One word...HANGOVER. Dad was definitely worse than me but neither one of us felt great to be honest. Every morning so far we've been leaving the hotel not long after 10am, today it was more like 12:30pm. We decided that a more low key day was definitely in order and caught the metro down to Bangla Sahib Gurudwara - Delhi's largest Sikh temple. A white marble building topped by a huge golden onion shaped dome built in 1664. We met one of the guides and he gave us a brief overview, explaining that Sikhism is a liberal religion and that visitors from any faith are welcome to enter the temple, pray and eat if desired, for free nonetheless! Up to 15,000 people eat here every day, a staggering amount when you stop and think about it. We removed our shoes, were given head coverings and then were taken into the main temple. It was a completely different atmosphere from the Jama Masjid that we visited earlier this week. Rather than the quiet of the mosque, devotional music is performed constantly from 4am to 9:30pm with musicians doing hourly shifts at a time. This is then relayed throughout the entire complex so wherever you are you can hear it at all times. You have the option to kneel at the Holy book when you enter the temple and although dad isn't into that kind of thing I kneeled out of respect. I don't follow any religion but if you choose to visit places of faith as a tourist I think it's important to respect it whenever and wherever possible. We sat on the floor for ten minutes to soak up the atmosphere - praying was optional. The Sikh guide's English had been excellent but one thing he said struck a chord. He said, "Come in and pray for yourself, because no-one else is going to pray for you". A little harsh I thought but he meant well! Beside the temple there's a large pool of water filled with fish in which people can cleanse away their impurities if they so desire. It really is an awesome place. Lastly, we were taken across the site to see the kitchens in action - I've never seen a kitchen like it. They serve food twice a day in 4 hour sessions; it's open every day of the year and is completely staffed with volunteers. You could have taken a bath in some of the pans they were using, that's how massive they were! Huge piles of potatoes and onions being peeled and chopped and an automatic chapatti maker that dad was particularly excited about (small things!). We tried some of the chapattis - really really yummy - and dad made we video the chapatti machine production (lol).

Next stop was the Lodi Gardens, a huge area of greenery dotted with tombs around the grounds, a lake and the sound of a hundred different birds around you. It was such a calm place with handfuls of people sitting and relaxing under trees. On such a hot day in London you wouldn't be able to move for crowds in a place like this so it was nice to have so much space to move around. We wandered for a while until dehydration took over and we headed back to the metro. Most people know what a pop addict I am but the heat here means I'm drinking water constantly, which can only be a good thing I suppose! I managed to get a seat on the metro for the first time in days, despite ladies having their own separate carriages, when you're in a normal one there definitely isn't a queue of people offering to stand up for you!

We arrived at the Lotus temple, a MUCH more modern structure but it's not that surprising as it was finished in 1986. The vast white marble lotus flower temple is home to the Bahà'í House of Worship and they welcome people from all faiths to join them in their mission to 'unite the world". The building itself was impressive but looked like something out of Star Wars rather than a temple. Also, I'm not sure if it's because I'm more of an atheist but it all seemed a bit like a cult to me. We were taken through to the inside of the temple, one huge space with row after row of marble slab benches and an awesome skylight in the inner centre of the flower roof. An impressive room where total silence for prayer is mandatory - not a rule that dad took much notice of for very long! The best thing about the visit to the Lotus Temple was watching one of the outer 'leaves' being cleaned as we left - seven or eight men clutching ropes with a hose pipe and cloths - the photos have to be seen to be believed.

We rickshawed our way over to the ISKCON temple located nearby (The International Society for the Krishna Consciousness) which is a Hare Krishna temple. Even the plants are happy here - you're welcomed through the gates by topiaried trees (not sure if that's a real word but I'm going with it!) that are shaped like waving people. The building goes on and on and there are colourful images and scenes of Krishna everywhere. Again, live music was playing with the words 'Hare Krishna' being sung over and over again. We watched a completely bizarre interactive lights/video expo on Krishna and then decided we'd had enough singing and dancing for the day and headed off to Cafe 27 in Kailash Colony market to meet Nathan. It's a really cool bar on a rooftop but with someone feigning illness (mentioning no names) we soon bailed and headed to Spinns Resto Bar instead to meet Helen and Chetan. A few changes on the metro got us back to My Bar on the main bazaar where despite my claims that we had a train to catch to Jaipur the next day, because it was due to leave at 1:30pm this apparently had no relation whatsoever to this evening's drinking session. Another fantastic night in Delhi, the highlights being:

· Eating bananas in a bar like it was completely normal, never done that before...

· Chetan insisting that bananas dunked in vodka is the way forward (which he then demonstrated)

· Learning magic tricks from Nathan involving matchsticks and cigarette ash (oh the glamorous life I lead!)

· Staying after hours with the owner (totally awesome guy)

· And learning that the cure for Nathan's hiccups was to lean him backwards across the seat of a chair and pour water all over his face and (by accident) up his nose. He was pretty drenched but it seemed to do the trick! A totally unnecessary cycle rickshaw ride home and an hour sitting in the street demanding boiled eggs from a street vendor later (he got his egg sandwich eventually!) and I finally made it to bed at 3am. Tomorrow it's à bientôt Delhi and hello Jaipur, I can't wait!