Five full days in Delhi!
There was a point where we thought: ‘Have we made a mistake?’ In the end it was just right, even if the last day was just spent wandering around the upmarket Connaught Place. It was good to relax after chasing around seeing the sights.
When we first arrived at the hotel we were greatly relieved that we could have our room early. However, our hopes of getting some sleep were shattered by the construction work next door. We gave up on the idea of sleeping, or really it gave up on it’s own, and just went for a walk until evening. Getting close up and personal with what seemed like mayhem. We could start the serious stuff tomorrow.
Our first idea back home had been to visit Agra (Taj Mahal) and the travel on to Varanasi, but it would have meant a fair bit of backtracking, so in the end we decided on the Taj Mahal and Agra Fort as a day trip out of Delhi. For that we hired a car and ‘Guide’. I’ve never travelled with a ‘guide’ before, it’s reassuring to find out that had never been a poor choice.
we then spent a further two days exploring Delhi old and new, taking in the forts, old and new. Unfortunately we had not only landed here on a weekend, but on big holiday weekend too. I am sure that most of the sites like the Taj Mahal and the Red Fort are nearly always pretty manic, but this weekend was really bad. Still, we couldn’t have not visited them.
Sunday and Delhi Old Fort was a real surprise, at first it almost felt like we had the place to ourselves. I think it was only partly because we arrived early, but for the only time this weekend we managed to get away from all the crowds. We had a relaxing morning around a fort that with what little it lacks in granduer was easily made up for by it’s peace and calm.
Here we are then at Delhi Cantt railway station four hours early for the Vande Baharat Express to Jaipur. It wasn’t as bad as it sounds. It took us an hour to find out if the train that was standing at the platform was ours or perhaps a train scheduled for an earlier departure. Having established that this was indeed our train we just settled down to wait. I got a chance to finally finish preparing some photos for the journal, interspersed with trips to the snack stands on the other platform. There’s something exciting about walking across railway tracks. We even used to be able to do it in Britain.
Six o’clock came and we boarded the train. The First Class carriages on these trains are wonderfully spacious, with plenty of room overhead for bags and we quickly settled in. Although we knew that a meal was included in the fare, we weren’t prepared for what was to follow.
First round was a litre bottle of water each, which we had expected as we saw all that water loaded onto the train. Next we were presented a tray with a bewildering array of snacks. Not wishing to hold things up I just opted for the first thing I recognised, a packet of almonds. He took that tray back and appeared with another four trays to serve the travellers in front of us. It was only then I realised that we were meant to take the whole tray. No cup of Masala Chai for us we’d sent it back!
Next comes a bowl and soup spoon with a spicy tomato cuppa soup, followed by another tray of Indian food: rice, dahl, some aloo dish, a paneer curry and what looked like it might be a hot towel wrapped in foil, which turned out to be two warm chapatis. Finally a ‘Butter Scotch’ ice-cream. The food tasted delicious, but I must admit I did have some reservations about eating all that barely warm food. Mmm, let’s see…
Some time during all this we also had our encounter with the ‘ticket inspector’. He didn’t actually ask to see our tickets, rather he asked us what seats we were in. I looked to the tabs above our heads and wondered if it was a trick question and asked if he wanted to see our tickets. He didn’t but he took them anyway and with hardly a glance he almost admonishingly told us we were in seats 35 and 36.
We are now nearing the end of what has been a very pleasant train journey. The only other thing is the normally annoying scrolling message at the end of the cabins. They had all the usual information and admonitions we see at home, but with their own beautiful quirkiness:
“Do not keep your luggage unattended.” “Any suspicious object, a briefcase, bag, thermos, transistor radio could be a bomb.”
Well, have to finish as we’re about five minutes out from the station. Sitting now looking at all the passenger luggage overhead, I’m beginning to wonder if leaving the taxi until our arrival was such a good idea after all.
