Friday 4 December

The drums come back. I'm wide awake and my stomach is sore. Must be that very very hot wrap. I get my ear plugs and eventually fall asleep. As soon as I'm up my stomach is sore again. The toilet and I are well aquatinted. We wait around for the phone call from the embassy. It doesn't come. I eat some of Malcolm's left over noodles. Eventually Malcolm goes and calls the embassy from reception. Turns out there was no problem, the lady at the desk didn't understand what we were asking. We can go and collect. We walk to the metro and get a little rickshaw to the embassy. I wait while Malcolm goes to collect them. The man comes down and explains to Malcolm We have 3 months to enter and then our 3 months in the country starts. Oh. Could have saved our selves worry and time. We get the driver to drop us off at the tomb. He takes us under a bridge and we see the shacks set up and ppl sitting. An interesting place to live. I guess it's a free roof over your head and I doesn't seem to get too cold here. The tomb is quite nice. There are busses of school children there also. Some get their nerve up to talk to us. There are ppl sitting on the grass enjoying the day. Next we walk to a park nearby. It's very nice. There are some tombs here also. The park is big and we don't have too much time. We sit and figure where we will go. Malcolm eats some crackers and tried to share them with the chipmunks. Some men come up to us and want photos with us. It's so weird. We take the metro to the lotus temple and walk around to the entrance. We have to take our shoes off and leave them in a cloak room. It's really quite nice to have my shoes off. We have to line up to go in. It's lovely and simple at the same time. There are pools outside surrounding the the temple complementing it. The surrounding grounds are extensive. Apparently uses 3 million litres of grey water to water the grounds daily. We saw another temple behind the lotus Temple and I want to go check it out. We walk through a much less nicer park. There are ppl resting and ppl selling things. Eventually we get to the iskon temple. We go through security. I start to take my shoes off to enter the temple but they tell us it's closed. We walk around the complex a little. There are lots of flowers everywhere. A friendly man comes and talks to us and tells us it's a traditional wedding. He invites us to come see. We decline! We don't want to intrude. But he insists and says we won't be intruding. We walk past more flowers and there is a couple sitting under a booth dressed in finery. We don't stay long. The man tells us the ceremony takes 4 hours and the wedding all day. The ppl have been here since 10am. We catch the metro to our next stop. We meet a man on the train and he has been to NZ. He asks where we are going and recommends somewhere to eat there. I's pretty chaotic when we get off. It's straight into markets of all kinds. Giant balloons, wallets, clothes and more. We keep moving with the flow. It's so crazy. Like nothing else we've seen. We stop at a Citibank to get more money out and buy some water from a small stall. We see what we think is the red fort at the end of the street. We slowly make our through the chaos and get into the area surrounding the fort. The relief from the noise and press of ppl and chaos. The fort is pretty impressive. We get some pictures. We decide we won't go in. It looks like there are about 5 museums inside. Some more men come up and ask to have photos with us. Hehe. Now we are the attraction. As we go to leave we are approached by a young man who wants to give us a ride. He won't take no for an answer. He only wants a small amount so eventually we give in. And actually it's worth it. He explains stuff to us and takes us down streets we wouldn't probably wouldn't have gone. There are different segments for different markets. Paper here, wedding there, car here. There is a huge mosque we pass. Monkeys climbing the wires between buildings and goats are tied along the road and street. He takes us to the restaurant and leaves us. The food we order is nice. A little spicy, but manageable. Malcolm likes his nann's so much he orders 2 to go. It's getting dark as we walk to the metro. Sometimes the lines into the metro are so long it doesn't seem possible to get on board, but mostly we do! And if not there is another train virtually right behind. It's a relief to be back at the hotel. Even though it is so far off from the reviews it's crazy. It's almost like they are fake ones. It's very odd. We look on different sites. There are some that seem true to our experience. Tonight there is no water from the 'hot' tap so I end up using the cold one. Hopefully our new hotel is an improvement. Apparently it's only 400m away. The drums start up, joined by trumpets tonight. There is a rattle at the door and men's voices. Malcolm gets dressed and opens it. They look a little surprised to see him. One comes in saying something about water. Malcolm says no hot water so we had cold showers. So odd.