Sunset at Red Fort June 7-11
The area in Delhi we were staying in was called PaharGanj, and is the main cheap guesthouse area. The main bazaar is filled with bright coloured scarves and sari's, bindis, sandles, incense... its like a whole street of Ihska shops! And lots of taxi drivers wanting to drive you to their uncles shop where the prices were better.It wasn't as hot as we were expecting either after so many horror stories. Whether that's because we're used to it after Asia or just arrived in a cool spot we're not sure, but we were happy it was bearable. It would definately be a shock though if you just arrived from winter in Oz and then it was combined with the filthy streets and the constant touts and the public -open -to- the- street- urinals. The first day we decided we'd walk to the Red Fort, which was built by the same sultan dude as Taj Mahal. Its humongous and red. It looked like a short walk on the map but it ended up taking an hour. We were a huge oddity walking along and whole bus loads of Indians would swivel in their seats to ogle us.When we got inside the fort we were amazed by the amount of locals, then we remembered it w
as Sunday, and whole families were out in their best suits and saris walking around the parks in the fort. It was so colorful! Lots of little girls had eyeliner around their eyes and were dressed in the kind of sparkly outfits we used to wear for dancing concerts! We ended up being a huge attraction- people took more photos of us, then we did of the fort! WE were sitting on the grass when one father and little girl came up with a camera, we thought they wanted us to take a photo of them...but it turned out they wanted Jon to take a photo of me with them! The next time we sat down, 3 little boys came up and sat in front of us and played a video game, then a mum and her little toddler came up, then a family of six and an uncle sat down around us... then 3 young guys... 3 more kids... 2 more guys.. more families. And we were just sitting in the middle smiling.. no one really spoke English.. so we all just grinned and they wobbled their heads and took turns taking photos with us... It was bizarre, like we were pop stars. We felt bad because we were asking all the kids their names and we couldn't repeat them!
as Sunday, and whole families were out in their best suits and saris walking around the parks in the fort. It was so colorful! Lots of little girls had eyeliner around their eyes and were dressed in the kind of sparkly outfits we used to wear for dancing concerts! We ended up being a huge attraction- people took more photos of us, then we did of the fort! WE were sitting on the grass when one father and little girl came up with a camera, we thought they wanted us to take a photo of them...but it turned out they wanted Jon to take a photo of me with them! The next time we sat down, 3 little boys came up and sat in front of us and played a video game, then a mum and her little toddler came up, then a family of six and an uncle sat down around us... then 3 young guys... 3 more kids... 2 more guys.. more families. And we were just sitting in the middle smiling.. no one really spoke English.. so we all just grinned and they wobbled their heads and took turns taking photos with us... It was bizarre, like we were pop stars. We felt bad because we were asking all the kids their names and we couldn't repeat them! 
Near sunset we walked around the main old bazaar back home. Past chai sellers, bangle sellers...fresh lime juice stalls, paan stalls, samosa stalls, dodging cow pats and dogs sleeping on the ground. There really are cows on the streets! Just doing there thing , munching on rubbish.... I saw one take a sandwich off a clothes stall vendor while he was talking to a customer, cheeky holy cow!
The only bad thing is there's not really any nightlife like in Asia, but i guess on the bright side we'll save money from no alcohol, m
ore money for bangles!
ore money for bangles! The next day we walked to Connaught Place- 2 big circles of shops with a park in the middle. Sitting in the park we were mobbed as soon as we sat down. We ended up being convinced to get our ears cleaned by professional ear cleaners It was disgusting how much brown goo came out. They used quite scary metal skewers, that they stuck in our ears magically with out bursting an ear drum. They shook their heads and 'tsk tsked' us with all the goo. While that was happening shoe cleaners came up, they tried to make conversation by saying they liked our shoes, sizing up probably if they could polish crocs and thongs. And they obviously decided they'd give it their best shot and slyly started to try and polish our rubber shoes with toothbrushs and a 'magic cleaner'! We had people sticking things in our ears while we tried to stop the shoe cleaners stealing our shoes and other people trying to talk to us about cricket, then a guy wanted to look at my hat.. which was all frayed, saying he would take it away and fix it if I gave him money! When we finally got away after haggling and arguing over whether we had to pay a shoe cleaner who basically just sat there and watched the whole kerfuffle as well as everybody else, we had the best most shiniest, sparkliest thongs and crocs and the clearest hearing in Delhi.
Purana Quila- An old fort city from the 1500s
Purana Quila- An old fort city from the 1500s
Jon walking down the Main Bazaar at 5am to got to the train station to go to Agra.
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