Old Delhi and trip to Agra

The day started early, bags packed and on the bus by 8.30. Doesn't sound too early but having a bedroom close to reception with arrivals and departures through out the night we felt a bit jaded at the start of the day. The morning was spent wandering the streets of old Delhi. Firstly we met Amon a street kid who had been rescued and was our tour guide. He had been rescued from the streets aged 6 after being kidnapped and bought into the city. Poor man he had no memory of where he came from though is still trying to find out. I thought of his parents always wondering what had happened to their son. The good news is that g adventures sponsors a local programme that is currently helping 800 children.

We also visited the mosque in the Centre of Delhi. A peaceful haven overlooking the hustle and bustle of the city. Shoes off, scarves on for the visit to this immense and very old building.

I had a wow moment today. We visited the hindu center. The prayer area was rather opulent with huge Chandlers, marble and mirror work.  The WOW came from the people. The center offers free medical care, libraries and food. Food for 50,000 mouths three times a day. In hindu there are four stages of life. The last is what we call retirement.  This is when people come to pay back the  community gor their life a bit like "paing forward" I guess. Cooking for anyone who wants a free meal. Food can be found at the center or at corners of the streets where dogs are fed as well. Awe inspiring stuff. Amon had mentioned that street kids of which there are about 50,000 in Delhi alone did not buy food with their earnings. Having free food meant they could buy glue and new clothes to go to the new bollywood movie. The disadvantage of free food is lack of motivation to make improvements. Food for thought.

After a rather nice platter of different curries we wandered back through the narrow streets to the tune of honking horn and  smells of exhaust, incense and barbecue food. The shops were full of anything imaginable the only criteria seemed it had to be colourful but strangely empty of customers.

We drove to Agra. More interesting alley ways past the shops with stolen goods (if you have something stolen you are pretty sure to find it for sale in these streets). Car parts adorned the pavements and doorways as well as electrical goods and a mish mash of unnamed metal objects.

The drive through Indian country side was far different to what I expected. Outside Delhi there were a number of large estates in various stages of completion -huge apartment blocks.  We passed fields of mustard, wheat and rice and many brick kilns. Hotel was a bit more up market than expected though we are still having trouble with charging all our electronic stuff until one of our tour members said NZ plugs work if you put them in hard and he was right.

Thoughts so far

I have not yet seen one person exercise for the sake of keeping fit eg I Am thinking of runners or cyclists dressed in lycra or skimpy running shorts. It seems that the time to exercise is a first world luxury.

Manual work is prevalent. People brush the streets, make bricks, work as scare crows. Any job like brick making or laying, shovelling dirt seems  to  take one person to do it and at least three or four to provide moral encouragement. Many of the  work is seasonal and workers live in little circular thatched homes. As evening fell open fires lit up and the country side began to look like bonfire night. There is a lot of construction going on but it doesn't appear quickly though to be  fair we traveled along a road finished in 2015 which reduced traveling time by a fee hours. The old road had been converted to a walking and cycling path.

Women obviously spend most of their  time indoors.

Most horrifying sight was a 7 or so year old child sitting centimeters from traffic 5 wide. As the lights turned red she went to the middle of the road doing aerobics and gymnastics. Lights turned green and she wouldn't leave without money until she was threatened with being run over.

Cutest sight was a dog wrapped in a blanket with corners tied to his legs so it would stay on.

Second day in New Delhi

Well I  am not sure where to start. At the very beginning you say. A sound jet lagged sleep prepared us well for the day as did the little bananas and toast for breakfast. I am still a little unsure of quality of food but the evening meal of curries has had no ill effects so that is good. After much discussion we decided to take a tuktuk to the metro. After realizing the ticket machine only took 5 and 10 rupee notes we then needed to find coins for the ticket man. Battle over we discovered metros are the same world over except this one has a violet line. We managed the line change smoothly and ended up at connaught square. Safety in numbers as Judy from Vancouver joined us we followed a man to the hop on hop off bus office through a rather dubious door and a more dubious flight of stairs. No seats on the bus we were told would we like to spend 30000 rupees on a private taxi. A tad expensive so he gave in quickly and we settled on half the price. A good idea as we soon learnt negotiating our way around to see the sights would have been time consuming and I think rather stressful. Rupin our taxi driver negotiated the cars, bicycles, buses, dogs and pedestrians with local expertise. Max speed is 60 but you are lucky to get over 40 and usually it is snails pace. We saw dogs, cows, goats, pigs,  sleeping or wandering around as well as plenty of birds including eagles.  Colourful stalls lined the streets  (food, flowers,toys, carpets,  clothes) and at each intersection people attempted to sell us amything from selfie sticks to peanuts.  The streets were also lined with washing  (hotels contract it out but surprisingly the towels remain off white although a bit hard).  On many of the median barriers and trees cow pats  about 30 cm in diameter had been assembled to dry for fertiliser. We managed to fit in the red fort, Qutb monument with drive bys for the bahai temple lotus flower and Indian gate. Here's some photos to  wet the appetite. One thing is that the colors people wear are amazing.  I  can see that I won't be trying to avoid getting photos with people but they will be a feature. We are off to our tour meeting shortly then being taken out for tea with the ceo from the tour company presumably he is of the  Indian branch.

Travelling to New Delhi

The sun was setting behind the aeroplane wing as we were welcomed onto the plane. The longest night I have had for a while. 13 hours of darkness and little sleep intermingled with meals of chickpeas, tofu and veges with a stop over in Canberra. Now we are eating muffins and drinkimg tea and looking at Singapore airport carpet and Christmas decorations.

The most challenging thing that happened today was the untangling of the cord for the earpiece and finding something to watch as we whiled the hours away -a tall order for the tired brain. I flicked through a few movies, drowsed a bit and stood at the end of the plane doing lots of stretches much to the amusement of one little toddler.

We got through Customs in Delhi. Taking photos of fingers and thumbs from sweaty tired tourists seemed to take an inordinate amount of time with custom officers lazingly adding info into a very slow computer system and having to wipe the screens with used and not to clean tissues.

Our ride to the hotel was memorable. It started with a long walk  to the arranged transfer and nearly  being knocked over by a driver who thought he could squeeze between me and two cars. The lane markings didn't deter the local driver and two cars  from making extra lanes and certainly encouraged the motor cyclist to squeeze their motor into any little space. No photos of that drive as I tried to absorb our new environment examples include black and yellow lined gutters, long clay pots placed haphazardly along the median strips some of which included dusty and wilting plants, the new metro being built by a company with the logo "imagineering for the future", lots of stalls, dogs, pigeons and the air filled with dust and pollution.

After settling in (Alison had thoughtfully bought some teabags from NZ) we wandered down the main street. I took some photos but didn't want to appear too obvious and so some of the  sights will just be in words. The sentry boxes outside every home manned by a sentry (some with guns), the dogs oblivious to the hooting traffic. The drivers saying different messages depending on the  length and loudness of the  hoot eg "thanks", "I am here", "hurry up", "get out of my way", "I am really pissed off with what you have just done". Every shop had a guard as well some also with guns. Employment seems to be a priority - men sweep the paths with straw brooms. The great thing is that the shop owners smiled and said hi there was no pressure to buy.  Colours are great not all bawdy and bright but the subtle pastels creeping in.

We are off to the hotel restaurant for dinner tonight as the food stalls looked great (kumara, corn, roti, smoothies, nuts) but look like just the recipe foe Delhi belly.

More photos to come but here is one of our room and the view outside. We are keeping the curtains closed.

Back in Wellington

We came back on 2nd after a fun filled holiday of eating, cycling and walking. Yesterday I turned 60 and we celebrated with brunch at scorching bay and a barbecue at night with lots of friends and family. It was very special. The weather packed i about 90 minutes before the start and so we all crammed inside and harry and others barbequed in the porch. It seems when ever I plan an event the weather is likely to be wintry. So today was left overs and playing in the park.

Cycling around New Plymouth

It was our first day on the bikes.  Found a nice cycle route down a Valley onto the coastal path. New Plymouth put on a windy and cloudy day but it probably kept alot of sunny cyclers away.

Friday dawned sunny and warm. We couldn't resist a bike ride down the rest of the coastal path to a local cafe. One of the nicest vege brunch snacks had for a while. Stops at the playground and the little zoo were highlights before cycling back. We all dread the Cumberland road hill. Short and steep. Restful afternoon reading in the sunshine under a pink umbrella for shade. The height of decadence. Another cycle to the local chippie for dinner on the beach.

New years eve. We took Connie to the Tupare gardens, had a wander around the shops and len lye museum and went to the beach. Haz is still recovering from a cold.  nice walk back along the cycle path. Interesting fact most of the new houses up here are only one storey.

Te pouaki walk

We wandered up to the Te Pouaki hut some way up Mount Taranaki. Track isnt the typical walking through native bush but a continual path of wooden planks that led through lovely bush and sub alpine plants  to a great view of the city and coastline. Then we wandered down again. 4 and a half hours later we returned and haven't done much since except for looking for a beachside cafe to while the hours away which we didn't find, cook dinner and say hi to Mike, Becks and Connie.

It has been a busy few weeks building up to Christmas. Enjoyed seeing Mike  Becks and Connie  in the Wairarapa and having Connie to myself for a whole day.  We went to the park, decorated Christmas tree and put up our nativity scene.  Christmas  day was a lot of fun. Besides the family Nick, Carolyn and Martin came for brunch. Santa came too (with a hole in his trousers) but no one cared. Harry missed him for the second year in a row. Dinner was at Don and Judy's place. We are  now sitting in New Plymouth. Harry is making a cup of tea (well he put the jug on and then said he was off to have a shower). It is a bright sunny day for a change. The house looks over a wide expanse of bush that follows the river down to the sea which is a strip of blue just before the cloud hides the horizon. It was a long trip up yesterday. We crawled at snails pace up to Otaki, stopped for a few minutes to say hi to the Casey Cooper clan, had some lunch and then off to our holiday home. We got to our accommodation effortlessly and unpacked the car. After a cup of tea the first thing we looked for was wifi and who Place nicely positioned and quiet with deck though bbq is so filthy we won't use it and we need to suggest smoke alarms would be a good addition. To get over travel sluggishness we went for a long walk sort of following the river but not beside it. Now I will attempt for the first time to put some photos of on via phone.