Well here we are, we made it!
We had two superb flights, the first leg was to Muscat Oman and what an interesting place to fly to. We left Heathrow in the dark and, as we were getting closer to Oman, we could see the sun rising on the horizon, a beautiful sight. Within a very short time it was day light and we were flying over miles and miles of desert which stretched as far as the eye could see. The vastness of the desert was broken here and there with what at first looked like settlements but we think now they were probably oil wells as they were great distances apart and there were lots of huge black circles everywhere, bore holes maybe?
We only had time for a quick toilet break in Muscat then we caught our connecting flight to Delhi which, I must say, looked very orderly and civilised as we were flying in; first impressions hey? Once our battered old 'taxi' finally arrived to take us to the 'New King Hotel' we set off and the memories came flooding back of just what it's like to be driven about in some of these foreign lands. I can't honestly say it was as terrifying as Cairo or Morocco but it came very close and it was made worse by the fact that, whilst either weaving in and out of traffic or straddling 2 lanes at God knows how many miles per hour, the driver kept opening his door and looking down at the road, he was then fiddling about with bits of paper on the dashboard and rummaging around by his feet, no thoughts of keeping his eyes on the road. Eventually Dave could contain himself no longer and enquired in his best pigeon English, 'Lost summat 'ave ya mate?' It transpired the driver had mislaid his parking ticket and was worried he wouldn't be able to claim the rupees back, hardly a good reason to almost write off a car and 2 passengers to boot, we thought, but then, on second thoughts, those few rupees were probably equal to a day's pay to him, so we just clung on and 'grinned and bared it', as is our way.
Back to Heathrow airport for a moment: being on the tight side and knowing we would be eating on the plane later, we decided to just have a Boots Meal Deal for lunch. Once I had made the selection from a vast array of tempting goodies [I was sent to choose as Dave was not prepared to give up his seat in the bar] I went to pay and it was then that I realised I had left our debit and credit cards in Cheltenham. I went back to Dave having spent all our last cash on duck in hoi sin sauce wraps and to my relief he said he had 2 cards on him, neither of which were we intending to use abroad for various lack of funds reasons but at least we didn't have to make a mad dash back to Cheltenham, let's just hope we don't have any emergencies whilst in India as that was what the credit cards were for. Anyway my confidence in being well organised was well and truly in tatters by this time and when I realised I had also left the brand new camera that we had bought the day before and all his lordships clean pants and socks as well. Well, I'm proper in the dog house!
Anyway, Laura, [our well travelled daughter] recommended our hotel in Delhi. Yes Laura, we said we wanted to see the real India but maybe we should have stipulated we wanted to see it at a bit more of a distance. We are slap bang in the middle of ....... well, there are no words to describe it, and our room is.......well, I'm speechless! Actually, the room's not that bad, it's very old and the basin has so many cracks in it, it's worse than the f word guys face [what's his name again?] There's a big bucket with a jug in to have a shower and the bed?...well we have asked for some sheets and they haven't arrived as yet so at the moment we are sleeping between my two sarongs [they come in useful for soooo many things when you are backpacking] with a blanket on top. [I had sheets and pillow cases ready to bring but forgot them too!] Any way, there doesn't seem to be anything flying, creeping, running, hopping or crawling about in here as i sit in our bed writing this [we haven't turned the light out yet mind] so it will do for a couple of nights.
With tad feelings of despondency at our surroundings we set out to explore some more and what an amazing place we are in. We are staying up a tiny alley, slap bang in the middle of Delhi's main bazaar! There are very few Westerners about so we do feel like we are in the real India. It is very obviously a poor area; apart from scruffy market type stalls there are little run down shops selling everything from Hari Krishna Cd's to live chickens. The paths and alley ways are paved with dried mud and rubbish and there is dust and grime where ever you go. The people are weathered and worn but welcoming and polite, the nice thing is we don't feel hassled by the shop keepers, they obviously want your custom but they will take no for an answer. Here and there, whole families are camped out by the roadsides, making our own humble accommodation at the 'New King Hotel' seem all the more des res. We found a 'restaurant ' with a 'roof terrace' so we could indulge ourselves in our favourite past-time of 'watching the world go by' and what a world this is. The beers we order are served disguised in a tea pot with mugs to drink out of as most restaurantsin India are are not licenced to serve alcohol [Sorry Dave I hadnt resd that bit when we booked]. We sit at our table, sip our beer and watch fascinated at the stories unfolding below us...... A conglomerate of bicycle rick-shaws, mopeds, cars, bikes and people already vie for space and weave in and out of each other on the roads [no pavements], then, as though this isn't enough, along comes a cow, then another then another, they have no road sense and are completely free to roam willy nilly in India as, to the Hindu's, they are considered sacred animals. Tonight, the ones we watch wander around a piece of waste ground , picking through the rubbish, sharing the space with a whole family who have just lit a fire and are sitting around it; one old fella is there lying on a bed, no mattress, just the frame but he is very much part of the family circle. Nearby, there is a group of about 10 children all scrabbling about and playing in the dirt with the dirt. A scruffy old man hobbles along with a carrier bag and throws the cows some old veg; the old fella then throws the bag on the floor and the children pounce on it obviously delighted with their new plaything and proceed to work, as a team, filling the bag with gravel; they laugh and chatter all the while, I wouldn't have missed this experience for all the tea in India.
There really wasn't anywhere we fancied eating where we were [the thought of Delhi Belly so early on in our trip didn't appeal] Although there were long queues of Indians at the street food stalls selling no manner of tasty, interesting looking food, it really is grubby around here and, anyhow, we had had 3 lovely meals in the air so we went back to our room, chanced the electric supply [well I did, Dave stood by in his rubber soled shoes with a broom handle to poke me with just in-case I got an electric shock [I remembered that precaution from my first aid classes] and fired up our travel kettle [yes, I remembered the kettle] to make Ainsley Harriots Mulligatawny cuppa soups, [what an insult when you're in the very thick of things in India!] Oh well, tomorrow's another day, we might feel more adventurous by then.