Shopping Emporium

We gave in to the driver, who was keen that we should visit a factory / shop. Although we know that the way it works is that the driver gets a commission on anything we buy there, it was a way to shut him up and also to see some fabric being printed.This chap moves so quickly I never managed to time the photo so he was actually "printing". Practice makes perfect though. So Hanna and I had a go:Note the lovely red colour of the ink.

And this is one he made earlier! When left out in the sun, the pigments change colour dramatically.

Then we went inside to look at saris for Hanna. And I tried one on too but resisted the sales pitch to buy it.
First they tie one end around your waist. Once round, then back to the middle and start bunching it up (pleating gracefully, I mean):
Tuck that in at the middle and then round again and up over the left shoulder:
Ta dah!

Then we did a little more bazaar shopping and then went to dinner at somewhere the driver suggested. I don't have photos as I left my camera in the car, but it was basically an outdoor restaurant (mosquitoes included) with adequate food and a small crouched band and a couple of ladies who danced very energetically with saris and bells and dragging guests out to join them (we avoided eye contact).

Back to the hotel and a good night's sleep.

Old Jaipur

First stop, Jantar Mantar. Another one (same chap who created the one in Delhi - the prototype). The Jaipur set is bigger. The little things below are individual zodiac references.
Hanna and I were amused that all the sundials in Jantar Mantar were about 13 minutes slow. Of course this is because all of India is on a single time zone, and at the moment, the sun and IST are about 13 minutes different. Cue jokes about Indian Stretchable Time. Of course it's the same in Britain too we just never think about it.
The main gnomon - this one tells time to the second - and isn't half buried like the one in Delhi.
Standing at the top of the side arm (above). We were mobbed by a group of Indian teenage boys who all wanted to be photographed with us - well, probably with Hanna really, but they wouldn't dare to be selective.
In the background is the City Palace, our next destination.

Gate with elephants and guards with red turbans.
Elephant, guards with red turbans and me. Inside the main courtyard:
Very very very big silver urn (world-record big) - used to carry water from the Ganges to the UK. A beautiful peacock arch over a door:
And some very ornate carriages:Back to the car, drive a short distance to take photos of Hawa Mahal (palace of the winds). It was the wrong time of day really (sun was behind it as it was late afternoon):
It's hard to get a good photo with all the people and traffic. So we dried our tears and headed off into the sunset to go shopping.
The driver was really not keen on us doing anything as wild and reckless as shopping in a bazaar, and although we were "harassed" by all sorts of shop owners, we didn't feel unsafe at all. We did keep our hands on our purses of course. Shoes many shoes. There were sparkly ones too but these looked pretty lined up like this.
Bought some shoes here. There's also a monkey on the roof.

And I snapped this picture of a street vendor (selling some sort of pastries or bread). It's hard to take photos of "normal street life" without being intrusive but I have a go every now and again.

Umaid Bhawan

When we arrived in Jaipur, we went straight to our hotel to check in. We had reserved (but not paid for) a twin room at the Umaid Bhawan, a Heritage Hotel in the newer bit of the city.
(slightly in restauro - having some new balconies added)

Having been driven through some tiny tiny tiny back streets, where we started to get a bit concerned that perhaps the photos on the web were a complete lie and actually we were staying in someone's spare room, we realised that the driver was just taking us on a scenic route through Historic Jaipur. Very very bumpy! When we got out into the main streets again, we had another thought that perhaps he was just trying to avoid the millions of bicycles & rickshaws that crowd the streets. Delhi has many cars and buses, and a few bicycles and autorickshaws too of course, but cycle rickshaws are banned from the centre. Jaipur seems to be the other way round. They are everywhere.

The hotel, when we eventually forged our way through the bicycles, turned out to be, as promised, in a quiet neighbourhood (no horns... bliss) and we had no problem checking in. Our room was basic-ish, but perfectly adequate. We had twin (very hard) beds with a board base and then a stuffed mattress, an en-suite shower room - although it looked antiquated with a boiler up on the wall, it was very powerful and did showers for both of us in the morning without complaining. There was a bit of a smell in the bathroom, but nothing you couldn't work around. No complimentary shower gel or cotton buds though.
We had our own balcony (well, common balcony outside the room which had a table and chairs on it):We went up to the rooftop terrace restaurant for lunch:
Then went out for an afternoon's sightseeing.

The Road to Jaipur

Saturday morning, earlyish. I think we left at about 7am but my brain is a little cynical about that fact. Although I seem to have been getting up progressively earlier every day since I got here, so I fully expect to be getting up at about 12am by the time I go home.

Our driver, Nando (something longer which I may note when I find the bit of paper he wrote it down on) - a different chap and indeed I think a different company to our normal driver Jaswinder - immediately Un-endeared himself to us by spending the first half hour trying to upsell us a tour guide for the next 2 days (no charge, on the company). Having endured The Guide on my first road trip in India, it wasn't something I was particularly keen to repeat. Guides may know stuff about where you visit, but they make you go round things at their speed, and wandering aimlessly isn't really approved of. Plus they take you to shops where they earn commission and generally turn things into a Package Trip. At the end of a busy week, I'm sadly quite happy to amble aimlessly around historic monuments, pausing to read the Archaeological Survey of India signs when they turn up, checking in guide books to get things like names and dates, and shamelessly eavesdropping on other groups' tour guides for a few minutes if they happen to be lurking in the same spot as I am. So we put Nando off. Of course he probably eventually realised that if we weren't giving a tip to a Guide, then he might get a bigger one.

We had chosen a Toyota Qualis (an Indian model I think) which is a high-up 4WD car which seems pretty tough, and is very popular with visitors on road trips. The bit of extra height gives you a, perhaps unrealistic, sense of safety in the mad traffic. I've said it before, and it still seems to be true, that "might is right" on the roads here*.

One tiny downside to the car was that the top of the windows are fairly lowish so with my height all I could really see was the safety handle (you know, the one you hang onto as the driver heads the wrong way down the road with lorries heading towards you at 60kph) - and I ended up banging my head on it many times too as we went over potholes. So I slouched a bit (not good for the back, but more interesting than the safety handle).

It's about 260km from Delhi to Jaipur. The road was reasonably well maintained (it seemed quite stressful at the time, but that was before we'd done the Jaipur > Agra leg, so we were obviously being eased into madness slowly). There were quite a few bumpy bits, but someone had very carefully made sure that every single kerb stone on the central reservation had been neatly painted black and white in case any zebras wanted to hide. See below, with added lorries.
We stopped off en route at a tourist restaurant (identifiable by the chap playing a scratchy hand-sitar and the small child dressed up dancing. Plus there was a lot of green grass serving no obvious purpose.) The driver needed a short break, but we just stood around stretching our legs, like these Indians.
At one point we saw a car the same size as ours pull up and out poured about 20 people. Which seems mad, although a) most of them were children and b) considering that later we saw smaller cars with more people, and that this one didn't actually have people clinging onto the back running board, we didn't realise that "we ain't seen nothing yet".

This is our car: *Unless you're a cow.

Silly sign in the office

Do Not Use Lift
In Case Of Fire

So is it usable ever?

Out of Office

Tonight my internet access at the hotel expires (I've been here a week!) and as we will be away all weekend and until Monday evening, I'm not going to recharge it now until Tuesday, probably.

So there will be a short intermission.

Tomorrow & Sunday: Jaipur

Monday: Agra

The Residence

We started the day by posing in the silver chair.
Apparently celebrities all over Delhi come to be photographed in this chair. Not sure why. It's very firm. It looks like silver-covered leather from a distance but it's actually solid. Thud.

Work as normal (although I was very dull and non-proactive today as my cold takes hold with a firm grip - very tempting at 7am to turn the alarm off and sleep and sleep, but I need to do things at work so up I get and off I go).

For the last couple of days we have taken the opportunity at lunch to go to Shopprix - a "mall" a few minutes drive from the office, where they have a range of local shops and also a wide variety of food hall options. You sit down at a table and are instantly swarmed around by men with leaflets, all trying to persuade you to eat from their menu.

I wandered around the shops today, trying to see if anywhere had ladies tailoring (to get my Choli made) but no luck. Then I had a (hiss boo) McDonalds - but a tiny McAloo Tikki Burger, so I don't feel so guilty.

This evening we left work on time for once (no Overtime) and went out to Jan Path to do some shopping before Cocktail hour. Very glittery and enticing in the dark:I didn't buy any of these. I did find a tailor who could make up my choli and sell me a petticoat for the sari (probably much cheaper than in UK) - quite convenient as they are only 2 minutes from the hotel. And I bought some presents for people but not telling what or where or who for.

Then we went back to the hotel and brazenly invited ourselves into the free cocktail party on the top floor (we'd been told about this by our colleagues who have stayed here before). We first went to the bar and asked if the cocktails were happening tonight - and were told it was a top floor event in "the Residence" (Penthouse communal area). We checked at reception (since they'd taken our photo as Long Term Guests a few days before we reckoned that we would probably be invited) - and they told us to go up to floor 10. Properly! (not just as a lift-induced detour on our way to the lobby). So up we went and were welcomed very warmly. Actually it didn't really appear to be a cocktail evening but we asked for Mexican Waves (vodka, cranberry, lime or something like that) and they rustled them up for us. Along with lots of little free food nibbles. We got into a good conversation with the hotel food & beverage manager and his assistant, who were both very friendly.

And got rather drunk in the space of an hour. hic.

And now I'm back in my room catching up on yesterday's blog and putting my lovely crisp fresh laundry away.

*cough*

Nothing happened today. Much. I have a cold. *cough*. And mozzie bites //scratch//.

Oh, yes, as we were driving to work today the road near the hotel was covered with mats - green ones and intricate knotted ones. There were also lots of BJP flags (one of the main political parties) - apparently some sort of rally or demonstration was about to happen - or perhaps had happened the night before (there was some loudness going on at about 1am as I was trying to get to sleep). The Prime Minister of India (Manmohan Singh) is hosting the Chinese president/prime minister (need to check) and so there are Meaningful Representations by Tibetans etc. about the unfairness of this. We have been Advised Not To Leave Our Hotel Unless Necessary (or something) by International Rescue (Actually International SOS - our medical insurance company - but International Rescue sounds much cooler - Thunderbirds Are Go!!!!)

I also used my internet connection to make a couple of long phone calls home (I might have mentioned them on yesterday's entry - but as I'm a night behind I'm getting confused about what happened when). Very nice to hear that Reason Notwithstanding, the Universe Continues Unabated.

Happy St Cecilia's Day!

Pillow Cinema

Work, work, work. Actually we’re on an overtime freeze so we can’t work very long hours. We left work promptly at 6.30pm and headed straight for the nearest cinema, Spice PVR, which has a gloriously luxurious Gold Class screen. For Rs350 (about GPB4) we got tickets for Casino Royale (we missed the first bit – but the later show [after some supper] wouldn’t have been in Gold Class so we didn’t mind). They don’t start off with ads and trailers like at home, it appears. Or if they do, they must be before the published start time.

Anyway, the seats in this cinema were like pillows. Soft and cuddly and they recline to 180degrees, if you’re so minded. They also provide blankets and pillows too (alas we didn’t know about this until the end when the lights went up – it was actually a bit chilly in there and I was glad of my pashmina). We’d been told by longer-term colleagues that the price included food & drink at your seat, so we accepted the offer of popcorn and pop – only realized later that a bill was involved!

Half way through, the film stopped, the lights came up and a message was shown on the screen “take a break” – a chance for the waiters to come round with the menus and for people to nip to the loo. Very useful.

At the end, we had a short wander around the shopping centre, although it was starting to close down so many shops were closing. I found a branch of Haldiram’s, which is useful as I plan to buy some Indian sweets before returning (perhaps some for the RTO Christmas Party buffet?) and the only other shop of this I know is a bit out of the way. This place is about a 5 minute detour from our route home, so I can get them on my final evening.

We got home about 10pm and I had a pleasant couple of hours multi-tasking with phone calls and google-chats. As I can wander around with my Bluetooth headset on when making skype calls I don’t need to sit at the computer. So when I got back to it when about to end the call, I saw all the messages that Max had been sending me on google-chat while I’d been busy. One particularly amused me, telling how his water dispenser at work which dispenses ice both crushed and cubed, has been customised by some worker who has added a label “hopes” below the “crushed” button. I laughed. What could they put below the “cubed” button?

Final note of the night is about the hotel Lifts. Lifts? What is there possibly to say about lifts? They drive us mad. I’m convinced they’ve been made by Sirius Cybernetics. They arrive to pick us up at floor 8, and then ignore our request to go to the Lobby by ALWAYS doing a detour up to floor 10 – the penthouse floor. And they’ve decided that carrying any more than 6 people is more than their job’s worth (despite having the volume to accommodate twice that number). And recently one of the lifts has decided to rename floor 8 as floor 9 – so you are never quite sure that you are where you’re meant to be. Any day now they’ll take to sulking in basements. At least they don’t talk.

Well that was unexpected

I bought a sari.

We went to work today (doing a 9-7 shift - it's meant to be 9.30 to 6.30 but ended up a bit extra to get ready and debrief). At about 6.15 my work email started to ignore my existence, so we did a review of the day with the offshore trainers and then got the car at about 7 I think. As we had been allocated our Indian SIM cards (drop me an email if you need the number - I won't post it publicly of course) we now have to provide a passport photo and photocopy of passport / visa. So, the driver was given instructions by the facilities manager that he had to take us to a photo shop. Which he did, on the way home. And so the story begins.

We drove a slightly different route to find this photo shop - along a market road. It's a wide road (probably 2-3 lanes (it's hard to tell in India: officially 2, actually about 5 when you take all the different vehicles into account)) and on either side for probably about a mile it was edged with market stalls. As it was after sunset, they were lit up by strings of 100W light bulbs (usually 1 or 2 per stall) which gave it an oddly festive quality. But each stall was gloriously random and also highly specialised. There would be a plastic bucket stall, with beside it a socks and boxers stall, then a bindi stall and then one selling curtains. Then it evolved (or devolved, not sure) into a fruit and veg market. I know they say not to buy fruit and veg from stalls but this stuff looked beautiful. Perhaps it's the lighting, or the distance, or maybe it really was fresh and lovely up close too. I have no idea how people choose where to buy - there were 100s of metres of stalls all apparently with an identical
range of produce. Maybe people just go with favourites.

Anyway, we eventually got to the proper "shops" area (not just stalls) and went to the Kodak photo shop. No poxy snap-yourself-pose-4-times booth though, there was a real photographer taking photos with an actual camera, and proper lights not flashlights. And for Rs50 (about 55p) I got 8 passport photos that I'm not actually horrendously embarrassed by. He kept saying "smile" though and memories of Passport Office & Visa office edicts saying "do not under any circumstances SMILE for your photo". Then he passed the memory card to an assistant who brought them up on a computer, and you could pick your favourite. Which he could then rotate (if, like me, you happened to be a listing a little) and I think there were even blemish removal tools (didn't dare ask though).

We paid and then were told to come back in 15 mins. 15 mins. In the middle of a shopping centre.
Oh dear.

Right on the other side of the road was a ladies' outfitters, so we went in for a nose around. We have both pondered the possibility of kitting ourselves out with a sari for fun functions, and this seemed as good an opportunity as any. So we browsed for a minute or so before being sucked in to the Sari Sell.

At the back of the shop is a big set of shelves, with each sari packed into a plastic bag. Then there's a small corridor, and then two seating areas. The one beside the corridor is very deep (4-5 feet from front to back) which is where the salesmen sit and spread out the saris for your perusal. Then facing that is a normal padded bench wot the ladies sit on to be sold to. So we did that a bit. My preference is for dark red, and I saw a chiffon one that was the right sort of colour and has hand embroidery in green / red and with little mirrors sewn in (got to have a bit of sparkle and bling).

So I got all tempted and got dressed up in it (over my work clothes). They velcro a bit of elastic round your waist, to fold the fabric into, then with speed and accuracy that I will never master fold the fabric and tuck and drape it until it all looks fabulous. The sari is embroidered in different ways in different parts of the fabric, so that it fulfils its function without excessive weight. All very clever.

Alas I have no photos to document any of this because, it being a work day, we had left our cameras at home as they are banned in the office.

Anyway, negotiations ensued (although it was a fixed price shop so that was a relief). I had heard from other SMEs in Pune that they had arranged to get their saris sewn in shape so all they had to do was fasten a few hooks to eyes. Also one needs to obtain a petticoat, and the choli (cut off t-shirt - hmm, not sure about the cut off idea with my tummy) needs to be made from the bit at the end of the sari they give you (it has embroidered shoulders but needs to be cut out and stitched).
For Rs1000 they said that they could get a local tailor to do this, so after paying for the sari itself Hanna and I followed after a shop assistant who would take us there. Not "just over the road" as he had promised, but quite a long way down a rather busy road, with him happily walking in the road, not on the nice pavement as we would normally expect to do. We tried one place - no luck (lots of shrugs and negative looks, all negotiations in Hindi) and then walked for ages down the road to another place - alas no luck there either so I asked for my money back on the tailoring and decided to ask at the office for a recommendation, or just get it done at home with help from mother or a local Indian fabric shop. I've also (since) read that the trend these days is to get nice stretchy jersey fabric ones instead rather than use the same fabric. Might be easier, and more forgiving (chiffon is very fragile). So I got my money and he then left us there to make our own way back to the car.

We decided not to walk in the road, but to go down the pavement instead. This was a proper local shopping area, with lots of intriguing side streets and then proper shops down the main road. Not proper as in Next / Debenhams / Clarks of course, but more "super-evolved stalls" with roofs and walls. And on the other side of the pavement were the earlier evolutionary step, of proper stalls. There were lots of food vendors too, dotted around with cooking equipment. Only two people actually tried to follow us to sell things though - one chap with Accessorize-type beaded handbags (no thanks) and one man who decided to go for broke and offer us some cut-price.... Cling Film!!! Perhaps we looked as if we needed some.

I was moderately alert about this shopping trip - hand on handbag, purposeful air about my step, eyes front. It would have been really interesting to slow down and browse, maybe even buy things, but I had rather a lot of money in my bag as we have to pay for our forthcoming tour tomorrow, so didn't feel inclined to take my purse out and show how thick it was (actually a bit thinner since the sari shop...). Maybe another time.

We made it back to the car intact - the driver had picked up the photos and was waiting looking mildly concerned about our absence. Hadn't sent for any rescue helicopters yet though.

So, all I have to do now is work out how to wear the damn sari, get a choli to match it and then think of an occasion that merits it! Perhaps a big company bash sometime...

Mughal Tombs & Qutb Minar

The theme of this weekend is definitely turning out to be tombs of the Mughals (the Persian word meaning Mongols - see Comments!).

My first trip today was a revisit of Jantar Mantar. As it's just across the road it would be rude to ignore it. So I braved the traffic (the road was practically empty so I didn't even have to break into a jog to get across) and went for a look around. I spurned the advances of two guides and just wandered, climbed things and read the info plates (I think they're new since last time), then sat under a palm tree for a while, composing my thoughts.
The far two tell you when objects rise in the sky (measure their angle of ascension etc.) The front two pinpoint where the sun is I think.
The tall one on the right is a giant sundial for Delhi. The curved one in the background tells the time in 4 places around the world and the white block at the back is the hotel I'm staying in. My room is the 3rd floor from the top, the corner windows at this end on the concave side looking out over Jantar Mantar. Give me a wave!

The driver arrived as planned at 11.30 and I headed off (I not We alas as Hanna ended up on the other side of Delhi last night - I don't know the story yet but I think alcohol and friends were involved. Which is jolly. Anyway, I'm on my own today).

First stop, the Qutb Complex, A World Heritage site and home of the tallest brick minaret in the world, Qutb Minar. And a wide variety of spellings. I'm going with the version on the signs outside. Wikipedia appears to have plumped for other options.
This is the tall tower (above). Below is the iron pillar, which has never rusted, giving metallurgists lots to talk about.
I liked the peaceful colonnades and other bits of masonry dotted around the complex.
This one's the base of an even bigger (sadly unfinished) minaret: Then lunchtime. I had intended to try to find a new and different and trendy restaurant, but felt a little cautious because I was on my own, so I went to Park Balucci, a place we had eaten last year. This time I sat outside, and it was a lot busier than last time too (unfortunately perhaps because tourist buses have found it). (calm before storm)
As the restaurant is in Hauz Khas Deer Park, I was quite happy to find out that there are actually deer - in an enclosure behind the restaurant.
(My view over lunch! There were peacocks too.)

Finally, my last sight of the day was also the last Mughal Tomb: that of Safdarjung.
I felt quite wonderfully independent going around on my own, just like in Mumbai on my final weekend. There were quite a few Western tourists around (mostly middle-aged Americans hunting in packs), but I only spotted one other single woman doing the sights. We had a quick chat in the centre of this tomb - she warned me that there was a pushy guide inside so we shared our tips for avoidance of same. Fingers in ears singing lalala seems to be the best solution. Even if you say "I vant to be alone" they still lurk at your elbow pointing things out. And expecting money at the end of course, so I'm trying to be brutal and not engage them. I did have a nice chat with a postcard seller outside Jantar Mantar this morning, though. I like talking to locals but as soon as they develop an Agenda I find myself trying to edge away. I did buy some postcards though, Katie.

My final stop was to Janpath (shopping cubicles) for a very quick visit. I knew what I wanted, and alas the shops were closing down so I couldn't go browsing. I'd forgotten what a hard-sell you get from all the traders and hawkers though, not to mention the small children doing backflips (or in one girl's case, really bad cartwheels - you'd never pay money for that) so I was quite glad to be on a mission with a deadline (sending the car to pick up Hanna).

Then back to hotel, watched the sun set and wrote this up.

Summary of Mughal tombs so far: Humayan's, Safdarjung's, several at Qutb complex, random ones in the Lodhi Gardens. Still to come: Akbar's tomb at Sikandra, Taj Mahal. Plus whatever we find in Jaipur and Fatehpur Sikri.

Fab day in Delhi

What a great day! Today we have been to: President's palace / parliament building (drive by), India Gate, Purana Qila (old fort), Humayun's Tomb (finally), Lodhi Gardens, Lotus Temple, a random shopping emporium the driver thought we should visit and Dilli Haat a craft market. And had a very nice snack dinner and a jug of cocktail in the bar by the hotel pool.

First, the driver picked us up on schedule @10.30am (we were probably late alas). Our Indian contractor in Delhi is much more efficient about such things than the company in Mumbai: this one tends to assign you a single driver and car for most of your assignment (apart from their day off), so you can always just arrange with the driver direct for when you want a pick up etc. The other way round is you just get a car/driver from the Pool (fish him out...), so you never know who to contact, they rely on the company passing on the message about pick up, so guarantee messages will get mislaid. Anyway. Picked up and showed him on the Delhi Map where we wanted to go. He suggested that we go past the president's palace and the parliament, which we did. There's no parking in the area so he drove past very slowly while we go this one:

And for this one he dropped us off at the gate then drove around in a circle for a few minutes while we took some photos. This is the President's residence, through the bars of the big gate in front of it.
And this is the reverse view, down Raj Path (was Kingsway under the British) where right in the very dim distance you can see India Gate - our next stop off.

Me outside India Gate. This time alas they were doing renovations around it so we couldn't get very close.
All around India Gate was our first encounter (this trip) with sellers and beggars. Mostly they were selling Indian snacks to Indian visitors (like these ones below), although there were a few children Tumbling and some men selling plastic helicopter toys. Which we avoided.
After a quick circumnavigation of the statue canopy we went back to the car and asked to go to Purana Qila: in the guide book as one of the most interesting archaeological sites in the country as this area has the ruins for many different ages of Delhi. I realised when we got there that this was actually the place that our previous driver had tried to pass off to us as Humayun's tomb (actually that's just down the road). It didn't go entirely to plan this time either as our driver left us at a place that turned out to only just be a mosque, not the Old Fort itself. There was a nice photo opportunity for this well, though, with the mosque behind. (Don't worry, the well is up on a plinth and you can't just walk into it on a dark night).
Waiting for our driver to came back we wandered along the main road a short distance and found the outside of the old fort: quite impressive.
Then on to Humayun's tomb complex. This is part of Isa Khan's tomb. We got to climb up to the balcony and wander round. Fun! (with a precipitous stair to get up to it and a half-size door to get onto the roof).
Then on to the heart of the complex for the main event: finally, Humayun's Tomb.
There are several km of water paths around the complex, all renovated in the last few years so that the water actually flows rather than stagnating. 1cm drop in 30-40m apparently, and it needs 15000l of water a day (I think) to replace that lost through evaporation and leakage.
Inside looking out:

Looking up at the intricate roof (really plain by Taj Mahal standards - although this building is earlier):
As we were leaving, school parties were arriving. All the children wear identical uniforms (no pick and mix here). They love to wave at us and say hello, and if they're really brave they ask to have their photo taken with us (their cameras of course): Map of the complex:
Then it was lunchtime and we went to the Lodhi Gardens restaurant to have lunch (again). They have made a few changes to the contents of the garden e.g. there are now several of these carts to recline in:
And a most impressive addition to any restaurant's menu is a plate that shows off all the different puddings you can have. Lee & Clare, this one's for you!
(I had the wicked chocolate mousse...)

After lunch we went into the gardens to walk off some of the effects. I took photos last year and pretty much the same again this year, so have a look back through the archives here if you're interested. Instead this time I'm going to give you a picture of a chap asleep on a bench (Indians appear to sleep in many places):
I'm afraid I didn't have the cheek to ask the chap who was perching on a pile (not stack, pile) of bricks when we arrived in the gardens, and was in exactly the same pose when we left an hour later.
The other photo you get is this strange image of someone's packed lunch tiffin boxes hanging from a tree:
Then the Lotus Temple: Much bigger queues than the last time we went, but still a good peaceful area inside as they limit the entrance numbers. Still run by gap-year Californians dressed in saris.
And finally, as the sun set we headed towards Dilli Haat. Well we tried to, but the driver decided to take us an alternative route via a posh emporium (presumably he's on commission: alas all the things inside were far too expensive for us to think about buying). Anyway, despite his assurances that it was right next door to Dilli Haat (i.e. about 10 mins drive away), it was a bit of a detour. As the sun was setting we got to the craft market.
and this one of some workers putting up an awning, balancing on bamboo poles in their bare feet. The construction reminds me of the wedding marquee in Monsoon Wedding. This looked fun - they were weaving wide strips of fabric as you can see. Very clever.
What's on the stalls?

(this guy asked if we could send him a copy of the photo as he liked it so much. Unless he's planning to show it to immigration to prove that he's married to Hanna, I can't see any harm (past a small cost of printing and posting). Anything dodgy anyone can suggest?)

Finally, back to hotel and time for dinner:
Yummy. And the pitcher of cocktail was good too. No room for pudding tonight. Maybe tomorrow...