DELHI

We arrived in Delhi at 11.30am on Wensday the 2nd, we are 5 1/2 hrs ahead of Ireland so we were both shattered as we had not slept in the last 24 hrs. As soon as we got of the plane the heat and smells hit you, it was about 24 degree's C and the smells are not bad but there not good either!.We had arranged for the hotel to pick us from the airport which was a life saver as we heard so many stories about the scams being pulled by the taxi drivers. The second we got outside the terminal we surrounded by little kids begging for money they followed us all the way to the car. We did not give them anything as this only makes it worse you are better of giving some money to a local charity then to the beggers on the streets. We were staying at the hotel Ajanta this is beside the new Dehli train station and central to the city centre. The staff are friendly and helpful, rooms are clean and comfortable and they have an internet cafe. They have a good restaurant that is very reasonable in price when you are trying to stick to a budget.

We spent the rest of the day after checking in getting ourselves oriented with the local area and catching up on some sleep.

On Thursday we did some more walk-abouts in the local area and went to the train station to buy train tickets for our onward trip to Goa. This in it self was a major pain in the butt!, it took a total of 4 hours to get the tickets and this was in a tourists only ticket queue. Now we know what is involved next time should not be such a chore!

Friday 4th we hired a car and driver to take us around Delhi (it is fairly cheap to do this rather then depend on taxi's). First stop was the Jama Mosque this place was huge its outer court can hold 25,000 people for prayer, we then went to the Red Fort. This was built in the 17th century and has lovely gardens to chill out in to get away from all the hawkers. Next we went to the old baazar in old Delhi we hired a cycle rickshaw as it consists of miles of back lanes, you can find anything and everything here it is were all the local traders come to buy there wares, the colours and smells there are just amazing. We then went on to the India gate this was built by the british to commerate the Indians that had died while serving in the british services, to finish of the day we toured around the area were the driver pointed out the major government buildings and the presidents house. The entrance fees for some of these sights can add up they range from 5-15 euros per person, this adds up fairly fast.

Clare and myself would not be city people so we were keen to head west to the coast and also our onward flight was out of Kerela which is on the south west coast. But before we left Dehli we had to go and see the Taj Mahal, so we organised a tour through the hotel that would take us to Agra were the Taj is and then on to Ankur to visit a tiger park for a safari we would then come back to Delhi for the train ride to Goa.