Sunday 18th July

Today our Delhi adventure started, or at least that was the intention when we got the all-day-taxi there. He dropped us off at Connaught Place (CP) and that is where the dread started to set in. The heat was unbearable, to the point that our arms, as in forearms and biceps were what seemed to be leaking. Although we tried to go into some of the shops to benefit from the A/C this proved a short-lived solution and soon our minds were solely focused on food and providing our bodies with a cool environment.

After completing a full-circle of CP, dodging a fire in McDonalds, touts, beggars and passing no restaurants which took out fancy we felt compelled to ask a group of travellers if they knew of somewhere suitable to eat with A/C. It turned out that this group was French and they directed us to another McDonalds (one which had not caught fire). The amount of construction going on was incredible, every road had buildings being built, adjusted or demolished, in preparation for the upcoming Commonwealth games.

In McDonalds we relished our food and the cool atmosphere. As we were not happy with our situation in Faridabad, we still had in our minds the idea that we could move to a more central hostel. So when I noticed two guys, who looked English I went over to ask them about their hostel. They were indeed English and we chatted for a while about their travels and where they stayed. Later we decided that actually central Delhi might not be the place for us either. The ultimate was that we needed somewhere to stay where we felt comfortable and could work. It would be nice to be able to go out from time to time too, but in central Delhi, it was so hot and busy, perhaps it was not such a good idea, to throw ourselves into the throngs of the crazy city.

After our fuel injection we tried to locate the underground market at CP, we only saw a small section of it before deciding that it was not a great place to be, it was so crowded and with four of us in tow, it was rather hectic. So we took refuge on some grass to the side of the market, next to two more English travellers, girls this time. They were flying home that night and said that Jaipur had been their favourite city. The heat soon got too much again so we got back into the taxi and he brought us to the Red Fort.

The Fort was pretty interesting. It had many sections and different buildings. We took lots of pictures and rests on the various walls and balustrades. It was also our first experience of the Indian celebrity. People were constantly taking our pictures, asking us to pose with them, giving us children to pose with. We did feel we had missed the announcement that we were no longer regular Joes. It was nice to see children playing about in the grassy areas, doing cartwheels and rolling down the hills.