Day 9 and 10: Finishing India

Day 9

We are starting the day lazy again as Harpel needed a rest after 9 solid days of driving us around. This is turns out to be a god send as this morning we have the first rumbles of upset tummies in the team with Ben not being able to stray too far from the toilet. The immodeum is whipped out and luckily seems to the do the job by the time Harpel comes and picks us up.

We begin our long drive back to Delhi and all this driving is starting to merge into one as I stare out of the window as the passing towns and villages. It strikes me, however, as we drive along that although India is full of rubbish, it's pile high in the edges of the towns, spilling onto the roads, the Indians themselves are actually very clean. Each house and shop we pass has a clean front step which I see being swept every day, they are always smartly dressed with fresh clothes and ironed sleeves, they are very conscious of their appearance. Whereas at home, we might have smarter streets but we aren't always as bothered with ourselves. 

At about 4.30pm we begin to make our way into the city, a sight I can confirm as the buildings get higher and the roads busier. It is meant to take us an hour and a half from this point but you Harpel's amazement and ours the streets are nearly empty. He chuckles to himself that he's never seen the city so clean, so beggar free and so empty and it dawns on us all that Obama's arrival tomorrow is very important for the president and he needs everything to be just so.

We reach our hotel in 45 minutes, and you can see Harpel's happiness to be back in his home city with his family, including two young daughters, nearby. He isn't happy for us to go out tonight on our own, he's worried that, with Obama's arrival imminent tomorrow, that there might be trouble in the city tonight so we have lukewarm showers, room service curry and an early night.

Day 10 

Today I managed to wake up still thinking I'm at home, and that confused feeling doesn't leave me for most of the morning. We are leaving India today but not till late so we have a full programme according to Harpel. We dress quick and find our way to the hotel bar for the last of our Indian breakfast surprises but it excels itself this morning and I have the best breakfast I've had this coming here. It's called Bhooni Barji and consists of a inflated pancake style bread with curry and yoghurt, yum.

Our first stop on our jam packed day sight seeing is to a monkey temple, which is easily the coolest temple I have ever seen. It's bright orange, about 30 ft high and in the shape of their monkey God, we didn't go inside but I was pretty impressed with its outer to be honest.

Next up, on a day seeming to be full of them, is another temple. This time a cool stone building that was a bit nippy without your shoes on, but even with its chill this is probably the first time any place religious in this trip has chimed with me. The walls are full of Hindu proverbs that's logic makes sense to me. My favourite was something like (I forgot to write it down) life is like being in an ocean full of crocodiles, I just like that image :)

We linger around here longer that we would have normally as we have a lot of hours to kill but it shows off how far I've come in 10 days of being here and I'm just a little impressed with myself. To get to this temple and back to the car again, we have to walk under the road in a dark subway full of stalls and for the first time is doesn't feel like I'm suffocating with fear, yes I'm a little nervous but not in a way that grips me and I feel I'm making progress.

After this, Harpel drives around a bit to show us the city which is full of road blocks and diversions for a certain american president, and I am really taken aback with just how quite the city is, it's much more comparable to Colchester on a Sunday morning that the bustling one we arrived in 10 days before. We see the city gate, the palace and several other places as we whizz past. 

We are on route to another temple and this one is the largest Hindu temples in the world and it's pretty huge. It was completed quite recently and it still feels quite fresh, we wandering around of over an hour taking in its huge elephant sculptures and their stories. Our tummies are rumbling by now so we go off for lunch is probably one of the most disappointing places Harpel has taken us for food. It's an expensive touristy place with over priced drinks and no thali! It did redeem itself slightly with its mouth freshener afterwards. The only way I can describe it is it's like licking an incense stick which makes Ben gag but I quite enjoy it.