Return to Delhi

Early morning start of 6.30 am from Shimla was changed to 7.30 much to everyone’s delight 😀
9 taxis in convoy then transported us from Shimla to Chandigarh along the twists and turns of the road we had seen at intervals from the Toy Train. This operation took about 3 and a half hours and we saw a different perspective than from the train. Road improvement is taking place all along the route with big plant machinery on the one hand and a man shovelling gravel into panniers on a donkey’s back on the other.!

The taxis bowled along with other motorists attempting near impossible overtaking and many unguarded gaps at the verge where any of us could be plunging down the mountainside to the valleys below! Coffee and toilet stop halfway along and then before we knew it we were joining the chaotic traffic on the outskirts of Chandigarh. If we stopped at traffic lights for any length of time the beggars quickly appeared to peer into the car windows. These poor creatures (one with no hands and even worse, one with no arms at all) were pitiful to behold.

By contrast, we lucky people were provided with packed lunches again and herded into the upper class waiting room on the station but at least we were able to give whatever we weren’t going to eat from the lunches to the toilet attendant and she was highly delight with it all, so that was a plus.
So we boarded the Shatabdi Express once more, destination Delhi, and scheduled to arrive at 15.25 and it did! Onto the bus and back to the ITC Maurya Hotel. Temperature higher now (26 degrees at 17.30 hrs) with predicted 31 tomorrow.

Delhi has 22 million inhabitants and is one of the greenest cities in the world and we are looking forward to the city tour tomorrow. Having seen all the rubbish from the train and the squalid conditions that people live in by the side of the railway I asked Raj about the Covid pandemic in India. He told me that EVERYONE was offered the vaccinations and that the majority of the population had at least two vaccines. I find that almost impossible to believe as many of the slum dwellers are refugees-how on earth do local officials have any idea of who lives there? 🤷🏻‍♀️Read more