Blog : Delhi and Agra

On the plane from Bangkok to Delhi (in India incase you didn't know!) we were all feeling quite apprehensive. We'd prepared as much as we felt we could but still we were heading into the very much unknown. India was territory none of us had covered before and was very unlike any other country we'd been to so far on our travels... Sitting quietly in our seats, we were all secretly hoping the half empty plane stayed that way and that we'd be able to move forward a row to the emergency exit seats (extra leg room) in front of us! We communicated this through sly pointing and sign language as we didnt want anyone else to have the same idea as us and we were praying for good flight karma, as you'd have thought after the amount of journeys we've done, we'd at least have experienced one upgrade or something, but no!! We were in luck though and all got a row of three seats each to ourselves so we could all cuddle back down and bank some zzzz's as we'd been up at 3am to get to the airport four hours in advance, just in case there were any Songram queues! I slept a little bit, but the new James Bond film was showing (bonus!!) on the shared TV screens and so I enjoyed watching it again! The airplane food was pretty dodgy and disgusting, like a savoury sponge something and sort of gave us a taste of what was to come for our month of Indian breakfasts!

Landing in Delhi airport, we stepped timidly off the plane, making sure our scarfs fully covered any shoulder, neck and arm flesh and pulled our trousers down right round our ankles. The airport was swish and as nice and clean as any other - a surprise from what we were expecting. I couldn't get my head around the 4.5h time difference between here and home though, I don't think any of us had ever heard of a country having a half an hour time difference before! We passed through passport and immigration control relatively easily and our backpacks were one of the first few out and even the little cover Kate had brought for hers, that had popped off, came round on the carousel! We walked through the arrivals doorway and was greeted by a wall of executive looking drivers with name plates. None of them were for us though, but we could see a second, much bigger gaggle of men standing outside the main airport doors. After a deep breath we walked out and after a few minutes we spotted a bloke holding my name on a sign with the name of our hotel as well, not before we'd all been completely eye raped a few times though. The Indian men are not very good at concealing their ogling. And it's not even as though we were a) looking hot as we'd just got off a flight, or b) we had any flesh on show! I think it was just that the novelty of seeing westerners in the country still is yet to wear off, especial three young girls! We were greeted and welcomed to Delhi so whole heartedly by our taxi driver our hearts almost melted! After being warned so much against being nice, trusting it friendly to anyone, especially in the north, it was a complete surprise to be greeted with such hospitality! Our taxi driver was so sweet, telling us not to speak to anyone and to be very very careful of eating "any foods from the streets, as bad for belly"! He drove us to Wood Castle, our hotel in New Delhi and even on the short drive we saw crazy driving that made no sense - driving all over the roads, with no lane discipline, cyclists and buffaloes on dual carriageways and full on make shift homes in the middle of roundabouts, with loads of homeless people sprawled on the ground asleep.

Wood Castle, our hotel was pretty nice! A real hotel, with lovely staff -all male, which was bizarre! - free breakfast and proper swanky bedrooms with aircon, hello flashpacking! Again we were welcomed most hospitably and made to feel very much at home, in a non uncomfortable way! We were offered free tea and travel advice if we wanted it and were escorted around the corner to the little mobile phone shop and given a well negotiated deal on a sim card! My very first impressions of India were that the people were much nicer than I'd expected, the weather wasn't quite as hot and the city not as overwhelmingly crazy! Hassam, the 'entertainer' of the hotel took Kate and I to the phone shop and also pointed out a restaurant for us to have a late lunch in. There wasn't very much else around the immediate hotel vicinity that we could see and so we decided to go for it at the recommended restaurant, which tired out to be quite expensive (in relative terms). We had walked in asking to see a menu, in order to subtly check out the prices, only to be told that "price really shouldn't matter ma'am and that it was hygiene that was important", obviously this was an establishment that washed its food in bottled water and only served 'safe meat', whatever that meant!? We were ushered to a table and as the only ones in the restaurant and two western girls, the waiters crowed around! I ordered a special Delhi mixed veg curry and a roti (thickish Indian bread to use as a shovel when eating with your hands). It was absolutely delish and I even really liked the paneer cheese in it. Seriously mum you should try it from Shefford next time! The meal came to just less than £5 each, which sounds so cheap but comparably it wasn't, although we enjoyed eating there and chatting to the waiters, watching their traditional yes/no Indian head wobble and asking them questions about what to do in Delhi! We couldn't quite finish our meal so we got the last bits put into a doggy bag and we took them back to the hotel for Al who had been feeling pretty s*** so had a lie down. We had a few hours to wait before Helen arrived that evening and whilst the girls slept away the time, I spoke to the hotel staff about train timings and researched all of the different train classes. I had to try and stay awake as I knew of be really grumpy if I napped! Helen arrived just after 9pm and it was so nice to see her again and feel like we were ready to properly explore Delhi all together :) She ordered some dinner and we made a rough plan for the following morning, before I had to retire to bed!

The following morning we woke and headed downstairs for the free breakfast. We decided to order the Indian selection, which was either deep fried naan and daal or potato stuffed roti with a very sharp pickle. We went for both options between us and were pleasantly surprised at how well it all went down! We decided that we would hire a driver for the day, to take us around Delhi, as we had quite a few bits on our agenda. The hotel offered us a good rate to hire a bloke over two days, which we agreed on as we had planned to go to Agra and see the Taj on our second proper day, so that all worked! Kamal, our driver was very sweet and insisted on opening the car doors for each of us and calling us all ma'am! We did feel very posh and un-backpacker-y! First Kamal drove us to New Delhi train station, as after taking the advice from Lonely Planet, the ONLY place we were going to buy our tickets would be from the tourist counter on the first floor. All of the men in the hotel warned us against speaking to anyone in the train station and said to keep our wits about us, which made the girls a little nervous I think. Kamal parked the car and came into the station with us like an escort, I think that the Wood Castle staff had insisted he do this and I had a chuckle to myself at how the convo might have gone... " look after our girls!" Or "keep our whiteys safe"!! Upstairs on the tourist ticket office there was a huge queue snaking around the seating area and so whilst KV and Al sat holding our place, Nelen and I went to the info counter, armed with my train time research and asked for the train availability and prices as they were virtually impossible to decipher online. The lady was so helpful and funny because she kept batting men away that came to ask her a question whist she was in her element helping us! We had to fill forms in which said our choice of class, train times and weirdly our passport number and ages, which was a bit time consuming, but meant we were pretty much at the front of the Q immediately! Another lady processed our request and printed our tickets, with the biggest smile on her face :) it was funny that even in the tourist ticket office there were very few white or western people there! Bless Kamal, he sat and waited for us as well. We'd been time we wouldn't be able to purchase all of the train tickets we wanted so were pretty chuffed when we managed too and although it felt like a lot money £30 ish, it meant all if our travel in the north if India was booked and sorted! From the train station, which was pretty chaotic, with beggars everywhere, business men strutting with their briefcases and women in sari's asleep on the cold hard floor, we quickly went back to the hotel to drop off the tickets and check the name of what it was we wanted to do next - the markets!

Kamal took us the Imperial Hotel next, where we wanted to go for high tea. When we got there, it was so posh and formal and grand and the high tea was about £10 - astronomical! We had a wander round to see how the other half live and then as it wasn't even served until another hour later we decided we'd come back another day for it. We had a good laugh talking loudly about going to get back in our drivers car and get chauffeur driven around! Next on our list was to spend some time at the markets and Lonely Planet recommended Chandni Chowk market as one to get the best local Indian experience. Kamal repeatedly warned us about how terribly dangerous the market was, located in the Old Delhi area of time, but we thought he was just trying to cotton wool us. We parked up outside the Red Fort, as no cars were allowed in the majority of the market and he said we'd enjoy going around for the afternoon in a cycle rickshaw which I thought was funny as the book warns much more strongly of the dangers of theses versus the market!

Kamal negotiated a pretty poo price for us, almost £5 for two rickshaw a for one hour - We were paying him £12 for a whole day!! But on we got and we think he had some kind of "take care of my girls conversation"! It was quite fun being on the cycle rickshaws, which are just like the things you see pootling around the west end - a little seated carriage attached to a pedal bike that the man cycles. Although in India they're allowed on all the main roads, which was pretty scary, crossing several lanes of fast moving traffic to turn and sitting in the middle of the road waiting for the traffic to stop. I did feel rather like a sitting duck, very easy prey, so we all sat and held on to our belongings - bumbags under our clothes and scarfs around our shoulders! There was a bit of a commotion that our nosy taxi driver wanted to look at so we were sitting in the middle of a large group of people and a very dodgy looking man came right over and stood by the side of the cart. His eyes kept flickering and it made both Al and I feel very uncomfortable. Our rickshaw man turned around at that point and shoved him away. It looked like they got into a bit of a barney and as we were cycling away he followed us slowly and limping, shouting at us! Our driver told us to be careful and not have any valuables on show - which we didn't - and then he explained that he was a beggar and had wanted my water bottle! All that fuss over about three inches of warm water!!

The rickshaw men dropped us off outside a restaurant to have a late lunch and we were all a bit dubious about going into what looked like a massively western place that stick out like a sore thumb on a very traditional looking Indian main road, with clothes stalls and hawkers sprawling all over the pavement, homeless people asleep on the central reservation and men everywhere spitting and chewing tobacco. It's difficult to portray how busy it was and how much there was to look at, whist we were in the rickshaw but at every turn of the head there was something id not yet noticed or seen - always something new to shock or surprise you! There were a lot of men and women actually too that just openly stared at us. Even in the capital city, it was as though they'd never seen white girls before! So we'd been dropped of at a restaurant called Haldrims, which looked very clean and orderly in comparison to the rest of the street. Almost clinical actually, bit authentic at all but we'd been told this brand was the equivalent of our McDonalds and that every Indian loved it, so we thought it was worth a try. We spotted two westerners sitting eating in the upstairs restaurant and they explained to us how the composted ordering and payment system worked. Chaotic and illogical do not do it justice! Kate and I held the table that the other westerns had just left from, as loads of people were actually eating standing up! And the girls went to order for us - apparently the special Thali was recommended so we all went for it. Thali is a selection of many small Indian dishes, served in a sort of school dinner tray, with different compartments. It comes with usually a daal (runny lentil dip, not v spicy) a mixed veg curry (quite spicy and normally my fave) Paneer (Indian cheese) in a creamy sweet tomato sauce and some roti or chapatti bread to eat with. There is also rice which normally is pretty rank and some kind of sweet, which in this instance was a yoghurty thing which I didn't eat and a very sticky honey sponge, which I wolfed down! The food at Haldrims was a little more expensive once again than elsewhere and to begin with we felt quite disappointed to be eating in essentially what was McDonalds, but after speaking to the other westerners we found out apparently its a really recommended experience as the food is so popular and many locals also choose to eat there. Another Indian Canadian we spoke to on the table next to us said it was the number one rated place in the whole of the Old Delhi area!

Old Delhi was very different to New Delhi, where we were staying. It was once where the British Empire was based and so we were expecting beautiful old buildings with incredible architecture and although I could see the beauty in some places under all if the hustle, bustle and grime, in most areas it just looked very run down. New Delhi in comparison was a swanky clean and light area of town and although our hotel was in a pretty residential area with housing blocks all around it - very local - it didn't feel intimidating or dangerous at all. I was really excited to see the widely talked about Indian chaos though, so I was loving being in the rickshaw and darting around town! A few dodgy things happened like when a man spat on Nelens foot and a beggars eyes nearly popped out it his head ogling at the four of us, but we did enjoy it. We asked the rickshaw drivers to take us to the Chandni Chowk market next, as we wanted to wander around and see if we could find some Indian outfits to buy and look at the options we had for the wedding. Generally throughout our travels we have loved local markets the most, and find them to be the best place to really 'see' a city! The rickshaw drivers again warned us against going to this market and said it was completely not what we wanted and that they'd take us to a different one instead... It was business-y and dangerous and closed apparently - all of the standard 'I'm going to con you type lines' but we went with it as we hadn't really got a choice. We arrived outside what looked like a family shop, which had been a good twenty minute cycle outside of the town - definitely not what we wanted. To humour the rickshaw drivers we went inside where at the door we met a couple of western boys who's just been dropped off as well after telling their rickshaw men try wanted to see a market to buy clothes and souvineers. It was down a rather dark flight of stairs into this place and bless the bits, they weren't planning on going in at all but all said they couldn't let us four go in alone and so they would come down with us and have a quick look. It ended up being an absolutely legitimate place, as we'd actually thought, but was the most stereotypical tourist trap you'd ever seen, with hugely overpriced saris and gems etc, that the rickshaw men would probably earn commission from. A few minutes later when we came back outside, we had to be quite firm with the rickshaw drivers, telling them we weren't impressed that they'd wasted so much of our time that we were meant to be paying hourly for and that they hadn't taken us to where we wanted to go at all. There was a conversation about money had where both drivers seemed really nice, saying if you happy ma'am we happy and after being stern and saying we wanted to go back to the original market we'd asked to go to and have a wander around we got back on our way. We cycled down some of the back streets, which were narrow, exploding with colour, fake gold jewellery and people everywhere. The overhead electricity wires were in a massive tangle and there were hundreds of them looping and crisscrossing over head! In the streets we saw dentists going about their appointments on the side of the road and so many men just fast asleep on the ground, looking half dead. We pulled outside another little dingy looking alleyway and the drivers led us to a sari and salwar kameez shop, probably another one they'd get commission from. This place we were more interested in and decided to humour the shopkeeper for a few minutes... We were led and and asked to sit on the floor which was covered with one big squishy mattress and sheet and asked to explain what it was we wanted. A selection of un tailored salwars were brought out to show us and a couple were quite nice materials and patterns. Having found out the price and the time needed to actually have the material shapes down into fitted clothing we were out off and got quite angry with our rickshaw drivers for taking us around the block and not to any if the places we'd asked for. We wanted to just get out and leave and we tried to pay them so we could go back to the little streets we'd cycled through and have another look... But they were having none if it and as we had cash out, we drew quite a crowd, which none if us liked particularly so we got back into the rickshaws and directed them exactly where we wanted to go.

We stopped and parked in a little courtyard as no vehicles were allowed in the back alleys and we were ushered into yet another tourist trap jewellery shop. Inside Nelen rearranged her scarf over her shoulders and as she had done flesh on show, the blokes eyes popped out on springs he was checking her out so much. It actually made me feel really uncomfortable to see him eye-raping her and we swiftly had to leave. We walked up and down the street, which one of the drivers who accompanied us told us was Wedding street! We walked up and down looking in all if the small stalls which lined either side of the road , but finding nothing that we wanted to buy... After a while we realised that the market wasn't quite for us and so we asked the rickshaw men to take us somewhere to get Mendhi done - the traditional henna designs women have done on their hands and feet before weddings. We cycled around and around and through the Muslim quarter of the market; which was really interesting. We saw probably the largest number of women wearing burkas that I'd ever seen and all the shop fronts were full of burkas with beautiful gem details on the sleeves or headband or wherever... It was amazing to see such a variety of burkas on sale. The vibe in the Muslim quarter was very different to the other sections of the huge sprawling market, which was more like a network of narrow streets with stalls haphazardly set up next to one another. Our drivers could not seem to find anyone soon Mendhi, which was strange as the Lonely Planet book had said there were lots of women milling around offering it to the tourists in the market. After about an hour of pootling around, although it was soo interesting to see all the different sides of the city we did decide that we'd had enough and asked to go back to where we had left Kamal the driver, at the Red Fort. The air was very dusty and the sunshine bright so our eyes were feeling quite irritate and with so much to look at you barely want to blink and miss anything and we all had big red circles all around them from rubbing!

It was quite awkward once the drivers had dropped us off. They wanted a lot more money than what had been negotiated and because we had not been taken to the places we had asked to go to, we were refusing to pay the additional time they were wanting. A bit of a commotion was caused and one of the cyclists went off in a complete huff saying he'd rather it was for free and that the 500rs we were offering him for three hours was offensive (of which we were in the restaurant for an hour and another hour was spent going to all of the wrong places, and baring in mind that we were paying Kamal approx 1200rs per day between us and he had a car!!) We have a one thousand rupee note to the second rickshaw man who accepted it too gratuitously to realise that it was to be shared between them both. And only after a few minutes they both started following us and shouting at us for "ripping them off". We wanted to go into the Red Fort next to see the impressive building (the next most visited attraction behind the Taj Mahal!) but it was closed until later in the evening, when it reopened for a light and sound show which we had been planning to attend, so Kamal took us to a nearby park, where loads of families were lazing in the grass eating picnics which was sweet. There were a couple of very mangy looking dogs as well but thankfully they didn't come near us as we said out loud "no jab, no jab" meaning none of us wanted rabies!! Whilst the girls told Kamal about how the rickshaw drivers had tried to rip us off and not taken us to the right places and explain why they had followed us and were now sitting by the entrance to the park, I was surrounded by small Indian children who all wanted to chat. They were chirping hellos and one brave one went forward for a handshake which once I did, they all wanted one! I told them they were wearing beautiful dresses and one of the older girls who could speak a little English told me all of their names and ages. They all sat in a circle around me and I showed them how to play a very simple hand clapping game, where you have to change to direction of the clapping (a bit like duck duck goose!) They were so sweet! After a while Kamal too us to the endurance to the Red Fort and persuade the guard to let us walk around to the ticket counter on the other side. He warned us against talking to anyone and to go straight to the ticket counter and then straight to our show seats! He was very sweet, saying it was his duty to keep us safe! In comparison to all the warnings of how terrible all the people were meant to be, we were fusing them all surprisingly nice in the north, and not naively so either! It was quite a log walk in the dark to the ticket office but we were fine, there was four of us and we were inside the tourist attraction so not any old Tom, d*** or Harry could come in. We had to wait about an hour before the show started which was pretty boring as the Fort was closed so we couldn't look around and we were all desperately thirsty but all the shops had closed inside the Fort walls. When it was finally time to go through to our seats (benches) outside to see an animation of the Red Fort history we got there and bagsyed a bench each at the front as the there wasn't very many people, lied down and had a little nap before it begun. When the show did start it was massively underwhelming. The light show was just the turning on and off of a red and purple spot light on some of the buildings, not even in time to when they were being spoken about or anything! And the sound quality was really crackly, which made the booming story voice really annoying and the story was pretty dubious history! Although all of our ears pricked up when the story talked of how the Red Fort builder was partial to a common slut! The mosquitos absolutely ravaged us as we didn't have any repellent on and about twenty minutes into the show it was so terrible that we all snuck out and ran back to Kamals car. Another load of westerners followed us out as well, which was funny! We had to go to a streetside shop as soon as we got to Kamal, as we were all so thirsty and in need of sugar. We all downed bottles of lemonade of coke instantly and then were giggly off sugar for the next twenty minutes in the car! We arranged to meet Kamal at 7am the next morning to head to Agra and see the Taj Mahal and then I had to retire to bed as I was knackered!!

We were a bit late the following morning after gobbling down a load of toast and Kamal was super early but we hit the road about 7:30am to Agra. We all had little snoozes on the way and were just fascinated looking out of the window at the scenery. I loved all the painting on the sides and back of the trucks and lorrys, saying honk your horn if your passing... We took loads of pictures and thought we'd have to make an album of pictures of decorated vehicles! We stopped off at Akbar's Tomb, on the way to the Taj Mahal, which was an absolutely beautiful looking building, quite Arabian and made with red brick. We didn't pay to go in but we had a look around the public grounds and loved the amazing yellow flowers planted in the front of the main entrance, which were attracting thousands of little white butterflies which looked really cute in pictures :)

Kamal then suggested that we went for lunch next as he didn't think we would eat until about 4pm otherwise if we went to the Taj first. We found an authentic and down and dirty sounding place in the Lonely Planet but he said we should trust him and he'd take us to somewhere nice... Which he did but it also happened to be astronomically expensive again (well, £6 each!) and we couldn't really walk out. We each ordered a vegetarian Thali again, its a good order as it gives you a few different options if you don't like one dish or if its too spicy etc (obviously not for me!) After lunch we got back in the car and finally headed to the Taj Mahal! We went via someone's house who came to get in the car and Kamal explained that he was to be our tour guide for the Taj Mahal as it was wry dangerous inside and we needed a guide and then we would learn all about the building as well... It was all a bit awkward as we didn't want a guide, we just wanted to look at the building and wander around in our own time. Kamal was saying in front of him that if we wernt happy with the tour then we didnt have to pay him, that it was a tips only thing but we had to say no which was even more awkward as Kamal said this guide had Waite all day for us because we'd said we'd wanted one yesterday to him (although we think that we had just been saying yes to him to a sentence or something that we really hadn't understood in his thick Indian accent!) We walked from the west gate to the main entry of the Taj where we brought out tickets, which were quite expensive (again!) although we were given a free bottle of water and shoe covers as well, to wear inside the building. The Taj Mahal was smaller than I had imagined and bit much whiter and seriously impressive! We all had a little moment where we just looked in awe at the completely symmetrical building. And we took lots of photos of us all, one of us doing a pose spelling Agra! We walked around the Taj and inside marvelling at all of the intricate details :) We then tried to capture the Princess Diana picture on the bench in front of the building. It was so so cool and we were half thinking it would be a bit of a anticlimax but it wasn't at all. We had to wear the silly shoe covers when we were walking around the tomb inside and it was so hot that they made my feet sweat!! It was a beautifully hot day though with clear blue skies which looked good in my photos! After a couple of hours we decided we'd head back to the car and Kamal called just at the same time to ask what time we wanted picking up. It was funny as we were walking to the gate, there were a load of little monkeys that suddenly came out of nowhere and seriously eyed up Nelens lolly, which in the end she chucked over to them to stop them coming any closer or attacking us!! We were planning on trying to go behind the Taj on a boat, as we'd heard that it was a really cool view but the water was so low and the traffic so standstill to get to the jetty point that in the end we decided we'd give it a miss. We were all really exhausted when we got back in the car, and the thought of another four hour drive back to Delhi was knackering! We had a quick wee stop half way through the journey home, at Cafe Coffee Day, the Indian version of Starbucks, where the girls all had a chai tea and snacks and I had a warm veg samosa which was distinctly disgusting, but I was hungry! Once again back at the hotel we all pretty much passed out as soon as we'd arrived and we said we'd treat ourselves to no alarms the following morning!

We slept in super late the following morning which was glorious! We had a slow breakfast and packed up all our stuff and the Woodcastle guys said we could leave our big backpacks at the hotel and only take day backs to Varanasi - our next stop that evening. We went with Kamal to another market which was really cool, he got it right that morning. It was a local market but that was actually selling stuff that we wanted and we pranced around looking at all the stuff! Nelen and I brought a cool pair of trousers each, PJ style with crazy prints for £2 and also a salwar, which is a long Indian top that you wear over leggings. Mine was a blue and white printed one. We had to take it to the tailors next door to have the sleeves sewn on. Our arm measurements were taken, as I think its fashionable in India to have really tight sleeves so I had to explain that this would make me a very sweaty weary and that I needed a bit more air and movement! It only took twenty minutes for both Nelen and Is sleeves to be sewn on, which gave us just enough time to have a wander around the rest of the market before picking our tops up. We were all loving looking at the saris and Indian dresses for ladies but none of us wanted to go into any of the shops and start looking to closely as we don't want to have to carry the heavy material for longer than we need to before the wedding. We did however all stock up on Bindis. I brought a small set and done large ones I thought I could wear at the wedding, although the shopkeeper did tell us that wearing a jewelled bindi was a sign of already being married! Oh well we all thought and brought the packets anyway! Even though I wasn't hungry, I was drawn to a small street stall in the corner if the market and I asked to try a little bit of the tomato and pea curry sauce. It was absolutely delish and Nelen decided to order a thali plate with that, onion barghi and fried potato and I thought I'd try the veg momo's with the sauce in the top. The momo's were like steamed versions of gyoza dumplings, filled with veggies and were absolutely delish opus and apparently a Tibetan treat. I scoffed most of the plate down and Kate finished them off. I was pretty proud that that almost constituted as street food and that neither of us got the s***s afterwards!!

After we'd finished wandering around the market and done our shopping, Kamal drove us to the Imperial hotel once again, as we'd decided that really it was the quintessentially English thing to do and as Delhi was part of the British Raj, we had to! It was comparably very expensive (again!) for Indian standards but then when rated against the Ritz etc £10 per person is über cheap!! I chose to have a black masala tea which was very strong and potent but I actually really liked it. Our cake shelves had a level of savouries - cucumber sandwiches with the crusts cut off, roast vegetables and a spring roll. The next layer had a chocolate eclair, which I didn't like, a custard slice which tasted more like cream, which I didn't like and a fig pastry, which was crazily delish! And as for the third tier... The lightest and fluffiest scone known to man with mini pots of Bonne Marche jam. The cream was a huge disappointment, it was not clotted but the scones were so good that it actually didn't matter! Obviously I absolutely demolished the whole lot instantly! Feeling so full we all had to waddle back to the car and Kamal drove us back to Wood Castle to have quick showers and check out before catching the train to Mughal Sarai Jn, a station near Varanasi that we had to book as all of the train tickets were sold out between Delhi and Varanasi. We were panicked a bit by the Wood Castle staff who told us we needed to arrive an hour early and that now with the Delhi traffic we might even miss the train (we had an hour to do a 3km journey so realistically were never going to miss the train even in the heaviest traffic but we didn't know that and all flapped running around trying to sort out lady bits and pay our bills!) We left our big backpacks at the hotel and only took day sacks with us, mine was so full and heavy with both the lonely planet and the big SLR camera!

We got to New Delhi station in relatively good time and as the taxi driver dropped us off he once again warned us not to talk to anyone and that everyone would be out to get us. Go straight to our platform, board the train once it had arrived, find our beds and draw the curtains! I can't decide whether all these warnings are dressing us up in cotton wool and making us expect the big bad wolf to jump out at us at every turn (which it doesn't) or whether because of the warnings were just very good at being stern faced, saying no and giving off an impression of not being interested or wanting to even talk? The station wasn't that bad though and there were a few friendly people that pointed us in the right direction for platforms and our train carriage etc. On the actual platform and throughout the station there were people laying on the floor asleep everywhere! Literally everywhere, on the dirty floor. Men, women and a children and the amount of tiny grannies just sitting cross legged on the floor amazed me. The thought of either of my nans just sitting on the floor in the middle of St Pancras station twiddling their thumbs white waiting for a train actually made laugh!! On the platform there were also a few hawkersselkubg drinks and snacks and some concessions selling magazines at the cheapest of prices. All for less than 50p and were talking Cosmopolitan, Vogue, Elle etc. Nelen and Kate brought a load of them for the journey. Once the train actually arrived we found our carriage and seats quite easily. We were travelling in class A2, which meant there was aircon (which was soooo freezing it was almost unbearable) and that the bunk beds only stacked two high. We had our own little section with two upper and two lower beds all facing eachother with a flimsy curtain that could be pulled across to shut us off from the corridor but everytime someone past it opened as they stepped on the compartment to let someone else pass or whatever as the gangway was very narrow. Our beds were aligned at a right angle with the train and opposite there were two more beds facing the same way as the train travelled. It was funny that within minutes of us sitting down the beds opposite us were completely full with fat sweaty men just staring us at. There is no shame or attempt to hide any kind of staring in Indian and its as though your business if my business, there's no such things as personal space, privacy or being allowed a moment! The train beds were relatively comfortable and we were given blankets and sheets, although we wandered whether that would still be the case when we take some of our other trains which we are in lower classes for. The best bit about the train was the food! An official pantry man asked if we'd like dinner and Nelen said shed seen a Gordon Ramsay show about India where he'd said the train food was outstanding, so we all said yes and about half an hour later and for a pound we were each delivered a thali tray! The potato curry was my favourite and I gobbled the whole lot along with the chapati. The rice here in India is very sub par and I've noticed that many of the locals don't bother with it, so neither do i, preferring to eat with bread and my hands! We had a weird and supposed astrologist man sat in one of the bunks opposite us who came into our area to use the charging plug and he started talking. He wanted read all of our palms but neither Kate nor I were keen. He did Nelen and Al's and did some strange Arabic chanting and swirling of his fingers and obviously predicted grave things for the both of them which I think threw them off a bit. In the end we had to usher him out and draw the curtain once more as he was beginning to encroach on our already limited space! We played cards for a whole before climbing into our beds. Mine was a top bunk but thankfully this time it had a proper safety bar, unlike the Bangkok train! I slept right through until about 6am when the man selling chai and others started stomping the gangway once again hollering at the top of their voices "chai chai chai teaaaaaa chai". I woke a couple of times in the night but that was mainly to do with the fact it wasn't the most comfy to sleep with both my bum bag and money belt on and hug my other bag! The girls didn't have quite as much luck though and apparently there was a really loud snorer that kept them awake all night. Kate said she had nightmares as well :( We had all had in the backs of our head though that we couldn't miss our stop as there was no on train announcement or anything to say which station we were pulling into and it was near impossible to work it out from looking out of the small window and so when our supposed arrival time of 7:40 came and went we all got a little worried we'd missed the station somehow. Oh no though, the train was running just over hour hours late. How?? How is it possible to run that late on a railway - its not like there's traffic or anything! We had to call our Varanasi hotel to make sure the driver they'd sent to pick us up would wait and we all had to embrace the Indian delays we'd heard so much about and accept that our 11h journey was actually going to be more like 16! (Which boded well for the 18h journey we have booked for later in the week to Jaisalmer!!)