India Day 10: New Delhi

We woke up resolved to do as much as possible on this last day here.

The Gate of India, Lodi Gardens, Sarojini Nagar. See landmarks, buy souvenirs, criss cross the city.

We went to the botanical Lodi Gardens as it came so highly recommended for being picture perfect. It was ok. Tombs and old semi palaces scattered over the different parts of the gardens. Pictured is Mohammed Shah's tomb built in 1444. It was a place to spend a Sunday morning with family or friends, some people practising yoga, others jogging on trails, while tourists looked at the ruins and took pictures of them.

There are so many markets here, many of which we'd meandered through last night, that we couldn't decide where to go to determinedly get sarees for Bob's sisters. After some googling, we settled on Sarojini Nagar. Got pretty colourful necklaces for the girls sold by the roadside the moment we got there. Getting clothes, though, was not that easy: crowd like wading through honey, and while the place mostly sold clothes, it wasn't Indian clothes. No shops carried men's jippas or kurtas. But one shop in the back, sold the prettiest sarees ever. Bob had a pretty tough time choosing just 2. Had he the option, he'd have taken 10. We rushed back to Arakashan Road to get padlocks for the boys and our things from the hotel. Everywhere we stayed had antique looking roundish locks for door latches we found curious. The road, of all roads on all days, was the route for a procession that evening. Walking against the tide of people, floats and trucks was hell. I wanted to get a few things on the street on the way back, shops closed for the procession. We decided that it would be impossible to fight this crowd with our luggage to the end of the road and took a tributary lane to a parallel one out to the main road. I don't know which was worse. We now found ourselves crossing on narrow beams, avoiding chicken carcasses and carrying the luggage over rocks. The wheels at this point are shot.

Did a bit of last minute shopping at the airport. Had the infamous Maharaja Mac (thumbs up) for dinner.

India has been difficult (probably brought on ourselves by our budget), exciting, colourful, moving, stunning, boring, frustrating, nerve wracking, satisfying. Come prepared, but come.

I might just come back. ;)

But for now I'm more than ready to be home, to sit on the bathroom floor and scrub between my toes, wash my dusty jeans and rehydrate my skin.

On the plane I finish The Casual Vacancy. I cry. Life is a battleground, India or England, the circumstances are different but the struggle is the same.