Delhi: 2nd March.

The following day, we decided to have a full day of sightseeing of Delhi, before meeting our group, to start our Intrepid adventure to Kathmandu. We were meant to meet the same driver that took us out the day before, but we were late (nothing changes!) so we hopped into an autorickshaw with a Dad and his young son, who would both proceed to spit freely for the next 6 hours. After agreeing to a price for the day, we went to Lakshmi Narayan temple (the favourite worship place of Gandhi). Barefooted, we meandered around for a tranquil 20 minutes, in between crowds of schoolkids. We then speedily drove through the Parliament district, and with many policemen lining the road, this was a clear indication not to stop, so our driver made us take many pictures in motion! We were then dropped at the India Gate, where Armelle got slightly upset by seeing performing monkeys.

Humayun's Tomb was next, which is a world Heritage monument built for the Emperor (a group of mosques and burial chambers) in Red sandstone, very impressive, with parrots nesting in the arches. We attempted to take an arm's length photo of the 2 of us. We decided after 10 minutes of trying that this is an art we have yet to perfect! After a couple of unexpected silk 'palaces' and textile shops thrown in, we arrived at the Red Fort, a 'Citadel of Power' (apparently), and marvelled at the carvings within the buildings, and gratefully ate curry. We have now concurred to be vegetarians for the next month due to toilet issues. Upon finishing, our driver asked what had happened, as we took ages. Whoops! But there was a wooden musical statue that Armelle was debating over. We then sped back through Delhi rush hour, which you can definitely call an experience! We nipped and dived between cars and buses on the journey back, and successfully completed a couple of U- turns as well as driving down the wrong side of the road. Throughout the day, 2 elephants, 3 cows, 2 horses and thousands upon thousands of exhaust pipes shared our routes. Such emissions required much scarf-tightened-around-our-face action by us both.