peep parp parp peep

very happy man sold how many rugs to these tourists?
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On Tuesday afternoon we decided to brave outside our hotel.  We wanted to go to Connaught Place where the shops and book sellers were.  The hotel staff told us to go down the drive and turn left.  The fun began we did as were told and instantly were accousted by a man and told that we should be going right, say no more.  Sandy became engrossed in conversation with a male and we were walking down an alleyway with tuk tuks and cars everywhere, taken to a tourist office (yeh right) and put in a tuk tuk to god knows where in the mid afternoon traffice of  Delhi.  We had deliberately taken a minimal amount of money as we did not want to make any significant purchases!!! Three rugs later my being unwell got us out of a craft centre that had some very persistant salesmen.  The tuk tuk driver was waiting and to his credit he took us back to our hotel, right on our tail was the man coming to get his money for the rugs!!!  I was hysterical (with laughter)  what tourist we were.

This man following for money, we had the rugs!
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Wednesday up very early and got ready for our day with guide and driver.  Transport was a dear old Morris Oxford.  We were taken to Old Delhi.  This place assaults all your senses, we were supposed to tour the Red Fort but due to a Terror alert it was closed.  We went to the oldest Mosque and saw people praying at it.  We were approached by children wanting money, this was unpleasant.  We then took life in hands and went throught the old city on a rickshaw, he earnt his money cycling through the strrets with Sandy & I aboard.  you have to see the photo's to believe this and trust me I had to steel myself to do this and we ensured that our guide was following behind otherwise i would have been very uneasy.  Sandy's blond hair certainly attracted stares.  This is no place for the faint hearted.  The wiring for the houses and shops hangs from the buildings, Tom had warned me not to breathe the dust etc and this was very difficult I kept telling Sandy not to breathe.  The humidity today was 95% and temperature 36.  after this trip on the rickshaw our guide took us back to New Delhi and we saw some amazing buildings, the Presidential Houses, India Gate and the most beautiful parks and avenues with beautiful trees lining the streets and the buildings were made from red  and cream sandstone and white marble, the contrast was quite surreal.  I would have to say I was very pleased to be back in what at the time seemed like civilisation however this did not last for long.

We were taken to Old Delhi. This place assaults all your senses,

survived wild ride in tuk tuk around Delhi had no idea where we were.
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Our next stop was Ghandi's monument, this was the site where he was cremated, Anita told us that the hindi's believe in reincarnation, they cremate because of this and believe that the cremation helps the body unite with the earth.  Anita also spoke of Ghandi's philosphy about peace and never thinking bad thoughts so that one was truly at peace with the world, anti any form of violence from thought to deed.

We were then taken to another craft centre by our guide, Anita,I had read this am about hoe the guides get commisssion etc!!!  how many rugs later? and Indian outfits? pashminas? and who said this place was cheap.  then there was the jewellery.  I did not purchase any but my travelling companion had hwer card out.  During this time I had been able to talk with Ian who was in Kashmir at a rug factory, oh my goodness gracious me.  it was really good to talk to him as we had not had any communication for 10 days and I had heard that there had been a lot of floods where he was travelling.  He has had Delhi Belly and a cold.

The veranda of our hotel "The Imperial" this is were we have breakfast.
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finally we were taken in the rush hour traffic to another monument, i will have to get the guide book out to spell it.  It was in South Delhi and while we were there the rain fell out of the sky.

We thanked Anita who was very lovely and the driver took us back to our beloved hotel,  we used a lot of purell on hands today and water spray but a bath was very welcome, that is once we managed to get some clear water to run rather than the brown watwer that came out of the taps in the first instant.

Typical housing in Old Delhi
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We are eating tonight in "The Spice Trail" which is an asian restaurant in our hotel we were told by Anita that it is Chelsea Clinton's favourite in Delhi!  will let you know on next blog.

I am feeling much better tonight.  Tomorrow we fly to Udaipur, god back to the airport!  would love to hear from some of you bloggers there is a place that you can write responses in please do.

love from me until the next blog.

Marie