So far so good (mostly)...

In case you didn't catch what we were up to in Delhi before the blog went down I shall give you a brief overview.

31 AUG 2010

Arrived in India (Delhi) safe and sound after a long but comfortable flight. Couple of things that amused us;
- Emirates had paid extra for the installation of mood lighting (including stars on the cabin roof) in their aircraft
- The Indian stood up just 5 seconds after landing and started to collect their luggage from the bins (much to the annoyance of the staff!)
- The time zone is GMT + 5.5. Never been in a half time zone before!

This is a shot through the window of the taxi onto the main road

Delhi was seriously hot - even at 3:30 am when we arrived. Pretty much sweating from the word go. Mostly the humidity that made it unbearable. Sorted ourselves out with an, expensive, taxi from the airport and there after got an appreciation of what the driving was like. Like nothing we had seen before. No lane etiquette at all, he who barges hardest goes the fastest! Wing mirror are folded in or removed all together - they just get in the way when barging. An all types of transport, be it foot, car, cycle rickshaw or motor rickshaw all compete for the same piece of road. Throw in the odd cow and goat, a healthy dollop of hooting and flashing of lights and you begin to get the picture! Arrived at the hotel(ish - more someones house really) shattered and slightly bemused by the whole thing. Still,. pleased to have made it that far without any serious mishaps.

Got taken to the 'tourist office' having expressed an interest in buying train tickets for our upcoming trip to Nepal. Slightly suspicious but the office seemed to offer what we wanted and wasn't overly expensive. We asked to have tickets booked for the AC2 sleeper overnight on the 3rd Sept giving us about three days in Delhi. That afternoon we took up their (the office) offer to take us to some markets. First one was a disappointment - all the international chains, pretty much like London (but HOT). The next one was much more what we expected - crazily busy, but in a way that creates a good atmosphere. Tried some street food, a dahl with flat breads that were inflated using the heat of a stove. Managed to get an Indian sim card too (cannot remember the number at the moment) so can keep in touch.

1 SEPT 2010

Today was the day of the grand tour (also courtesy of the 'tourist office' - noticing a theme!?). We managed to see the Red Fort, Humayun's Tomb, Qutub Minar, India Gate and the Lotus Temple.

Humayun's Tomb (Delhi)

Great to see the 'key' sights, in particular the Red Fort which was significantly larger than we had expected. It has it's own covered bazaar inside the gate. We also saw the Delhi traffic from a new perspective - a cycle rickshaw trip. Quite an experience, really get to feel like you are in the middle of the hubbub.

The Lotus Temple

Red Fort (from the outside)

Slightly frustrated with the travel company by now, and the reluctance to; A. let us pay and B. release our tickets the assured us were booked. Decided to begin checking up ourselves. Made plans to go to Connaught Place (independently) tomorrow.

2 SEPT 2010

Popped by Ali's 'tourist office' to see if he fancied releasing the train tickets - he didn't fancy and said not to worry and to come back later. Not convinced by his rhetoric we went down to Connaught Pace. What a mess! the whole are is one big building site, supposedly in preparation for the Commonwealth Games. In all honesty there is no way the city is going to be ready, most of the work they were doing was at the foundations stage. Mind you - the are artful bodgers...

Connaught Place was tricky to get around, due in part to the complete lack of signage, the building site and the endless touts trying to get you to go to the 'real' tourist bureau. The true and real one was found eventually but was shut owing to the festival or birthday of a God.

Then went towards the train station, in part to find out where it was but also to check if we were booked on a train. Went to what we though was the tourist train information centre only to be told that there were no tickets available to Gorakhpur (en route to Kathmandu) until mid way through out climb. Starting to get worried at this point. Our only options were to trust Ali at the travel center, that he had booked us on a train, or to buy a flight (which turned out to be prohibitively expensive.)

Slightly disappointed, we returned home on the metro, - fantastic by the way, and Olivia picked up some hareem pants she had wanted at the market at Karol Bagh (our area where we were staying). We popped in via Ali again but to no avail - told to come back later. GRRR!

Later: popped back in to see Ali and finally got the tickets. Quite relieved to have our hands on them. Seemed genuine. Then went to dinner. Found a local curry fast food place and ordered a curry between us. Problem was Olivia reacted to the nuts in the curry and had to be escorted into the hotel next door to use their facilities. Shot straight back after that.

3 SEPT 2010

Pre-epic journey admin day. The train was due to leave at 20.25 so had the day to double check plans, including a trip to Connaught Place to find the station, discuss Indian multiple entry visa issues and find the actual station (which we had not managed to the day before). Felt like C-P pros today, walking past the touts with minimal hassle. Found our way back to the tourist office and  the visa problem wasn't a problem at all. Then found the train station - further away than we thought. Checked at the reservations office that the tickets were indeed the genuine article - they were (cue a huge sigh of relief!).

With time to kill, an seriously disgustingly sweaty by this point we hit that great American institution - McDonald's! Half an hour later we had had recovered an decided to get back to the hotel to collect the bags. Left the hostel at 1800 in plenty of time to catch the train. Grabbed a quick kebab in a recommended cafe en-route to the station.

Delhi station is huge - 16 platforms all packed with people, trolleys, goods and anything else people decide to bring along. The platforms are some of the longest I've seen too. Walking from platform 9 steps to where our carriage was due to arrive took us at least 5 mins. Having found where we though we should be we asked around to double check and got chatting to an Indian chap who works at Amex.

The train eventually arrived into the station at 2100 - not bad considering some were 17 hours delayed! Overall very impressed with the train. Clean sheets and a face towel provided and the cabin was roomy enough - and cold importantly!

Quite telling of how poor the average train user is - the fine for pulling the emergency stop without due cause is 1000 Rs (about 16 pounds!). Managed to get comfortable and settled down to read/sleep. Actually slightly please to have left Delhi behind.