India - Through Chris's Eyes

Wednesday 28th April

Surprisingly we both slept relatively well and woke up quite late. A quick bite to eat and we set off to visit the Red Fort and the biggest Muslim Mosque in India. They have been constructing a metro system in Delhi and luckily the area we were visiting was served. We located it and proceeded down the stairs.

It turned out to be a different world, very clean, much more organised and very easy to navigate. We arrived on the platform and our train was in. Serena jumped on and as I was just about to set foot on it when the doors started to close. I quickly put my foot in between the doors to stop them closing but they wouldn't. The doors closed and the train pulled off with Serena watching from the other side of the glass and shouting, "next station!"

A few minutes later I got on another train and Serena was waiting at the next station for me, laughing. She jumped back on and we carried on, problem was we were going the wrong way. We both jumped off at the next stop to await a train going in the opposite direction, and were left bewildered when the train we had left went back the other way. We were certainly getting our money's worth down here.

A little later than we'd originally thought we arrived at our destination - all we had to do now was locate the massive Red Fort. Walking for about ten minutes, Serena was just about to utter the words "Where the hell is it", when we both glanced to the right and saw it down the end of the road.

We paid our entrance fee and went in. More or less all of the elaborate buildings made of red sandstone and lots of highly decorated marble were closed, and all in all we were a little disappointed. Closer scrutiny revealed that most of the semi-precious stones used to decorate the walls had been prised out just leaving the outline of where they once were. We assumed that the stones probably remained on the inside but as they were all padlocked up we would never know for sure.

The Muslim Mosque was pretty impressive but as we had to walk barefooted the heat of the floor made it quite difficult to endure. By the time we'd finished we had been out around 5hrs, which had become the norm over the last few weeks, due to the heat, and we set off back to the hotel.

Another trip out to the bazaar around 9ish saw more mayhem in the streets as cars, rickshaws, motorbikes, cycles, scooters, dogs, cows and people all jostled for their bit of space, nothing or no one having any right of way. It certainly is a sight to see. Around 10:15 It was time to return to the hotel and relax.