Jaipur – Delhi 13th April 2006

The ride from Jaipur to Delhi was pretty uneventful, for me anyway, I’m sure the truck driver who managed to overturn his truck and go through the windscreen thought otherwise though! I was making really good time and would have done the ride in four hours flat if it wasn’t for the damn diversion just before I reached Delhi. I’m getting used to the roads and what to expect on them (everything except good driving…), but a diversion can be a real pain, especially when they give up signing the diverted route after three turns. When the signs stopped, I decided to follow the main body of traffic when we got to a junction. I ended up at the airport! After about fifteen minutes I managed to find the right road and headed off to the hotel area to book get somewhere for the night.

I had been given the name of my friend’s hotel and the road it was on, but no one I asked knew where it was. I went for a walk in the general direction that I thought it was in and managed to stumble across it after about twenty-five minutes, turns out that it’s not that far away from my guesthouse at all. I got there just after they checked in, we had a quick chat and I told them I’d call back later in the afternoon to give them a chance to get some rest after their flight.

Later that day I brought them out for a walk to experience Old Delhi and we went down to Chandi Chowk (big market place) and then visited the Red Fort and chilled out there for a while. We then went to Jama Masjid (the biggest mosque in India) and the girls had their breasts groped on the way (not guilty..). Rajen and I were walking slightly ahead of the three girls and we heard one of them shout to us, when we went to see what was up the told us that a couple of kids (9-13) started talking to them and then went for a quick grope! We got to the mosque just as they were having final prayers so we couldn’t go in and visit. Twenty-four hours later two bombs would be detonated here!

I then took my friends for a wander through a grubby market on the way back to Chandi Chowk and we came across a big street parade. As this is India, there was absolutely no thought of health and safety and there were firecrackers and fireworks going off on the ground all around me. Some of the firecrackers hit my leg as I was taking photos up close (can’t wait until I get my new zoom lens!), so I decided to get out of there. We decided to get a rickshaw (not my idea) back to the hotel, as the others were still a bit jet lagged. I asked the guy how much he wanted for the journey and he wrote 400 on his hand (just over £5 GBP), I didn’t even argue with him and just walked off. I told Rajen that there was no way I was even going to start negotiating with him but that he’d probably come alongside us and try again. Sure enough, about thirty seconds later he pulls up beside us and I told him that 400 was too much (not that he could understand) and he held out his hand and a pen. I wrote 100 (I was feeling generous) and he told us to jump in, I probably could have got it for 50, but 100 worked out at about £0.25 pence each.

I’m not sure that this guy actually knew where he was going; no joke, we could have walked back quicker. The route from the market to the hotel area is pretty straight forward (top of the road and take a right, first left, straight to top of road, left and Bobs your uncle). This guy brought us on a grand tour of Delhi, and my friends were glad to get to experience Delhi from the back of a Tuk-Tuk. We got pulled over by the police on the way to the hotel as well, we thought it was because the Tuk-Tuk was overloaded so we all hopped out as soon as the Tuk-Tuk stopped. Turns out the cop just checked the driver’s paperwork and we all hopped back in and continued the Magical Mystery Tour. After about forty minutes I recognised a couple of neon signs and got the driver to pull over. I handed him a 100 Rupee note and he pointed to his hand, he’d rubbed out my 100 and wrote 250! I told him that he can whistle for it (or words to that effect) and we walked off and had a beer and something to eat in one of the local hotels. None of us usually drinks Fosters (Kangaroo piss…), but it’s brewed stronger (5% abv) over here and they went down really smoothly. I walked the guy and gals back to their hotel and agreed to meet up the next day.