Delhi Days ...

I decided after hiding in my hotel for the morning that I must face Delhi front on so armed with guide book and rupees headed for the nearest autorickshaw, a curious contraption that looks like it has been converted from a motercycle into a 3 wheeler open car and no it does not feel safe espeially when coupled with thousands of crazy drivers ! Anway once i got used to it and accepted that I might die at any moment it was all good!

I decided to go get some "Culture" so the first stop was a visit to the very impressive Humayuns Tomb the 2nd Moghul emporer built in mid 1500s its a peaceful place with fantastic architecture and best of all loads of Chipmonks which I spent time chasing around the grounds trying to take pics much to the amusment of the loacals. The tomb is significant because this tomb preempted the taj mahal and they refined lots of the features from this building to build the taj mahal.

I will not bore you with all the historical sites, architecture and museums I visited over the next 2 days as I dont think you would enjoy reading...but the other highlights included the India gate built after the WW2 by the British it contains the name of every Indian life lost and is really moving. Qutab is a really peaceful place away from the city a world heritage site and very impressive with its massive tower, the red fort nice for a wander, The national museum has interesting things in it but is like a museum from the 1950s infact thats when it was build and there have seemingly been no changes since the interpretation is awful. The parliment buildings with thier rows of white ambassador cars and presidents house and grounds was nice for a wander. The Jama Masjid is apparently the largest mosque in India and has some interesting Muslim architecture although taking my shoes of in the heat and walking on scorching sandstone was not good but gave the men praying in the mosque something the laugh about ! The Bahai temple was a favourite of mine anyone is welcome its faith free and it looks live a version of the Sydney opera house. However be warned ... it seems to be a place for men to pull single woman as I was approached three times by men asking for my number ! could be useful if you are interested in finding a man all you single girls out there...although they were all very dodgy looking !

Some things started to bug me after day 2 ... all national monuments and heritage sites charge for entry only about 20p if you are an indian national but about 2.50 if not ...this is the cost of a bed for the night in India, the other thing was an additional charge of 2.00 pounds to take photos which really annoyed me. For example you can take photos inside the mosque if you have a 'photo ticket' many muslims would find this highly unethical and has obviously infringed on thier cultural beliefs I asked one of the men in the mosque about this and he was vocally pissed off and annoyed with westerners coming in and taking phots whilst they prayed.

Pics show Humayuns Tomb, chipmonk making a nest and a crazy street junction as taken from the autorickshaw as we were about to charge into the oncoming traffic.