After the long and slightly shambolic start to our Indian Adventure we had managed to catch up on sleep and after an egg breakfast (back in the office) we set off for a day of sightseeing in Delhi.We piled into our diplomat style car with our driver and headed for Old Delhi.On first impressions Delhi is chaotic but more noticeably run down and with the commonwealth games in less than 2 months it resembles a building site.The roads aren't any more crazy than in SE Asia however the cows that wander down the middle of the street have right of way and in the dust every pavement is being rebuilt and every building repainted.As we watched women in Sariees carrying bricks in metal bowls on their heads we wondered how Delhi would be ready for such an international event in time.

We parked up at the edge of the old town and visited the red fort and Jama Masjid.As well as preparing for the games there will be much going on here on the next public holiday so men were hanging from rickety scaffolding cleaning the buildings.Our first encounter with 'monument fees' were an indication of the massive difference for Indians and foreigners (10 rps for them and 250 for us!)

Our driver then walked us into Old Delhi through colliding rickshaws and past begging children and spice stalls to the mosque.After a walk around we continued to Karim's for lunch.Old Delhi is exactly that with few cars, narrow streets, goats hiding under carts and up to 10 school children crammed onto a rickshaw.Karim's restaurant is hidden down an alley way and is popular with tourists and locals and once we'd tried the Chicken Karahai we could see why.Stuffed after lunch we walked around …tombs and then visited the Lotus temple.After seeing so many temples over the last few months we presumed this would be more of the same so were impressed as we approached the white lotus flower shaped building positioned on a lake surrounded by parkland.We discovered before going in that this temple is for all religions, ethnicities and genders.It is one of eight in the world (at least one in each continent) belonging to Ba Haii religion which claims to include people from every religion and background.Inside was surprisingly peaceful and still (especially considering the nearby chaos) and as we left Indian families were excited to have photos taken with us!

After a long day out in some very humid and hot weather we headed back to the office to pick up our tickets for our onward journey to Rajastan.We were however, not particularly surprised when minutes turned to hours drinking tea and we were no further forward…

Liz