India Feb/March 2023

We woke and wandered down for breakfast which was amazing, fresh fruit, curd, bircher muesli which was yummy. Lots of cakes, croissants again very nice, curry and omelette, pancakes, made to order. Despite my head telling me no, my mouth said yes and I tried several small pieces of different cakes. The banana cake was best.

Then we had decided to walk to the National Museum of Delhi, about a km along the road. Having been in India for over two weeks, and Delhi for  a few days previously we felt confident. 

I have to say that we have never felt uncomfortable or threatened in any way since arriving. On our first day we walked to meet our guide through extremely busy streets, we were aware that we stood out, not many tourists there and James in his hat of course. 

The walk was interesting as it is past the area where the dignitaries live and there was a high police presence.  A tuktuk driver tried to persuade us that the road was closed and it would be better to go by tuktuk, when he asked us how long we had been in India and we said over two weeks he backed off, realising that we knew the ropes just a little bit.

The museum was interesting, we had read that it was a series of separate exhibitions and that it didn't tell a story so were prepared. There are 3 floors of a very boring building from the outside, but inside the centre is circular around a courtyard with windows all around.

We were surprised how old some of the exhibits were, and how intricate. There were a lot of stone statues and statuettes, wal, panels and suchlike. I was taken by a very primitive tiny figure of someone in a yoga pose, there were several of these. I also loved the silk paintings, many miniature ones like we had sent in Udaipur. They were vibrant and many showed scenes of weddings and battles, as well as more daily life and pictures of the many Hindu Gods.

The room full of musical instruments was fascinating, no idea how to play most of them. 

We wandered over to the area near the Parliament buildings built by the British eleven years before independence. There are two very attaractive large identical buildings opposite each other at the head of a canal with fountains and gardens. Again the area was heavily guarded by people in uniforms with guns. It is strange how we have got used to seeing this all over the place. 

We decided to go back by Tuktuk, the fare war 100 rupees £1.00 James offered the driver a tip and he declined very politely.

At five o'clock we were meeting our new family for the next ten days. It turns out that nearly all of them have been on On Track Safari holidays before, several have travelled together before ( a good sign that they are returning customers).

There are a couple from the South West who live in France now, an American lady and the rest are Brits. All seemed OK on first meeting, a friendly bunch.

We had a meal in Pickwicks again as the other restaurants were full. It was James turn to have ethe salad and I had Lamb Rogan Josh. We asked for a beena nd ended up with something that looked like thin Guinness and tasted like larger, sort of. We struggled it down though. 

Our guide was not as personable in any way shape or form but he told us different things about Delhi and the places we went to which was great.

We both felt more like tourists than travellers with this new group, but our last group probably felt the same about us. 

We had a Thai meal which was tasty but full of fresh chilli, James was suffering with a blocked up head and the spicy food made his eyes run. At the end of the meal our waitress asked if she could bring him ginger, lemon and honey drink. She had noticed earlier that he was not feeling too bright and brought tissues over. Her kindness was touching.Read more