Day 2
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Day 2: Saturday 30th November

Old Delhi; Demolition and Demonstration; train to Jaipur; puppet show.

To Old Delhi this morning, by coach(?).

We leave the coach for the Jama Majid Mosque (remember - always walk clockwise). This is the one you can climb one of the minarets, although ladies beware because you oft get felt up en route. Perhaps for this reason, and perhaps also that the Muslim religion is very particular about the roles of women, ladies cannot climb the minaret unaccompanied. For this reason, I am called upon to accompany Chris and Gill (firstly), and, all-in-all, I must have been 'married' to nigh on 6 women during the course of this tour, as a result. After we've had our fill we emerge through the bottom staircase to Clare, battling with the door guard, who insistently closes the door after we exit - even though Clare tries to rush it. "Why?" demands Clare: "You cannot go up there alone." is the response; a few more "Whys" later and there's no satisfactory response so I agree to accompany my 'wife' up there again, but, as Clare proclaims, he's sufficiently pissed off with her not to allow her any further. No go: she can't go up. As we exit (to quite a crowd from below), it emerges that to get this far she had to slip him the money whilst he was distracted (she did pay!) and she then attempted to single-handedly storm the tower... but was chased, caught and stopped at the door by the guard, which is where we met her.

After the mosque into the 'bustling markets of Old Delhi' - i.e. mayhem India-style. Well no, not really - apart from Lynn who cuts her arm on a passing rickshaw which gets too close, it's quite OK - there's not enough room for begging or hawking, and all Indians are too busy shopping or selling to each other to bother with us...

We're left to our own devices to explore the Old Town, so we wander through market roads, targeting ultimately the wedding market. This dumped some of us (we'd split up into groups by this stage) onto Nai Sarak, easily identified by the very helpful shop names (with addresses) above every shop on the road. Easy! We walked up this road toward Chadni Chowk - and lo and behold they've got pink fluffy shoes to match my purse from yesterday - as pointed out to me by the girls!

Also en route up this road Jo, until this time quiet, suddenly screams in an awesomely powerful voice "DON'T DO THAT." to an Indian kid who appeared to be preparing for 'shit-on-shoe' on Jo (where they drop some shit on your shoe and offer to clean it off... for a price). The sudden authoritative outburst from Jo caused him to recoil, then scuttle off.

We hit Chadni Chowk, the main road across the top of Old Delhi, destined for the major Sikh Temple - number 9 on the map. However, as we continued along Chadni Chowk it became apparent there was a blockage ahead, and we were directed to cross to the other side to make a crossing at the cross-roads ahead.

Soon the crowd becomes thicker, however, and the words "demolition" and "demonstration" get mentioned to us - as it turns out, both are true: there's a demolition of a building in progress and there's some demonstration against it. At the fall of a huge chunk of masonry the crowd rushes back, encouraged by the beats of the police, and Carolyn and I duck into a side-alley at the suggestion of a respectable-looking man... and the alley promptly gets gated off. Offered the opportunity of exiting via the back of the alley - which is no more than one person wide and full, regardless (we're unable to move), we refuse in the hope of rejoining the others; "You must be scared." states our friend reassuringly. Our friend shouts out to the police to try and get the gate reopened - and in the fullness of time (felt like a year), the gate is eased open to allow us out. A quick look round and I see the tail end of the rest of our party shinning past the demolition works - it turns out the police chased back the crowd and plucked out the hapless tourists - so we run after them, to the calm on the other side of the crossroads.

Because of the incident, we miss the Sikh temple on the map, so instead we duck into another Hindu Shiva temple (via a metal detector apparently for ornamental purposes). Shoes off at the rack (7 people, I think: me, Alison, Carolyn, Sally, Graham, Lynn, Andy). This temple was the one with a large blue Shiva encased in a glass cabinet, last cleaned... well, never, by the look of it.

Outside the Red Fort (itself devoted to a military role at the moment, I think), we approach 3 auto-rickshaws to get us back to the hotel in time to pack and depart - great fun!!!

With the warning of a late dinner from Clare a group of us on return to the hotel nip round the corner to a bakery for some nibbles for the train journey.

13:27 Check out of The Park Hotel, Delhi. Then to the train station...

We have been pre-booked allocated seats - Clare gives us the numbers (you can see the scribble). Coaches AS1 and AS2; two groups. Printouts of the seat allocations are taped beside the doors; notably, there is an A Garside and a G Garside, and Kirby is a woman!

When the train moves off we pass scenes of slums, people pissing, and people making cowpat frisbees. The group I'm with consists of Jo, Sally, Alex, Carolyn, Alison and me (that's 6) in 1 compartment; in Clare's compartment, down the train, there is a woman, a man, and many a fart and burp...!

The train journey... cards... quiz... reading?

The train arrives 10pm in Jaipur, and a coach transfers us to the Mandawa Haweli Hotel... where a fantastic reception awaits us - starting with beer (while rooms are allocated), a late dinner in the restaurant, followed by a puppet show in the garden. Here I share with Andy - we're taking it in turns to share, so Kirby's got the room to himself here; the rooms vary quite dramatically - Andy & I share a fairly small, basic room (shower's as big as the room - but - no complaint - it's perfectly adequate) while Graham and Lynn get the luxury apartment (puts adequate to shame!!). Carolyn and Alison have "big posh beds".