a bit apprehensive starting the bike when I stop, as I always have to start the bike with a crowd of locals around me, and I just know that they are all dying to see me fail to start it. I kicked the bike over (the kick start that is and not the actual bike) on the forecourt and it didn’t start. Damn. Check petrol is on, yep. Check ignition is on, yep. Check kill switch is off, Doh! Flick kill switch and kick, yippee, off we go. I rode for another hour and a half and had to pull over for a leak break, I managed to find a side road off the main road. I stopped and got my water out of my bag and had a couple of gulps, no sooner had I done that than two people appear from no where and approach the bike. The stopped when they were about ten feet from the bike and I called out “Namaste”, they didn’t say anything and just stood there looking at the bike. I wasn’t worried about it, but I did subtely take the keys from the ignition and pocket them. One of the lads walked off after a few minutes and the other one stayed until he flagged down a passing bus five minutes later.

The ride into Agra was fairly straightforward, I knew that if I headed toward the river I could follow it down to Agra Fort, which is fairly close to the Taj Mahal. Sure enough it was and I managed to find a guest house more or less outside the entrance to the Taj. There is a great view of the Taj from the roof of the guest house,so I went up and took a couple of quick photos.

It was about 15:30 by the time I’d had a shower and changed, so I took a quick walk to the Taj, I wasn’t going to go in, as they charge an outrageous £10 GBP entry fee, it’s about £0.30 pence for Indians, and it was only open for another three hours. The Taj is closed tomorrow, so I’m going to go across the river and take some photos from the rear and I’ll spend all day Saturday in the Taj.

Aidan's Asian Blog

Aidan's Asian Blog
12th March 06 Delhi

What a morning! Talk about stressful. Let me start at the beginning, 9:00am to be precise. Actually the beginning was yesterday, similar time, same location. My friends arrived from England yesterday so I arranged to meet them at their hotel, which according to my “map” was quite a way from my guesthouse. So I had a bite to eat (used up the last of Vegemite jar No. 1) and jumped in an auto-rickshaw (much to my shame, but there didn’t seem to be an easier way to get there), the driver said that I could pay him what I wanted at the end. No way, arrange fare first. So, I told him that I’d give him 50 Rupee, and he said not enough! We eventually agreed on 70 Rupee and I was surprised that it took is a full half an hour to get there. I’d arranged to meet my friends at 10:00 and I got there a couple of minutes late.

I asked for him at reception only to be told that he wasn’t staying in the hotel. I checked that I had the right hotel and was told that I had, I asked if they had made a reservation and was told that they had, but they were going to be a day late! At least I’d found the right hotel, shame my friends weren’t in it though! I hailed a auto-rickshaw down and decided to collect my motorbike which was finally going to be ready that morning (I hoped), the ba$tard behind the wheel tried to charge me 250 Rupees for a journey I’d done five minutes earlier for 70 Rupees, I started to walk off and he called me back and said 100 Rupees, I couldn’t be arsed haggling over £0.40p so I jumped in.

I got to Karol Bagh and they were just putting the luggage rack onto to my bike, so I hung around for half an hour and then rode into the sunset. Well, sunset isn’t exactly true, especially as it was about 11:30 at the time, and I don’t think the sun would be able to penetrate the permanent smog / pollution hanging over Delhi. I decided to head to India Gate and sit down with a newspaper for an hour on the grass in relative peace. Right! I think I must have had about thirty seconds by myself before I was approached. An elderly gentleman and a very young girl (his grand daughter) started yapping to me, no problem, as they weren’t trying to sell me anything. Turns out that he was taught by the Irish Christian Brothers in Delhi (I thought it was only the Irish who had to suffer!), and he started singing me some Irish songs that I’ve never heard before. Quite surreal.

When he left I was surrounded by about seven kids who started asking me for money, they sat down and they all had their hands out saying “10 Rupees, 10 Rupees”. Then one of them starts opening the zip on my rucksack, so I told them to go and annoy someone else, not that they understood. They eventually wandered off, and I noticed that they didn’t try to ask anyone else for money (I was the only Westerner there). Next I had two teenage girls come a begging, they were well dressed and appeared to be “normal” teenage girls, didn’t stop them trying to get some rupees off me though. Next I had some guy selling crisps, he was quickly followed by some guy selling drinks. Then I had some guy selling some contraption on an elastic band that you shoot up into the air and it “helicopters” down – Do I really look twelve years old? I decided to hit the road, as I wasn’t going to get any peace.

I had to sort out the problem of where to park my motorbike at night. I couldn’t leave it at the place I was staying at as it was down a narrow alleyway and they didn’t have a car park. I found a guesthouse around the corner, which had a bit of space outside their entrance; the good thing about this place was that the receptionist over looked it. I went in and had a look at the room, it was a bit grotty and had a “bucket shower”, i.e. I had to fill a bucket of cold water up and pour it over myself, but it had a TV and Liverpool were playing Arsenal later that evening so I decided to take it. I got chatting to one of the guys in the hotel and he rode an Enfield Bullet as well, and he was asking me lots of questions about the bike, he even offered to buy it in six months time. I got a good feeling about him and I reckon the bike should be save enough there (famous last words).

Which brings me back to the start of the story. I decided to go and see my friends this morning at 10:00, so I had some breakfast (Omelette) and left for their hotel at 09:30, which should have been enough time as I was on my motorbike. I rode down to Connaught Place and found the road that I needed and I sailed past India Gate, so far so good. I rode over the fly-over that I’d walked to a couple of days ago, so I knew that I was on the right track. The traffic was fairly heavy and it was stop start all the way, there wasn’t much space to squeeze through, even though I was on the bike as every other vehicle acted like it was a motorbike and when I say every other vehicle I mean every other vehicle. I’ve never seen driving as bad as what I witnessed this morning, trucks hurtling into the smallest spaces, jumping from lane to lane, forget about indicators (must be optional extras). I came to a train station pulled in to check my position on the map (and to steady my nerves), I was still on course and everything was going according to plan.

That’s where the “according to plan” bit ended though. I had to make a right turn along the ring road and my map told me I had to take the second turn on the left once I was on that road. I think I took the correct turn onto the ring road, as I ground to a halt due to the volume of traffic I hit, and I figure most ring roads are chocker during rush hour. Because the engine and gearbox have just been rebuilt I’ve got to go easy on the bike for the first 500 km and the gearbox hasn’t “settled” yet, which means that it’s difficult finding Neutral gear at times, which is bad news when I’m riding mainly in 1st and 2nd gear and am often at a standstill for three or four minutes at a time. If I don’t find Neutral it means I’m stuck in either 1st or 2nd gear during this time and I’ve got to hold the clutch in, and because the engine isn’t run in it cut out on me numerous times if I couldn’t find Neutral. This was fun as I must have had every car in Delhi (and the surround areas) behind me all beeping at me to go. The bike started first kick most times, but if it didn’t I’d be deafened by the beeping behind me. I felt like getting off and smacking the head off the lot of them! Stress levels were rising.

It was about 10:30 at this stage and I’d somehow managed to get to Nehru Place, which was really close to my friends hotel. I couldn’t find the names of any of the local roads, but I rode around hoping to come across the road they were on. I eventually gave up on this idea as I was literally going around in circles. I then decided to ask one of the “scum” (auto-rickshaw drivers) to lead me to their hotel, as I was desperate at this stage. I managed to flag one down and showed him where I wanted to go on the map. He indicated that I jumped in; I told him that if he can go there I’d follow him on my bike. He refused! I told him that I’d pay him up front, I even offered him 50 Rupees, which was way over the odds as we were so close, but he drove off! I tried this three more times and none of the ba$tards would lead me to my friend’s hotel! I rode around in the slow moving traffic jam for another hour, but eventually gave up. Then I had the fun of trying to get back to my hotel, to cut a long story short, I eventually got back there, it was 13:00! Three and a half hours after I’d left and 35 km’s later! I parked my bike outside my guesthouse and decided to try and find a phone number for my friend’s hotel, easier said that done.

I found their hotel on-line fairly easy, but it took me about ten minutes to locate a phone number for it. Fax number no problem, but I was a struggle to find a phone number. When I eventually found it I asked the guy in the Internet shop if I could use the phone to call local. He told me that I could only call international via the Internet and not locally! I could have screamed… One of the other staff members in there asked me where I was calling and I explained the situation to him. Turns out he studied in London for three years and worked in Hounslow, he let me use his mobile phone to call my friends. I got through to the switchboard and gave them one of my friend’s names and I was put though, so at least they made it! I couldn’t face going to their hotel again, so I’ve arranged for them to meet me in Maccy D’s in Connaught Place – easy place to meet as long as we don’t eat! I arranged to meet them between 14:15 and 15:00; it’s 15:06 now, so hopefully they’ll be able to find it! It’s now 15:25 and still no sign of them! Will this day ever end? Oh well at least there’s air conditioning in here, I wonder how long they’ll let me spend drinking my coke? I’ve done well to stretch it out to nearly an hour!

What else can I tell you? I read in the newspaper today they the police in Pakistan are arresting kite flyers as they have caused twelve deaths in the last two weeks! For some reason (which they didn’t explain) they use glass fibre strings on their kites and when the kite falls from the sky (for some reason they fly the kites near roads) they decapitate motorcyclists going by! There is uproar about this. No, not the decapitations, the fact that they are not allowed to fly the kites! Scores of people defying the ban are getting arrested and thrown in jail. We live in a mad world.

Where are they? What else has been happening? The Holi festival starts on 15th March; this is where everyone one goes around throwing colour powder over each other. There are notices from the Police in the newspapers not to drink drive, have three people on a motorcycle, not to throw powder or water balloons (filled with coloured water) at motorcyclists. There are also adverts for 3.5 litre high-powered water pistols! Should be fun. Memo to self: Keep off motorcycle and protect camera! In some parts of the country the women folk are allowed to hit their men with sticks on the way to the celebrations, unfortunately the men are allowed to wear padding to less the impact of the blows. Teenagers are allowed to elope at this time as well and dozens of couples go missing from their villages during Holi.

And so I waited. I gave up at 16:00 and decided to call my friends mobile to see where they were. Because he has an English mobile, I couldn’t dial from the street phones and the nearest Internet phone that I knew of was over quarter of an hours walk away, so I decided to by an Indian sim card for my mobile. When I bought a sim card in Vietnam it was a two minute process, pay money, insert sim card are bobs your uncle. Not so India. I had to fill in a form and give them a passport photo (my last one), they also copied my passport and Indian visa and wanted to know the address of the hotel I was staying in. They then had to go and input all the information into a computer; the whole process took over an hour.

I finally got to call my friend just after 17:00, he had been waiting in Maccy D’s and had been wondering where the hell I was. Unknown to me there are three Mc Donalds in Connaught Place (good knows where because I’ve only ever seen one) and he’d been waiting in one of the other ones for an hour, he was then told there were two others so he spent half an hour in the second one and got to the third one just after 16:00, we must of missed each other by minutes! By the time I rang him he was off shopping with his missus, so we didn’t actually get to meet up until nearly 19:00! We grabbed a quick drink and we then went off to a restaurant that I know and had a nice dinner there. It was really nice to see some familiar faces and catch up on a bit of news from London.

Oh yeah, I finally got my hands on my new camera! When I got back to my guesthouse, I had a quick play around with it and had a brief read of the instruction manual. I couldn’t actually use the camera though as I had to charge the battery up, so I plugged the charger in and let it charge overnight. I woke up at 05:15 this morning and couldn’t get back to sleep, but the battery had charged by this stage so I fired up the camera and set the time, date etc, but still couldn’t use the camera as I don’t have a lens for it! So I’m sitting here in a camera shop waiting for a lens to be delivered and praying that it’ll work in my camera

Aidan's Asian Blog

Aidan's Asian Blog
Delhi 8th March 06

I got word from England that the 50mm F1.8 lens that I want for my camera is sold out. So I’ve got a top of the range digital SLR arriving on 11th March and the lens I ordered for it is out of stock and won’t be delivered to my address in the UK for at least eight weeks. In the meantime my “stopgap” lens is also sold out! Sometimes I wish that companies weren’t run by fcukwits. If they know that the lenses are selling well, why don’t they make more of them? Is it too much to ask?

I’m a member of a photography forum on the Internet and I posted a question there to see if anyone knew of a shop where I could by a lens in Delhi. I got a reply from an Indian guy who now lives in the US and he gave me a lead and I’m glad to say that I can source the 50mm lens over here, lets just hope my camera arrives safely on 11th.

I went to check up on my motorbike today, it should be ready this week but I decided to see how they were getting on. I was told that it’ll be ready on Friday and that I can come back tomorrow afternoon and watch them put the engine into it and they’ll also give me some tips on servicing (which I’m sure that I’ll need). I was a bit lazy and took the Metro there, it was only two stops and cost 8 Rupees (about 0.10p GBP) although it left me at the wrong end of the town and I didn’t have a clue where I was. It took me about quarter of an hour to find the bike shop and I would have walked there in about twenty minutes from my guesthouse. From there I walked to the camera shop, which was down by the Red Fort and it took me an hour to get there battling through the crowds of cows, tuk tuks, taxis, trucks, cycle riskshaws, oxen driven carts, people pushing and pulling hand carts and swarms of pedestrians. The smells ranged from stale urine, rotten rubbish, traffic fumes, cow sh1t, coffee, frying food, oranges, ginger, garlic, chilli and other exotic spices I can’t name; a real assault on the senses.

I got hassled a couple of times at the bazaar, I decided to make up a new job anytime I’m asked what my job is. I told some guy at the market that I was a bounty hunter and was looking forward to having some fun with him, but his next question was “are you married” and I couldn’t steer him back to my new job. Oh well, I’m sure that I’ll have a bit of fun with that one of the coming weeks.

It was 15:45 by the time I started making my way back to my guesthouse and I happened to pass by a school just as the kids were getting slung out. This slowed down my progress as groups of kids (4 or 5 at a time) kept on coming up to me and making conversation. I had a good laugh with them about the cricket and most of them told me that they were up for England, I told them I was up for India! They were all very nice and well behaved but as soon as one group left me another would be at my side saying hello.

It amazes me how free people here are to dishing out punishment. I rang my sister in Ireland a few days ago and was charged 430 Rupees (over £5 GBP) for the call, which is a big time rip off. When I asked why it was so expensive I was told because it’s international. I told him I knew as Ireland isn’t in India (!), he told me that I’d asked to make a call to Varanessi. I told him that I hadn’t, I’d gone next door to use the phone as it was 5.50 Rupees a minute to UK / Ireland (just over 0.07p) and that there was no way I was going to pay 430 Rupees. Anyway we had a big argument over it and the guy ends up going next door to the person I first spoke to and started shouting to him in Hindi and then he smacks him around the face! A right good clatter he gave him too, I stood there speechless. Yesterday as I was walking to the market some security guard starts whacking one of the cycle rickshaw drivers with a big stick, then further along the market a policeman starts whacking the bonnet of a truck trying to go the wrong way down a street. And we’re talking good solid sticks, not flimsy ones that bend. Note to self: Keep out of way of people brandishing big sticks!

Aidan's Asian Blog

Delhi 7th March 06

I was going through my rucksack this morning and found two small jars of Vegemite, I’d totally forgotten that I’d bought them back in Bangkok, seems an age ago now. I’d never eaten Vegemite until a couple of months ago in Vietnam, I was with Aby and Perdy in a restaurant and they had it on the menu there. To say that the girls were delighted to see it would be an understatement! I managed to blag a taste of it from them and found it to be quite pleasant, in a Twiglets sort of way. When I returned to Bangkok my guesthouse sold small jars (40g) for 20 Baht (about £0.15 GBP) so I bought a couple of jars and chucked them into my rucksack and forgot about them. I’m really glad that I did, because I wasn’t too confident about having a spicy breakfast after my recent “troubles”. I ordered a milk coffee and toast and butter, and sat there for 15 minutes savouring the taste of the Vegemite. I messed up the first slice of toast a bit by putting too much Vegemite on it, I didn’t realise how strong the stuff was and hadn’t realised it looked like axel grease when its in the jar. Having learnt my lesson on the first slice the three slices were spread with a thin smear of Vegemite and oh how it tasted, scrummy.

I did give someone a scrape of Vegemite though after their eyes nearly popped out of there head when they saw me open the jar. Tip of the Day: If you ever want to get talking to a woman in a Veggie restaurant bring a jar of Vegemite with you! Mans best friend…..

I was feeling well enough on Tuesday to venture a little further than the vicinity of the guest house, so I decided to go and visit Bahai Temple and is open to all faiths for prayer and meditation. It is shaped like an opened lotus flower and has been compared to Sydney’s Opera House. On the map (“trustworthy” Lonely Planet map) it looked about a five mile walk, which was ok as I could plug my ipod in and plod away.

The first three miles were familiar as I followed the route to India Gate and took one of the side roads from there. I passed Delhi Golf Club, which was good because it was on my route! I then came to a two-lane fly-over, which wasn’t part of my plan, but there was a road going off to the right under the fly-over so I followed that for a kilometre or so. It then turned into a dual carriageway, which I later found out would bring me all the way to the Taj Mahal! I wish these maps would indicate that the road you were walking down is going to turn into a major road unsuitable for walking. But then again seeing as no one walks anywhere why would they? Needless to say I gave up and headed back in the vague direction of India Gate. I ended up at a ruined mosque, Qila-i-Kuhran and had a wander around there for ten minutes.

I then made my way to the grounds of India Gate and watched a couple of games of cricket. I sat under a tree in the shade and was left in peace for a full ten minutes before someone came over. The good thing about India Gate is that there are no shops around, although there are numerous vendors selling all types of crap, but I was away from most of them. Two lads came over, shook my hand and said hello. They wandered off and came back a few minutes later, took some photos of me with their camera phone and wandered away again! I had a couple of vendors try to sell me crisps and drinks, but apart from that I was left more or less in peace for nearly an hour and a half. Bliss.

I made my way to India Gate and took some photos by the “boating lake”, a small strip of water with about twenty boats all jostling for some space. I was trying to mind my own business when a couple of kids came up and asked if I could take their photograph, so I did. They were delighted when I showed them their picture on the screen; next think I know, I’m being approached by three different families who are all asking me to take photos of them. It’s not as though I’m wasting film by taking these photos so I obliged. Again, they were delighted to see themselves on the screen, but none of them asked for copies, so I don’t know what the point was. Oh well, I’m not complaining, but the photos weren’t the best as the light was pretty poor.

Didn’t get up too much else after that, spent most of the day ignoring tuk tuk drivers which I’m getting pretty good at now. It’s funny the way they drive up to me and match my speed and look over. I’ll have my sunglasses on and ipod in my ears, but I can make them out in my peripheral vision, which makes the “game” a bit more fun. I usually ignore the first four or five shouts of “hello” and either quicken or drop my pace, which forces them to do the same in their tuk tuk, sometimes I’ll stop and pretend to play with my ipod or open my backpack.

This game can last for thirty seconds, all the time the drivers are asking where I’m off to or telling me it’s only 10 Rupees to any monument blah blah. They then tend to drive off only to stop ten metres down the road and hang out of the cab. I can either ignore them or continue to walk but engage them in conversation, both of my actions have the same effect! They start up the tuk tuk and follow me down the street. It’s also fun walking up a road the wrong way, this forces the tuk tuk drivers going my way to shout across the road (making it even more fun to ignore them) or makes them do a kamikaze manoeuvre across the carriageway. Either way they don’t get a fare!

Aidan's Asian Blog

Mosquito at 10 o'Clock
6th March

I woke this morning bitten to shreds by mosquitos, which is the first time the buggers have got me in weeks. Don’t know when it got into the room, probably followed the light and got in through one of the wide gaps around the window frames last night. I counted eight bites on my upper left arm and can feel countless number on my left shoulder.

I woke early (06:30) and was reading for a while when I caught sight of the little bugger flying around. He was obviously well fed and kept on taking a rest, which gave me the perfect opportunity to splatter him. But the little bugger was smart and kept on landing on my neatly strewn (around the room) clothes and I didn’t want to have squashed mozzie and blood to deal with. When he eventually settled on the wall I went to smack him, but my alcohol free blood must have given him super powers and the little ba$tard was hard to catch.

Plan A wasn’t working so I switched to Plan B (which incidentally is also a Dexy’s Midnight Runners song) and grabbed a copy of Mojo magazine. I’d paid nearly £5 GBP for the latest issue in Bangkok before I left so I had to get my moneys worth out of it. Now normally a newspaper or magazine is ample firepower when pitched against a mozzie, not this one though, he was super fast. After a couple of missed attempts he disappeared, couldn’t find him anywhere, was there no end to his super powers? Maybe he’d gone to get back up, I knew I hadn’t killed him because there was no splattered blood to be seen. I went back to reading my book and forgot about Super Mozzie.

I was getting into the shower later when I noticed that mozzie had returned. This mozzie was smart. He waited until I was at my most vulnerable to launch his next attack, his last attack I’m pleased to say. He attacked form the direction of the window with the sunlight behind him (this guy must have been watching old WW2 war films) and started his desent, but I was ready for him. I waited until he got about a foot away (when I could see the black of his eyes) and did a happy clap and splattered him. There was a reassuring mess on my palms when I opened my hands, a nice collage of blood (lots) and guts (not to many). By the looks of it he’d had a grand final supper, I just hope the rest of his family don’t come looking for me tonight.

Breakfast was toast and butter and a cup of coffee, still got to take it easy after the Delhi Belhi. The Indian diet is doing wonders for my weight loss though. I bought a couple of pairs of shorts in Chiang Mai a couple of weeks before I arrived here and they were on the tight (ish) side. I’ve now got to wear a belt, otherwise they are just being held up by my hips. So my weight loss tip for the day is this: Find a stagnant pool (make sure the water is rancid) and collect at least half a litre of this water. Next, return to your kitchen and prepare a salad. This is the important bit: once the salad is prepared wash (or better still, soak) the salad in this water and then serve as normal. It’s probably advisable to have lots of toilet paper in the house. Music recommendation: Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash. Enjoy!

Aidan's Asian Blog

Revenge of the Curry
4th March 2006

I had an early night yesterday, as I wasn’t feeling to well. My nose was rubbed raw by all the sneezing and sniffling that I had been doing. I’d gone out for a coffee with one of the shop owners here, he’s long given up on me trying to sell anything to me, but as I was walking by his shop he asked me if I wanted a cuppa. I was doing nothing else so I sat down with him and we had an interesting conversation about Ireland, religion (he’s Muslim) and Kashmir.

As I was sitting there I started to feel like sh1t, my head felt all fuzzy and I had stomach cramp, added to my already blocked up head. I made my excuses and headed back to my guesthouse and crashed out on the bed, it was a little after 22:00. I woke at 01:40 in a cold sweat and my body felt as though it had been run over by a rickshaw, I had absolutely no energy and all my joints were aching me (especially my still recovering ankle). I managed to get as far as the toilet where I said hello to Delhi Belhi for the first time on the trip. I was back and forth to the toilet all night and was glad that I had a bottle of water in the room to ward off dehydration. I couldn’t get out of bed this morning or in fact this afternoon. I kept drifting in and out of sleep and anytime I sat up my head went into a spin.

I had to get up just after 17:00 as I was running out of water and had to get something light to eat, as I hadn’t had any food in nearly 24 hours. Luckily the roof top restaurant is about ten feet from my room, so I made my way gingerly there and flopped onto a chair. I got myself a milk coffee and a cheese sandwich; hopefully they’ll settle the stomach a bit. I had a newspaper with me, but although I was reading it the words just weren’t going in. I’m back in bed now and hopefully I’ll feel a bit better in the morning.

5th March

I went out yesterday, as I was feeling a bit better, the wooziness in my head had gone, although I still had stomach cramps and was aching a bit, but I had to get out of my cell. I decided to take a walk down to Connaught Place, which could be a really nice area. It is part of New Delhi and is basically a big traffic circle, which has seven roads leading off it. It’s surrounded by Western shops and would be really nice if it got a face-lift. Unfortunately, the only parks you seem to get here are car parks!

I had my Anti-Hassle Device™ plugged in (ipod) and Masterful Disguise © on (hat and shades), and ignored every tuk tuk driver, beggar, food vendor, shoe shiner, tout, cycle rickshaw rider and taxi driver etc. etc. that I came across. I don’t even feel guilty about this now, I know that I shouldn’t cut myself off from the “locals”, but they aren’t local. Most of them are Kashmiri and their role in life is to batter you into submission. Don’t let the ba$tards grind you down!

I came across a McD*****s and much to my shame I went in and had something to eat. I don’t know what was better, the “fillet” of fish burger or the McShit that I had? It served a purpose though as I didn’t want to try any spicy food the way my stomach was. The place was packed with locals though, which was a shame to see. It’s funny the more you travel, the more you realise that everyone is the same at the end of the day. I could have been in any fast food joint in London / Dublin / New York / Moscow / Bangkok etc. as you had the same groups of people doing the same things. Teenagers on mobile phones, stressed out looking parents with kids and guys trying to look cool and impress the girls whilst sucking on a straw!

I then managed to find an area of green grass, right in the middle of Connaught Place, so I picked a spot under a tree in the shade. I hadn’t got halfway through the first song when one of the locals flopped down on the grass besides me. I pretended not to see him and that worked for about twenty seconds as he kept on trying to talk to me. I gave up and dealt with the usual questions, I even tried to answer them as though it was the first time I’d heard them! It didn’t come in the first couple of minutes, or indeed the next five minutes, but surely it was going to happen. I wasn’t disappointed; actually I was as the question eventually did come;
“Do you want to go to shop?”
“No thanks”, I replied, “it’s Sunday and in my country all the shops are closed on Sunday and it’s a time for relaxing”.
“Just one shop, I get money if you go”
“I know you do and normally I’d go to a couple of shops a day, but I can’t because it’s Sunday”
“Just one shop”
“I’d like to, but it’s Sunday. Did you ever see the Big Lebowski?”
“No”
“Well it’s a really good film, but one of the characters in that can’t do anything on Saturday because of Shoma Shabis, and Sunday is a bit like that for me”
“I don’t understand”
“No, either do I, but I can’t do anything about it. Shoma Shabis”. I was taking the p1ss a bit at this stage!

Needless to say, he didn’t hang around but next thing I notice is that I’ve now got four other guys sitting close to me, they were like sharks surrounding an injured swimmer, so much for a relaxing sit down in the shade. Needless to say I beat a hasty retreat before I got mauled. Being stuck in Delhi has been the worst bit of my trip so far, no doubt about that. I can’t wait until my motorbike is ready in a few days. I’m going to the shop tomorrow to see how they are getting on with it. I’ve been planning my route for the last couple of days and will probably stay up North on this trip rather than try and fit the South in as well.

I checked my email in the evening and had an email from WarehouseExpress.com the crowd who I’m buying the lens for my new camera from. Turns out the lens I ordered is not in stock at the moment and they didn’t give me an expected arrival date. So it looks like I’m going to get a brand new camera and not have a lens to put on the front of it. It seems to be one step forward and two steps back with cameras and me at the moment! I’ll have to email someone in England and see if they can pick me up a 50mm prime lens until I can get hold of the one I ordered. It’s a real pain though as I have two friends coming next week and I’ll have to wait another month until some more friends come over. Oh well, could be worse I suppose, I could be stuck in the snow in London.

Aidan's Asian Blog

Delhi 3rd March 2006

I woke up yesterday morning with a song in my head and I couldn’t remember what song it was. I knew it was by Van Morrison, but I couldn’t remember the name or what album it was on. The line that was in my head goes: “as I sit drinking famously in an Irish bar, a thousand miles and thirty years away”.

I love the imagery of that line; he must have been on some session to be “drinking famously”. I’ve no idea why I woke up with that song in my head, I couldn’t tell you the last time I heard it. Maybe it’s because I’m (over) a thousand miles away from home and certainly it feels a bit like I’ve gone thirty years back in time. Maybe my body was telling me I’ve got to get to an Irish bar and get “famously” drunk? I haven’t had a beer for a couple of weeks; maybe I’m about to go cold turkey? Anyway it took me about twenty minutes to track it down on my ipod, it’s called Mr. Thomas and it’s on the album The Philosophers Stone.

I’ve had a productive couple of days and have managed to get a couple of very important things sorted out. First off, I’ve bought myself a motorcycle. It’s a Royal Enfield Bullet 500cc and it was made in the Sixties. I take delivery of it next week as the shop is restoring it, it should be ready on 10th March.. Can’t wait, especially as it means that I can get out of Delhi and start exploring the country.

I was on the Jessops website this afternoon and noticed that they have the new camera I want in stock. This camera is totally sold out in Uk (and most of the world) and there is a big waiting list for it, but because of my camera woes, Jessops agreed that I could have one when they receive new stock (I’ve got to pay the difference between the camera I returned and the new one). I sent my contact in Jessops a quick email and he told me that he’d put it in the post for me on Monday. I’m delighted. I’ve got two friends coming over from the UK on 11th March, so hopefully they’ll be able to bring it over to me (Please Paulie………) I also ordered a new lens off another website as the camera won’t be much good to me without a bit of glass on the front!

I decided to explore Delhi’s new Metro (Underground) system this morning and see a bit of the outskirts of the city, maybe even find a park to chill out in. I bought a “tourist” one day pass for 70 Rupees (nearly £1.00 GBP) and paid a further 100 Rupees deposit for the ticket (??). I then walked through the metal detector, got frisked and had my bag searched. This happens at every station and must be fun at rush hour; there was talk of them doing something similar in London. Please don’t.

I hopped on the blue line first as it looked the longest and indeed it was. I spotted a big shopping centre about twenty minutes into my journey and got off the train. It was about 10:15 by this stage, but I was the only customer I saw in the whole shopping centre! I also had to walk through another metal detector. I couldn’t be arsed shopping, as the shops in there didn’t interest me, so I jumped back on the train. Actually I waited patiently on the platform whilst my fellow passengers charged towards the train door as it opened, no such thing here as letting the passengers off first! Kilometre after Kilometre passed but the view didn’t change, low-rise apartments followed low-rise apartments with the odd mosque or temple thrown in for visual interest. That’s all the interest there was though, there was nothing at the end of the line, just apartments as far as the eye could see.

I jumped back on the next train and made my way to the intersection with the yellow line. I got talking to a couple of students on the train that wanted to know where I came from, was I married etc. They were studying political science and were interested to know what I thought of Delhi, I told them it would be lovely if they could get rid of the touts and the traffic. They were interested to know where I was off to, I told them that I hadn’t got a clue, I was just following my nose to see where I ended up (which was true), they found this a bit strange. They got off one stop from the end of the line (University Station) and I got off at the next stop. There didn’t seem to be too much of interest there, but I decided to take a walk around the block just to get off the train. I found the university on my walk and bumped into my two friends, they couldn’t believe that they met me again as they seen me stay on the train, I jokingly told them to stop following me as I didn’t want to go to a shop with them. They laughed and we went opposite ways. It was back on the train after that to try the red line. More metal detectors more body frisks more uninteresting stops along the line with nothing at the end. I was the only Westerner I saw on the four hours I spent on the Metro and for once they were right not to go on it! No one I’ve spoken to has even gone near the Metro, now I know why.

I don’t expect any sympathy from anyone back in Ireland or the Uk, but I woke up this morning with a cold. I’ve been sneezing and snivelling all day. Even though it’s usually around 27c – 30c here, it “plummets” to 10c at night and I only put a light sheet on the other night, so must of picked the cold up then.

Holi kids

Holi kids
Originally uploaded by ampr1150gs.

Kids enjoying Holi

Delhi 28th February 2007

I decided to have another go at getting to India Gate this morning (photo right), I woke early and was out of the guesthouse by 08:45. I decided to keep a low profile today and stuck my ipod in my ears and did my best to avoid getting into any conversations (sales talks) with the locals. It didn’t put them off though and I was accosted shortly after hitting the main road. It was the usual lines, name, where from, marriage status, I just turned around to the guy and told him that I had absolutely no intention of going to visit any shops with him, but if he wants to walk along with me and chat, no problem. He didn’t take me up on my kind offer once he knew that I wouldn’t be going shopping with him.

I managed to take a wrong turn, which isn’t hard, because the map I had bore no relation to the streets I was walking down. They must rename the streets here everytime a new map comes out just to confuse people. What should have been a half hour walk ended up taking one and a quarter hours and I was “cream crackered” by the time I got there. Needless to say, there were loads of hawkers and touts hanging around the Gate but I managed to avoid most of them by ignoring them.

The gate is at the end of The Mall (the other end is the Presidents House and Parliament Buildings) and on each side of the mall there is a park with water features. I hadn’t seen a bit of grass since I got here, so I sat down for half an hour and watched a game of cricket. From there I took a walk up the Mall to the Parliament Buildings, which took about twenty minutes. I saw some Anti-Bush (as in Dubya) posters yesterday re. his visit to India, I’m not sure if he’s here at the moment, but there was a big armed guard around the Presidential Buildings, they let me through though and I looked around for about twenty minutes and took some photos. On the way back I came across two protests, one was just to the left of Parliament and was all men and around the corner there was a sit down protest by women.

At the men’s protest there were several armed police / soldiers hanging around. At the women’s protest there was one line of armed police behind barriers and behind that there was a line of armed soldiers behind more barriers and behind them was a big truck with a water cannon on the top. Judging by the display of force for the women, I wouldn’t like to get into an argument with one of them over here!

I went for lunch in the restaurant were I ate last night, there were only two other Westerners in there and the place was real busy, always a good sign. I chose the most expensive dish on the menu, which was several small bowls of veggie food (peas, potato’s and god knows what else) it also came with a poppadom and chappati. It was lovely and I had a cup of milky coffee with it. The bill came to a grand total of 95 Rupees, which is about £1.15 GBP. I went back to the guesthouse after that and crashed out on the corner bed for an hour and a half.

I went for a walk around some of the back streets (ipod plugged in) for an hour after my nap and dodged numerous hawkers and touts, bought some oranges and I’m back here on my computer downloading photos etc.

Delhi 27th February 2006

I had a bit of a lie in this morning and didn’t leave the guesthouse until nearly 09:30. I decided to visit Jama Masjid, which is the largest mosque in India and was built by the same emperor that built the Red Fort (Shah Jahan). Building begun in 1644 and it was completed in 1658, it has three gateways, four angle towers and two minarets standing 40 meters high. It’s constructed of alternating vertical strips of red sandstone and white marble. The courtyard can hold 25,000 people and it really is an impressive sight. (Photo above)

But I had a bit of an adventure on the way to Jama Masjid. I decided to walk there as it’s only a bit further than the Red Fort and it’s interesting to mingle with the locals. I took a different route than I did the day before and I eventually stumbled on Chown Bazaar, which was truly bazaar. Needless to say, I was the only pale face I saw all morning, but I didn’t feel uneasy about that. The people I came across either totally ignored me or called out “Hello”. I gave them a quick “Namaste” back and dodged cows, ponies, rickshaws, motorcycles, and people as I made my way through the Bazaar. I really wanted to stop for a Chai (tea), but none of the places looked particularly clean and I want to give my stomach a bit of a slow introduction to street dining. I really enjoyed the walk through the Bazaar, but didn’t take any photographs, as it didn’t feel right.

I missed the turn I had planned to take and ended up near the Old Delhi train station, but I had passed that yesterday so I knew that I had to double back and walk down Chandni Chowk and passed the Red Fort. At the end Chandni Chowk is a mosque so I decided to take a quick walk around there but was stopped by an elder at the gate, he pointed at my bare legs and shook his head. I was expecting this to happed today and I purposefully wore a pair of shorts that I could zip legs onto. The sight of me zipping on my trouser legs amused the elder and he called some of his buddies over to look. This wasn’t the time for me to catch some material in the zipper, but of course I did! When I finally got the legs on I started towards the entrance and the elder stopped me again and pointed to my sandals! I took my sandals off and left them by the door, I then pointed at my shirt, smiled to the elder and pretended to take it off, this caused him further amusement and he waved me in. I didn’t stay there long as there were groups of people who appeared to be getting lessons sitting around. There was a fountain in the middle of the courtyard, so I had a quick stroll around that and watched carp swimming for a few minutes. On the way out the elder stopped me and motioned for me to sit down, so I sat with him for a few minutes (he didn’t speak English) he smiled at me, I smiled and nodded back made my excuses and left. I gave him ten Rupees for minding my shoes.

A bit further up the road there is a Hindu temple, Digambara Jain Temple, so I stopped to have a wander around there. I had kept the legs on my trousers and handed over my sandals and made my way in. There was water all over the marble floors and it was fairly slippery. I made my way through the temple and stood in front of a statue which was draped in colourful garlands, a guy who was standing beside me starts praying aloud and then breaks into song. I was pretty enthralled by his singing and stood there for about five minutes and then made my way to another part of the temple. There was a big statue, which was covered with colourful garlands, and there were queues of people waiting to throw flowers at it. People in the queue started singing and praying, I just stood to the side and was glad to be apart of it. I had to push on though as it was getting towards 11:30 and Jama Masjid closed at 12:15 to non-Muslims for prayers.

Jama Masjid really is an impressive site and I didn’t need to look at my map to find it as it is visible for miles. It’s free to visit the mosque, but there is a 150 Rupee (£2 GBP) charge for cameras, which I gladly paid. The gateways are pretty impressive and when you walk through them the view of the mosque is amazing, I got some good photographs of it (photo above). I decided to walk up one of the 40-meter high minarets, never a good idea in 30c temperatures. I’m glad I did though, because the views across Delhi were stunning. I was lucky enough at the top as there were only two of us up there and there is very little space. On the way down though I passed nearly thirty people on their way up (it was a real squeeze to pass on the very narrow stairway), god knows how they all managed to fit up there.

On the walk back down Chandni Chowk I witnessed a fight between a cycle rickshaw rider and a car driver, I didn’t see the start of it, but I think the car driver hit the rickshaw and the rickshaw rider decided to seek instance justice. It was mainly handbags though and no one seemed to be injured. I stopped to have lunch in a vegetarian café opposite the New Delhi train station and I had a chapatti, plain rice and Aloo Mattar (potato and peas), which came to 35 Rupees (a little under £0.50 GBP).

I was shattered after lunch and by the time I got back to the guesthouse it was nearly 15:00, I crashed out on my bed (I chose the middle one) and lay there until 16:15. I decided to take a stroll to India Gate, which is a 45-meter arch with the names of over 90,000 soldiers who died in the First World War. I hadn’t gone more than a hundred meters when I spotted someone make a b-line for me. After spending over four months in S.E Asia you can spot someone one his or her way to nab you. Sure enough he drew up alongside me and matched my pace for about thirty seconds and then it came. “Where you from?”
“Skibberean”.
“Where?”
“Skibberean”.
Pause whilst the thought how to answer that.
“What are your hobbies?” blah blah blah.

He asked if he could walk with me, said “as long as you don’t try to sell me anything, bring me to any shops or ask me for money”. He said, “no, no, I don’t want anything from you, I’m a student”. I asked him what he studies and he told me English and that by talking to me he can improve his English. I told him I doubt it as I’ve only got a basic grasp of the language myself, as we don’t speak English in Skibberean. I told him that I was heading towards the Government Tourist Office and that he can walk with me there if he wanted. I had a rough idea where it was as I had taken a walk the day before in the general area and I’d just looked at it’s location on the map before I left the guesthouse.

He told that he knew where it was and proceed to bring me off in another direction, I told him that I didn’t want to go that way as I knew the way to get there, he told me that he knew a shortcut, I told him to take it and that I’d meet him there, needless to say he tagged along with me. Even when we got to the Government Tourist Office he tried to get me to go to a different travel agent! I declined his kind offer and spent about twenty minutes in there sorting some things out. When I got outside he was waiting for me, he wanted me to go for a cup of Chai, but I told him that I was off to India Gate. He then told me that he was a student and he couldn’t afford to buy any books, I said to him that I thought he didn’t want anything off me. He said that he didn’t but if I just came to a shop with him he would get a book voucher. I said to him that you mean you’ll get 50 Rupees commission for bringing a foreigner into a shop. He said no, it’s a book voucher, I told him to tell me the truth because I know it’s 50 Rupees and I don’t like being lied to. You can probably tell that he was annoying me at this stage. I finally got him to admit that it was commission and that he wasn’t a student. I told him that I’ve no problem visiting a shop with him if he gets some money and that he should be honest about it and not lie. He told me that I’m a good man and that we’re friends.

He brought me down a few side streets and I told him that he was bringing me to a shop that I’d been to the day before, which was true. Sure enough it ended up being the same shop, I put on my Inspector Clueso disguise (hat and shades) and entered the shop. All these shops are the bloody same, crafts, clothes and carpets; the only difference is what floor each of the sections is on. I had a quick browse around, dodged a couple of sales assistants and then made my way outside to my “new best friend”. I asked him if he got his commission and he told me he didn’t, he said that it was because I was too quick and should have spent five or six minutes in there. He then told me that he’d bring me to another shop around the corner, I reminded him of our agreement which was to visit one shop and one shop only. I told him that it wasn’t my fault he didn’t get his commission as I explained to him before hand that I had no intention of buying anything there and would just go in for a quick visit. He insisted on taking me to another shop and I steadfastly refused. Unfortunately our friendship hit the rocks at this stage (how will I cope with the rejection?) and he told me words to the effect that I was bad for not going to other shops with him. I’ll get over it.

I hadn’t turned two corners when a tuk tuk pulled up and this Sikh guy, Mr Singh, got out and started talking to me. He was very knowledgeable about Ireland (the first one to mention Bobby Sands and the year that he died), we had a conversation about the British invading both our countries and he offered to give me a free lift down the road, because he was going that way! As you know there is no such thing as a free lunch or indeed a free tuk tuk ride. But by this stage it was too late to go to India Gate for sunset as it was a two Km walk away, so I took him up on his offer to see where I’d end up. I had a feeling that it would involve some type of shopping Emporium and I wasn’t disappointed. I asked him if he was on commission and he told me only if I bought something, I told him I’d take a look and see if there was anything I fancied. I ended up buying a top and trousers for about £8.00 GBP, it’s a traditional style outfit in white, so it should be fairly cool and no doubt help me to blend in! He was happy with his commission and I was happy with my outfit, but guess who I should bump into on the way back to the guesthouse? My former best friend, I was still getting over his rejection of our friendship and when he asked me what I’d bought, I could just about get the words “a top” out before choking up…..

I went to a busy looking café on the Main Bazaar and had two vegetable thalis, chapatti and rice with a milky coffee. The meal was really filling and came to £0.60p GBP. It was an interesting day and I met loads of “characters” along the way, which I won’t go into here, but needless to say they all tried to sell me something, be it tours, trinkets, tuk tuk rides, handicrafts, pashminas and god knows what else.

Red Fort, Delhi

Red Fort & Punjabi men
Originally uploaded by ampr1150gs.

Delhi 26th February 2007

I left Bangkok on 25th Feb at 18:15 and had an enjoyable four-hour flight to Delhi. I was sitting next to this Asian man from Birmingham and we had a really good chat, he was returning from Japan where he’d had a business meeting. He had spent seven hours in Delhi on his way to Japan and was afraid to eat or drink anything at the airport in case he got sick; that included bottled water. He was spending seven days in Delhi this time and he got his company to put him up in a four star hotel in the city. He wasn’t particularly looking forward to it, which I found pretty funny! I tried to reassure him that India wasn’t that bad, once you got over the smells, noise and people spitting / shitting / pissing in the streets. I showed him my guidebook and he’d never seen a Lonely Planet guide before and thought it would be a real handy thing to have!

I got a pre-paid taxi at the airport into the Main Bazaar in the Paharganj area of the city, which is where a lot of the budget guesthouses are. Although I’d pre-paid, the driver still tried to scam me! He told me that he couldn’t find my guesthouse (in fairness it took me a day and a half to locate the one I was originally going to stay in) and that he’d bring me to a travel agents and they would ring the hotel for me. This is another well-known scam as they ring someone who tells you that the guesthouse is full. Sure enough the guy at the other end of the phone told me that the guesthouse was full. No problem. The guy in the travel agents kindly told me that he could find me a hotel – how nice of him, and how lucky I was that my kind driver brought me there…

He asked me how much I wanted to spend and I told him 200 Rupees (about £3 GBP), and he told me that that was “not possible, Delhi very expensive, lot of tourists”. I told him that it wasn’t a problem and said that I was leaving and would find my own place. He called out to the driver and somehow got his name right (!!!), the driver tried to get me to go back and get a hotel off the “travel agent”. The advantage of getting a pre-paid taxi is that I have a receipt and if I don’t sign it and give it to the driver he doesn’t get paid. I insisted that he bring me to the area that my guesthouse is in otherwise he is not getting the receipt. This worked and he drove me for about ten minutes (just shows you that he had no intention of bringing me to my original hotel) to the market place, I insisted on checking the street names with my map, which cheesed him off even more and I eventually signed the receipt and sent him scowling on his way. I found a guesthouse for 250 Rupees (about £3.50 GBP); it’s got three beds in the room, hot water (sometimes) and is on the top floor of the guesthouse beside a 24-hour restaurant. It’s clean enough and I can rotate which bed I sleep in, and I don’t hear any noise from the restaurant once I put my ear plugs in.

On Sunday 26th I went for a walk to Karol Bagh market, which is where all the motorcycle shops are located. It’s a four Kilometre walk from my guesthouse, the weather was overcast so it was a fairly easy walk, well it would have been if I hadn’t been stopped by every empty tuk tuk in Delhi trying to get me on board. I took a couple of diversions down interesting looking streets and by the time I got to the market it wasn’t open. That’s not to say I was late, just the opposite in fact, I got there at 08:50 and everything was shut. That’s what happens when you spend so much time in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, you expect everything to be open by 06:00. I hung around the market and answered some new questions. Of course I got the “where you come from?” “What’s your name?” “Where you going?” “Are you married?” and “What’s your job?” but I was also asked, “What are your hobbies?” I hadn’t heard that one before and had to think about it. I suppose my main one is photography, followed by motorcycles / bicycles. Is listening to music a hobby?

One of the first bike shops I tried were Madaan Motors and the guy in there seemed nice enough and very knowledgeable, they repair and restore all sorts of old bikes. He showed me a Triumph, a Norton and a BSA that they were working on. He brought me off to his “warehouse”, which was a Kilometre away. He had about eight spotless looking Enfield’s there, although they were a bit more than I wanted to pay. He told me that he can refurbish one of the second hand bikes, which would take about ten days and I could buy that for 60,000 Rupees (about £750 GBP) and that he would buy it back from me in six months for 60% of the price he sold it to me for. Sounds like a pretty good deal. I also visited Inder Motors, who I’ve heard good things about on the Internet. The chap there was very busy and asked me if I could come back on Tues (lots of shops are closed on Monday’s here). So I’ve made a few enquiries on the Internet about Madaan Motors (some good comments, some bad) and I’ll go visit Inder Motors on Tues and make a decision then.

I went back to my guesthouse after the motorcycle market and had some lunch, I decided to ease into things and had a chicken biryani (chicken and rice) and it was ok, a bit bland, but that’s what I wanted for my first meal in India. No point in getting Delhi Belly straight away! I had a lovely milky coffee as well, I don’t really drink coffee normally, but there’s something about the coffee over here that I like (probably because it’s made from sewage water and therefore reminds me of Starbucks..)

I decided to take a walk to the Red Fort, which was about four kilometres away, and it seemed a good idea at the time. I lost count of the amount of times I was offered a cycle rickshaw, tuk tuk or taxi, but it was a lot more times than I wanted it to be. It took me a bit over an hour to walk there and as I walked down Chandni Chowk (the main road to the Red Fort) I was overcome with the smells from the stalls lining the road. Incense filled the air and this was mixed with the smells from the food stalls and I sneezed a couple of times as the spices ticked my nose. The stalls spilled onto the road and there was just enough room for cycle rickshaws and cars to squeeze through the throng. There were people everywhere, I would have liked to have turned a corner and found a bit of road to myself. No chance.

I got to the Red Fort (photo above)at about 16:30 and bought a ticket (100 Rupees) and took a stroll around the Fort. The Red Fort is a pretty amazing sight as the walls extend for 2Km and are 33 metres high. Construction started in 1638 and took ten years to complete. It was built by the Mugal Emperor, Shah Jahan, but he never got to spend much time there as he was deposed and imprisoned in Agra Fort by his son Aurangzeb! Sounds a bit like a Harry Potter book! I spent just under two hours strolling around and made sure I was outside to catch the sunset as I had hoped that the retreating sun would light up the outer walls of the fort. Unfortunately the sun was partially obscured by clouds, but the walls did glow a bit in what sunlight there was and I got some good photographs.

I got talking to (accosted) by a local when I was at the Red Fort and he wanted to talk, so I told him that wouldn’t be a problem. I got the usual questions (see above) and he told me a bit about himself, he said that he was a film producer, but there was a smell of bullshit in the air.. He wanted to go for a cup of tea, but I politely declined and told him that I was jet lagged from my flight from London (for some reason the smell of bullshit grew stronger). I spoke to him for about ten minutes and made my excuses, he wanted to know if he could walk with me and I said he could if he wanted. As I expected, he tried to get me to visit some shops with him (to get commission), I wasn’t in the mood to go shopping as I’d been walking all day and had a long walk back to my guesthouse. He then tried to get me to visit temples and libraries, teashops and food halls. There’s no such thing as a free lunch or indeed a free walk, it’s the old walking cash machine syndrome here, most people in the city are befriending you for some reason, which is usually to get you to part with your hard earned (I’m sad to say).

Once I left Chandni Chowk the beautiful smells gave way to the less savoury ones, nothing smells quite as bad as stale urine baked in the sun especially in conjunction with cow shit! I passed about five urinals on my way back; they were obviously there on my way to the Red Fort as well. I even used one of these establishments, (well I had drank three litres of water) which was an assault on the senses. Not only did people urinate in the urinals, they also had shits in them! I got back to the guesthouse after refusing god knows how many offers of tuk tuk, taxi and bicycle rickshaws and I was shattered. It’s amazing how draining walking through crowds, heat and refusing rides can be. I had a cheese and salad baguette in the roof top restaurant, downloaded some photographs and crashed out at 23:00.