India: Delhi (again)

Henna!

What was meant to be a five and a half hour train from Ranthambore to Delhi turned into an eight hour train because it was so foggy. This meant that we didn’t get to Delhi until late in the afternoon. Most of our afternoon was spent using internet and hot water (both things we had not had for a few days) and once we were all sorted we went out for one final group dinner. I love Indian food, but I am a little bit over having spicy food at every meal!

Before drying..

Three out of the six tour members departed from Delhi before I made it out of bed the next day. I spent most of the day with Jess and Michael (the remaining two from the tour), not keen to do too much, but definitely keen to leave the hotel. We ventured out on a mission: Jess and I wanted henna, and Michael wanted a haircut. All missions were accomplished. The henna was quite cool, just watching they guy do it. It’s like a thick ink that you have to leave on til the next day, but it gradually chips off. And gets rather annoying. Right now it is a very bright orange colour. I thought it would be a bit more brown-y but hopefully it fades in the next day or too. Looks cool, I reckon!

After we left our hands to dry for a little while, we ordered a taxi to take us to the red fort. At this point, I was a little over forts, we’d seen quite a few. We’d also been told that we’d seen better ones than this one. So we walked around the edge, admired it without going in. Instead we decided to roam the area.. By foot! Oh my! There was a lovely temple, but we couldn’t go in because of their strange opening hours for visitors. Walking further down the street we discovered we were in one of Delhi’s biggest markets. It was crazy hectic. Makes all the other markets seem calm! In the 15-20 minutes that we were walking around I was (very intentionally) elbowed in the boob twice. One of the men even followed us for a while after, staring at me the whole time. Shortly after this I felt a hand near my bum and was fed up, ready to have a go at the offender. I turned and realised it was a little girl, no older than about seven, trying to get into my bag. 

Dirty, hectic Delhi markets

This short walk just reaffirmed my notion that Delhi is chaotic and dirty. I really don’t like it, and don’t recommend it. Overall I’m a little glad to be leaving India today. Whilst it has been fun, I’m looking forward to foods that aren’t spicy, men who don’t touch me inappropriately and people who don’t think I’m made of money. 

I do recommend going to India but I don’t recommend going to Delhi!