Due to a glitch in WordPress the latest is not showing at the top – the latest as of May 22, 2024 is Varanasi at https://neuage.me/varanasi/ It works on mobile devices though – go figure.

Our previous blog, https://neuage.me/crossing_wagah/  documented our walk across the border from India into Pakistan, while this is crossing the border from Pakistan into India. This was followed by a brief stay in Amritsar, a train journey to Delhi, a few days in the outskirts of Delhi, a train ride to Varanasi, and finally, three weeks in the unexpectedly remarkable Indian city of Guwahati in the state of Assam. This city emerged as a highlight of our three-month journey, among many other memorable moments.

However, this blog is only up to the train to Varanasi with that wonderful place and Guwahati next thingy.

NOTE; Narda in italics Terrell not,

Our video of crossing the border from Pakistan into India is at https://youtu.be/iZ3MLwLrgXo

Wagah border again. Imran drove us there. He stopped at his wife’s mother’s place on the way as I needed a loo stop. It was really interesting. They live very close to the border. Back in the day they used to allow these folks who live very close to the border to visit family and have an easy crossing. I think this still applies. folks leave their passportsfora day or so and can conduct business or visit family on the other side.

But this time we did get photos of each other with a foot in each country.

Then the same (grumpy) driver took us to the Shree Hotel near the train station in Amritsar.

Cheap hotel but well located. Just an easy walk to the train. Brothers (our new fav restaurant) for a good meal.

March 02

Last meal before leaving Lahore

Prior to our departure from Lahore, we made stopped at Arammish Spa and Salon in Gulberg, within walking distance from Brendan & Sofie’s home. This has become a regular haunt for us whenever we are in town. I typically indulge in a head massage, hair wash, and often a (or most often) foot massage. The hair wash and head massage cost around $11 USD, slightly more than the $8 USD I paid at Main Market for the same services. I thoroughly enjoy every bit of it. My aim for this trip is to treat myself to at least one head massage and hair wash per week, making it about twelve sessions by the time we head back to Australia, where the prices are easily five to seven times higher. Of course, Narda gets the same treatment plus a manicure to keep her toenails beautifully reddish.

Before heading to the border, we experienced two interesting events. Groovy. One of them was Narda getting another opportunity to perform with Brendan’s band. She had the chance to do so last year as well, and once again before we departed this time.

This time, they performed at the International Club. I did not record their performance, but it was essentially the same band that Narda sang with the previous year. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rh_o7XGW6mY

The other different event was dinner with Imran’s family. Imran, I may have mentioned, has been Brendan’ house person (servant I imagine) for years and Brendan’s driver (though Brendan prefers to drive in the full-on traffic of Lahore). It was a very Pakistan traditional l meal though I cannot remember what it was. Delicious. Imran’s children were a highlight too. We found one of them impressive, he was seventeen years old. He wants to be an ‘influencer’. At our mature age, Narda and I are not up to what this means. She was very excited about her presentations as an ‘influencer’, mostly it seemed to do with being on Instagram.

Here she is taking a selfie of her along with Narda and me and Imran’s family. Unfortunately for her, as she had been building a following on social media, someone stole her phone which seems to be curtailing her now. But she was still very enthusiastic about her future as an influencer.

Upon reaching the border, we successfully navigated through immigration on both the Pakistan and India sides, undergoing various passport checks within just an hour. We had hired the same driver who had taken us to the border three weeks prior. However, this time around, he seemed grumpy during the entire 45-minute journey back to Amritsar. Because of his shit-attitude, we opted not to provide him with a tip. I discarded his business card and am unable to share his contact information. But he was the guy with a turban on his head. Oh wait! They are all like that.

According to the internet, ‘Amritsar was founded by Sri Guru Ramdass ji, the fourth guru of the Sikhs in about 1574 A.D. Before the city was founded, the area was covered with thick forests and had several lakes. To start the city the Guru invited 52 traders from different sectors belonging to nearby places like Patti and Kasur to settle here. These families started the first 32 shops in the city which still stand in the street called Batisi Hatta (32 shops). The Guru himself shifted to live among them in the city which came to be called Ramdaspur and has been eulogised in the Guru Granth Sahib.’ https://amritsar.nic.in/history/ could be true.

Nearby, a five-minute walk is Durians Temple. A bit of a copy of the Golden Temple but quite ok nevertheless. The temple derives its name from the Goddess Durga, the chief Goddess worshipped here.

We had made a reservation at the Shree Krishna Hotel for around USD 12/night, advertised as a three-star establishment. Ha ha ha, so we thought. The room turned out to be quite small and didn’t come with the decorative towel swan or balloons in the lobby as depicted on their website. Despite claiming to have a shared lobby, it was apparent that the staff used it as their sleeping quarters. When we had to leave for the train at seven am the next morning, we had to carefully navigate around the two staff members sleeping on a mattress to exit the room. Nonetheless, the bed was comfortable, and we even managed to take an afternoon nap before heading out to scavenge for food.

Photos from out the window Shree Krishna Hotel

I was more interested in the locals and taking photos of them. I thought their outfits were much more interesting than what I wear and now I am wondering if that is how I should dress when back in Adelaide

The temple along with the view from our window at the cheap-ass hotel is featured in our clip over at https://youtu.be/CB1CG1XzWaQ

As usual we, mainly Narda, got stopped to have selfies. I often wonder what becomes of these photos. When AI image search is perfected I am sure we will find out who has posted images with us and what they have said over the past decades of our travels in Asia. The States/Europe/Australia – places like that never take selfies with us – well maybe the grandchildren in Adelaide when they want to make fun of us. Maybe we do not want to know what folks have posted in India, Pakistan, Vietnam, Cambodia, Sri Lanka and all the other countries where people constantly stop us as if we were celeberties, have to say. My son, Sacha, says ‘what a nightmare’ I think yes, this is what a Leo lives for – to a point.

We took a tuk-tuk to Brother’s restaurant where we had been before. A good vegetarian place near the Golden Temple. I even got caught up in a wedding in an already overcrowded street – https://youtu.be/TeK4UzYWT74   

08 March Friday

Train to Delhi https://youtu.be/1cI4wKRtb2c?si=hs_bbm86MnZC01_l

Up at five am out the door at six – we had to climb over the sleeping hotel manager(s) laying on a mattress in front of the front door. As we knew there would be nowhere to get breakfast, we had sandwiches made up at the Brother’s Café the night before. Luckily, we found small cartons of cold coffee at a shop on the platform, so our morning was shaping up. The train station as all train stations was full of people, most who were not catching a train anytime soon, there is always a group or group of people who live on the platform spread across it sleeping along with children begging early in the morning and dogs scavenging for something that some non-vegetarian Hindu may have dropped along the way.

Because the Paschim Express originates in Amritsar on its daily run over to Delhi we could get on the train about half an hour earlier. We try to get first class on all the trains but sometimes they are already filled even a month earlier. On the Paschim Express we had booked, or our agent, Raj, had booked, a First-Class cabin – which either meant we would be sharing a cabin, or we would have one of the two cabins which have just one set of bunks. This time we got the cabin with just one seat meaning we did not have to share with anyone which we were quite happy with.

We took two naps. Narda on the top bunk, my body does not quite have the dexterity that Narda does and also, I tend to have bad dreams where I throw myself out of bed. I had my pacemaker/defibrillator replaced three-weeks before we left (“don’t travel for four-weeks after surgery” well we did after three) and the reason for the replacement was that I must have landed on something one night and bruised myself as I was quite black and blue or some such colour and the cardio dude said it would be best to open me up and so they did and the previous pacemaker/defibrillator was a bit broken or had pieces inside of it and there was thought I could be infected. Probably like those zombie movies we watch. Anyway, all replaced and stitched together we have decided I shouldn’t sleep on a top bunk.

We had at least five chai teas on the train. Note how small the cups are – at ten rupees (12-cents USD – 18-cents Australian) we felt they were a bit expensive but of course on Amtrak that would be at least a buck if not two. Actually, they would just roll their eyes and say huh?

We arrived in Delhi at about 5, took the yellow line to our Airbnb – section 18 – next to the last stop on the metro – 40 rupees for the two of us (45 cents USD/72-cents Aussie) then grabbed a tuk tuk to our flat.

Amritsar to Delhi. 1AC with our own room. 2 naps on the way. I’m happily sleeping on the top bunk. My only complaint is that it is cold up there with aircon.  Brought our own sandwiches which we bought at Brothers. Transferred nicely to the Yellow line of Delhi Metro, with a brief tuk tuk ride to our Airbnb.

Tuk tuk clip at https://youtu.be/ijXnR8eQusQ?si=ZXv_NLNdhcZy6hs3

We were met by our house host, Shiva and his mother when we realised that we were missing a bag!!!!! My handbag/backpack, which contained a lot of important stuff….diary, travel papers luckily not passports which I now carry around my waist. We had a few dark moments. We rushed back to the local railway office. They were extremely kind and reassured us that it would be found. They sat us down, with a glass of water. Bless.

Anyway, then we got a phone call from Raj our train booking guy from way back, which we have used for this trip. To cut this long story short, the bag was found in the Delhi main station on a security scanne….the folks there had looked inside to try to reunite the bag with its owner and found Rajs’ details on the tickets. They contacted him. He then rang us!!. YAY

So back on the Metro to collect it. A close call!!!!!! 

After fifteen minutes we realized Narda’s main bag was not with us. Rushing back to the metro station and into the controller’s office. They were most helpful looking at scanners of people moving about the New Delhi station to see if they could track our earlier movements. Whilst there, after ten or so minutes our train person, who bought our tickets, Raj, was on the phone to Narda asking if she lost a bag. What had happened was that we (I think it was me) had left Narda’s bag on the scanner at the airport metro station. It was her backpack with all our important papers and things in it.  Airport security opened the bag and found the printouts of our trip with Raj’s information on it so they rang him and he rang Narda. We were just too tired when we got to Delhi and just kept on going. Just to add now that the trip is over, we did not misplace or lose anything else on this three-month trip to lots of places except for one camera lens and a small purse that did not have anything in it. Losing Narda’s backpack would have been a major loss so I think that made us much more conscious the rest of the trip for all our stuff.

So now we are home in Delhi. It’s a nice little apartment, located near Rohini Section 18, near the end of the Yellow Metro line. It’s nice to be away from the tourist areas with the constant begging and the folks trying to sell us stuff.

We were back to our area at 8 pm went out and had a street dinner and to bed 10 pm feeling pretty content with life..

In our little hood in Rohini; Rohini is one of the oldest sub-cities in Delhi and was established over 40 years ago. Narda made friends with the local children. She was going to teach them a song – forgot what happened to that but think it did not happen. We would see these children every day, not sure why they were not in school, they took a shining to Narda (who wouldn’t?) and they would have random discussions.

We spent a week doing a few tourist things like going to the old town – of course, most of India is ‘old town’ but the area with incredibly narrow streets and zillions of people and animals – cows mainly – being in one another’s way. We went through the large square at the mosque, Masjid-i-Jehan-Numa, one of the largest mosques in India.

 It was built by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan between 1644 and 1656,

 See our clip at https://youtu.be/8HwWwKQyGl0  

A nice outing to see the famous mosque. We are getting used to the metro, even changed trains halfway. When it is off peak, it’s a great and cheap way to travel in Delhi.

Crazy traffic in Old Delhi, with narrow streest and lanes. There are also some beautiful old buildings in Old Delhi.

As usual Narda had children following her and discussion various world views were never ending…

We found a modern shopping centre, which is something we do on occasion. Usually over the overpricing of things and the sameness worldwide of brands filling shopping centres making no shopping centre in the world unique anymore.

We took a random bus, also one of our favourite activities wherever we are in the world. See our clip ‘bus 181’ https://youtu.be/bbdgheE84j8

Left the flat at 8.45 AM, took the metro to the end of the line then back to get to the main Deilhi train station. The train was overcrowded at our stop – one stop from the end of the line and we had our suitcases with us (and the one left-behind backpack) so we got a seat by going to the end of the line and barely got a seat going in from there – some fifteen stops. We paid 450 rupees to sit in the first class lounge for an hour at the main station (NDLS) – got on our train at 11, it left at 11.25 – luckily we got the two berth in our cabin – meals included two main meals snacks plus tomato soup – coffee – etc. – to Varanasi at 11 pm. What a nightmare – that is the next blog.

To Varanasi

• Next train, the Rajdhani, left NDLS (New Delhi main station) at 11.25 pm to Varanasi, arriving at 11pm. 

We had 1AC again, and our own cabin. This time food was part of the deal. Lots of snacks, 2 courses of lunch and dinner. The first course was tomato soup out of a packet. It was yum. The second course a little too spicy but OK. I slept in the afternoon, still a bit cold but I wrapped myself up.

EXECUTIVE CLASS (EC)

Change block type or style

Move Paragraph block from position 78 up to position 77

Move Paragraph block from position 78 down to position 79

Change text alignment

Displays more block tools

Save

Lahore-Delhi

Our previous blog, https://neuage.me/crossing_wagah/  documented our walk across the border from India into Pakistan, while this is crossing the border from Pakistan into India. This was followed by a brief stay in Amritsar, a train journey to Delhi, a few days in the outskirts of Delhi, a train ride to Varanasi, and finally, three weeks in the unexpectedly remarkable Indian city of Guwahati in the state of Assam. This city emerged as a highlight of our three-month journey, among many other memorable moments.

However, this blog is only up to the train to Varanasi with that wonderful place and Guwahati next thingy.

Narda in italics Terrell not,

Our video of crossing the border from Pakistan into India is at https://youtu.be/iZ3MLwLrgXowalking to India

Wagah border again. Imran drove us there. He stopped at his wife’s mother’s place on the way as I needed a loo stop. It was really interesting. They live very close to the border. Back in the day they used to allow these folks who live very close to the border to visit family and have an easy crossing. I think this still applies. folks leave their passportsfora day or so and can conduct business or visit family on the other side.

But this time we did get photos of each other with a foot in each country.

• 
• 
• one foot in Pakistan one foot in India
• 
• 
• 

Then the same (grumpy) driver took us to the Shree Hotel near the train station in Amritsar.

Cheap hotel but well located. Just an easy walk to the train. Brothers (our new fav restaurant) for a good meal.

March 02

Last meal before leaving Lahore

• oppo_2
• oppo_1043
• oppo_2
• oppo_1043

oppo_1043

Prior to our departure from Lahore, we made stopped at Arammish Spa and Salon in Gulberg, within walking distance from Brendan & Sofie’s home. This has become a regular haunt for us whenever we are in town. I typically indulge in a head massage, hair wash, and often a (or most often) foot massage. The hair wash and head massage cost around $11 USD, slightly more than the $8 USD I paid at Main Market for the same services. I thoroughly enjoy every bit of it. My aim for this trip is to treat myself to at least one head massage and hair wash per week, making it about twelve sessions by the time we head back to Australia, where the prices are easily five to seven times higher. Of course, Narda gets the same treatment plus a manicure to keep her toenails beautifully reddish.

Before heading to the border, we experienced two interesting events. Groovy. One of them was Narda getting another opportunity to perform with Brendan’s band. She had the chance to do so last year as well, and once again before we departed this time.

This time, they performed at the International Club. I did not record their performance, but it was essentially the same band that Narda sang with the previous year. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rh_o7XGW6mY

The other different event was dinner with Imran’s family. Imran, I may have mentioned, has been Brendan’ house person (servant I imagine) for years and Brendan’s driver (though Brendan prefers to drive in the full-on traffic of Lahore). It was a very Pakistan traditional l meal though I cannot remember what it was. Delicious. Imran’s children were a highlight too. We found one of them impressive, he was seventeen years old. He wants to be an ‘influencer’. At our mature age, Narda and I are not up to what this means. She was very excited about her presentations as an ‘influencer’, mostly it seemed to do with being on Instagram.

Here she is taking a selfie of her along with Narda and me and Imran’s family. Unfortunately for her, as she had been building a following on social media, someone stole her phone which seems to be curtailing her now. But she was still very enthusiastic about her future as an influencer.

Upon reaching the border, we successfully navigated through immigration on both the Pakistan and India sides, undergoing various passport checks within just an hour. We had hired the same driver who had taken us to the border three weeks prior. However, this time around, he seemed grumpy during the entire 45-minute journey back to Amritsar. Because of his shit-attitude, we opted not to provide him with a tip. I discarded his business card and am unable to share his contact information. But he was the guy with a turban on his head. Oh wait! They are all like that.

According to the internet, ‘Amritsar was founded by Sri Guru Ramdass ji, the fourth guru of the Sikhs in about 1574 A.D. Before the city was founded, the area was covered with thick forests and had several lakes. To start the city the Guru invited 52 traders from different sectors belonging to nearby places like Patti and Kasur to settle here. These families started the first 32 shops in the city which still stand in the street called Batisi Hatta (32 shops). The Guru himself shifted to live among them in the city which came to be called Ramdaspur and has been eulogised in the Guru Granth Sahib.’ https://amritsar.nic.in/history/ could be true.

Nearby, a five-minute walk is Durians Temple. A bit of a copy of the Golden Temple but quite ok nevertheless. The temple derives its name from the Goddess Durga, the chief Goddess worshipped here.

• DuriansDurians Temple Temple
• Durians Temple
• Durians Temple
• Durians Temple
• Durians Temple
• DuriansDurians Temple Temple
• Durians Temple

Durians Temple

We had made a reservation at the Shree Krishna Hotel for around USD 12/night, advertised as a three-star establishment. Ha ha ha, so we thought. The room turned out to be quite small and didn’t come with the decorative towel swan or balloons in the lobby as depicted on their website. Despite claiming to have a shared lobby, it was apparent that the staff used it as their sleeping quarters. When we had to leave for the train at seven am the next morning, we had to carefully navigate around the two staff members sleeping on a mattress to exit the room. Nonetheless, the bed was comfortable, and we even managed to take an afternoon nap before heading out to scavenge for food.

• Shree Krishna Hotel
• Shree Krishna Hotel
• Shree Krishna Hotel
• Shree Krishna Hotel

Shree Krishna Hotel

Photos from out the window Shree Krishna Hotel

• 
• Photos from out the window Shree Krishna Hotel
• Photos from out the window Shree Krishna Hotel
• Photos from out the window Shree Krishna Hotel
• Photos from out the window Shree Krishna Hotel
• Photos from out the window Shree Krishna Hotel
• Photos from out the window Shree Krishna Hotel
• Photos from out the window Shree Krishna Hotel
• 
• Photos from out the window Shree Krishna Hotel

8 / 8

I was more interested in the locals and taking photos of them. I thought their outfits were much more interesting than what I wear and now I am wondering if that is how I should dress when back in Adelaide

The temple along with the view from our window at the cheap-ass hotel is featured in our clip over at https://youtu.be/CB1CG1XzWaQ

As usual we, mainly Narda, got stopped to have selfies. I often wonder what becomes of these photos. When AI image search is perfected I am sure we will find out who has posted images with us and what they have said over the past decades of our travels in Asia. The States/Europe/Australia – places like that never take selfies with us – well maybe the grandchildren in Adelaide when they want to make fun of us. Maybe we do not want to know what folks have posted in India, Pakistan, Vietnam, Cambodia, Sri Lanka and all the other countries where people constantly stop us as if we were celeberties, have to say. My son, Sacha, says ‘what a nightmare’ I think yes, this is what a Leo lives for – to a point.

We took a tuk-tuk to Brother’s restaurant where we had been before. A good vegetarian place near the Golden Temple. I even got caught up in a wedding in an already overcrowded street – https://youtu.be/TeK4UzYWT74   

08 March Friday

Train to Delhi https://youtu.be/1cI4wKRtb2c?si=hs_bbm86MnZC01_lWhat you see (what I show) is reality – anyone disagreeing is either blind or ignorant

Up at five am out the door at six – we had to climb over the sleeping hotel manager(s) laying on a mattress in front of the front door. As we knew there would be nowhere to get breakfast, we had sandwiches made up at the Brother’s Café the night before. Luckily, we found small cartons of cold coffee at a shop on the platform, so our morning was shaping up. The train station as all train stations was full of people, most who were not catching a train anytime soon, there is always a group or group of people who live on the platform spread across it sleeping along with children begging early in the morning and dogs scavenging for something that some non-vegetarian Hindu may have dropped along the way.

Because the Paschim Express originates in Amritsar on its daily run over to Delhi we could get on the train about half an hour earlier. We try to get first class on all the trains but sometimes they are already filled even a month earlier. On the Paschim Express we had booked, or our agent, Raj, had booked, a First-Class cabin – which either meant we would be sharing a cabin, or we would have one of the two cabins which have just one set of bunks. This time we got the cabin with just one seat meaning we did not have to share with anyone which we were quite happy with.

We took two naps. Narda on the top bunk, my body does not quite have the dexterity that Narda does and also, I tend to have bad dreams where I throw myself out of bed. I had my pacemaker/defibrillator replaced three-weeks before we left (“don’t travel for four-weeks after surgery” well we did after three) and the reason for the replacement was that I must have landed on something one night and bruised myself as I was quite black and blue or some such colour and the cardio dude said it would be best to open me up and so they did and the previous pacemaker/defibrillator was a bit broken or had pieces inside of it and there was thought I could be infected. Probably like those zombie movies we watch. Anyway, all replaced and stitched together we have decided I shouldn’t sleep on a top bunk.

We had at least five chai teas on the train. Note how small the cups are – at ten rupees (12-cents USD – 18-cents Australian) we felt they were a bit expensive but of course on Amtrak that would be at least a buck if not two. Actually, they would just roll their eyes and say huh?

We arrived in Delhi at about 5, took the yellow line to our Airbnb – section 18 – next to the last stop on the metro – 40 rupees for the two of us (45 cents USD/72-cents Aussie) then grabbed a tuk tuk to our flat.

Amritsar to Delhi. 1AC with our own room. 2 naps on the way. I’m happily sleeping on the top bunk. My only complaint is that it is cold up there with aircon.  Brought our own sandwiches which we bought at Brothers. Transferred nicely to the Yellow line of Delhi Metro, with a brief tuk tuk ride to our Airbnb.

Tuk tuk clip at https://youtu.be/ijXnR8eQusQ?si=ZXv_NLNdhcZy6hs3‘honk if you love us’ – wow what a response, well we love you too

We were met by our house host, Shiva and his mother when we realised that we were missing a bag!!!!! My handbag/backpack, which contained a lot of important stuff….diary, travel papers luckily not passports which I now carry around my waist. We had a few dark moments. We rushed back to the local railway office. They were extremely kind and reassured us that it would be found. They sat us down, with a glass of water. Bless.

Anyway, then we got a phone call from Raj our train booking guy from way back, which we have used for this trip. To cut this long story short, the bag was found in the Delhi main station on a security scanne….the folks there had looked inside to try to reunite the bag with its owner and found Rajs’ details on the tickets. They contacted him. He then rang us!!. YAY

So back on the Metro to collect it. A close call!!!!!! 

After fifteen minutes we realized Narda’s main bag was not with us. Rushing back to the metro station and into the controller’s office. They were most helpful looking at scanners of people moving about the New Delhi station to see if they could track our earlier movements. Whilst there, after ten or so minutes our train person, who bought our tickets, Raj, was on the phone to Narda asking if she lost a bag. What had happened was that we (I think it was me) had left Narda’s bag on the scanner at the airport metro station. It was her backpack with all our important papers and things in it.  Airport security opened the bag and found the printouts of our trip with Raj’s information on it so they rang him and he rang Narda. We were just too tired when we got to Delhi and just kept on going. Just to add now that the trip is over, we did not misplace or lose anything else on this three-month trip to lots of places except for one camera lens and a small purse that did not have anything in it. Losing Narda’s backpack would have been a major loss so I think that made us much more conscious the rest of the trip for all our stuff.

So now we are home in Delhi. It’s a nice little apartment, located near Rohini Section 18, near the end of the Yellow Metro line. It’s nice to be away from the tourist areas with the constant begging and the folks trying to sell us stuff.

We were back to our area at 8 pm went out and had a street dinner and to bed 10 pm feeling pretty content with life..

In our little hood in Rohini; Rohini is one of the oldest sub-cities in Delhi and was established over 40 years ago. Narda made friends with the local children. She was going to teach them a song – forgot what happened to that but think it did not happen. We would see these children every day, not sure why they were not in school, they took a shining to Narda (who wouldn’t?) and they would have random discussions.

We spent a week doing a few tourist things like going to the old town – of course, most of India is ‘old town’ but the area with incredibly narrow streets and zillions of people and animals – cows mainly – being in one another’s way. We went through the large square at the mosque, Masjid-i-Jehan-Numa, one of the largest mosques in India.

 It was built by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan between 1644 and 1656, Masjid-i-Jehan-Numa, it took a crew of 50,000 workers, working under the supervision of the Wazir (the prime minister) Saadullah Khan to be completed. The principal material used was red sandstone, along with marble. Constructed between 1650-56

See our clip at https://youtu.be/8HwWwKQyGl0  

A nice outing to see the famous mosque. We are getting used to the metro, even changed trains halfway. When it is off peak, it’s a great and cheap way to travel in Delhi.

Crazy traffic in Old Delhi, with narrow streest and lanes. There are also some beautiful old buildings in Old Delhi.

old Delhi

As usual Narda had children following her and discussion various world views were never ending…

We found a modern shopping centre, which is something we do on occasion. Usually over the overpricing of things and the sameness worldwide of brands filling shopping centres making no shopping centre in the world unique anymore.

We took a random bus, also one of our favourite activities wherever we are in the world. See our clip ‘bus 181’ https://youtu.be/bbdgheE84j8

To Varanasi

Left the flat at 8.45 AM, took the metro to the end of the line then back to get to the main Deilhi train station. The train was overcrowded at our stop – one stop from the end of the line and we had our suitcases with us (and the one left-behind backpack) so we got a seat by going to the end of the line and barely got a seat going in from there – some fifteen stops. We paid 450 rupees to sit in the first class lounge for an hour at the main station (NDLS) – got on our train at 11, it left at 11.25 – luckily we got the two berth in our cabin – meals included two main meals snacks plus tomato soup – coffee – etc. – to Varanasi at 11 pm. What a nightmare – that is the next blog.

next blog Varanasi