Thursday 17th - Flying Solo

A bit misty this morning but the sun soon broke through. Another eclectic breakfast including grilled fish with lemon and caper sauce but we drew the line at mixed carrot and beetroot juice. At checkout there is a minor issue with the bill as we had been told that we were getting comlimentary wifi. This was solved by leaving the wifi on the bill and reducing the room rate. Duh! The staff at the Intercontinentl were without exception excellent and as a parting gift we were offered a complimentary car transfer to the station for our train this evening. We checked our luggage with the concierge and set off for the Red Fort in Old Delhi. Readers may be surprised to learn that this is not a curry house but an actual ancient monument, built by the Mughals (not the ones from Harry Potter).

The metro was much busier today - yesterday was apparently some sort of holiday- but fairly good natured and polite. As we walked up to the entrance four young boys asked to have their picture taken so they could see themselves on the camera screen. They seemed thrilled. There were enormous school crocodiles waiting to enter the Fort but we just managed to slip in ahead of them.

Only some of the buildings of the fort have survived but there is some wonderful detail on those that are still standing. Apparently the beastly British did the damage in 1857 whilst brutally supressing the First Indian Struggle for Independence. A lot of walking worked up a thirst and an appetite so we consulted the book for a lunch spot and opted for Chor Bizarre - a pun on Thieves Market. A 70 pence tuk-tuk ride later we were there.

They squeezed us into a table at the back but we didn't mind as they had cold Kingfishers for us. The food was excellent, especially the Naan bread - so much lighter than the ones we get at home. The best thing of all was that he background music system played a song called Mere Sapnon Ki Rani which features the Darjeeling Railway. Look it up on YouTube - it's brilliant.
Soon it was time to go to collect our luggage and head for the station.

We arrived much too early, got ripped off by a porter (but only for a couple of quid) and R got struck with Delhi belly. Fortunately we found a seat and the bung up pills and spent a couple of hours watching life go by. When the train arrived there was absolute pandemonium. It seemed like everybody had chosen a spot on the platform as far away from their allocated seat as possible. Our coach was in the middle of the train and we took up residence in our cosy two berth coupe. As it was dark there was not much to see out of the window so we went to bed.