We're just recovering from the worst 24hrs imaginable. A complete nightmare that has left us absolutely emotionally and physically drained. Things got so bad that we almost decided to buy a ticket to Nepal and quit India for good. On coming back from Delhi we got caught in what could be termed a series of scamming nets (!!!) . From the moment we left the overnight bus til we eventually got things sorted we were at the mercy of the con-men of Delhi. For 6 hours we tried an failed to get the autoricksaw drivers, the tourist reservation agents, and generally anyone we meet to tell us the truth and help us purchase our onward tickets to our next destination. It was absolutely incredible that nobody would give us the right info and point us in the right diection.

We found out the hard way that the big scam here is to prevent tourist from getting to the Tourist section of the train station. This is the only place that one can reserve and buy on the same day, tickets to all parts of India. (The rest of the natives have too wait sometimes up to 2 months to secure long haul train journey tickets. Something to do with the rail service carrying 2 million passengers a day!) Once stopped from climbing those stairs too hassle free reservation your at the mercy off the cheaters. And Delhi is jam packed with them. There are so many phoney offical tourist info places that it's almost impossible to locate the right place. We went to 3 before eventually being lucky enough to meet some Australians who put us right. All of them play the same game. Have someone scout you at either the train station or tourist cafe, find out your details and then have then swear to you that they know where the real tourist info place is. When you go into the 'office' the offical then knows the right things to say to make you feel at ease so they can work the scam. It's really an amazing thing. If it wasn't the fact that we are on hols and don't like being messed about for hours on end, we'd actually find it amusing. At one point we got so caught up in the scheming that we almost bought a 10 day package deal for Rajastan. But we had got used to the smell of the Delhi rats at that stage, to know that something was up.

When we eventually got to purchase our tickets we were too wrecked to care about where we were headed and decided to book into a hotel to get away from the craziness. We went back to the hotel where we had stayed the first few night in India and asked for a dble room. But, they too were on the scam! They wanted twice as much as we had orginally paid. We couldn't believe it. The perfect end to the perfect day. The shelter were no longer sheltering us. In fact they were doing the opposite. Kicking us whilst we were down, shooting us in the back, and all the rest of the be-jaysus sayings. Of course we were quite freaked at this stage, the paranoia having long set in. We actually said thank you and left to fing a cheaper hotel a few doors down.

The next day we decided that even though we had enough of Delhi, we would see Rajastan before leaving India. It would be ridiculous to base our opinions of India on the last 24 hrs. So, we headed back to the train station to buy some new tickets to Jaisalmer.