Delhi (Belly) Part Deux

WARNING: Sever and intimate details of grossness, do not read if you have cleanliness OCD and or are slightly sensetive or grossed out by mice and cockroaches and... digestary problems.

Well, we're back in Delhi now, have picked up one shattered but happy looking Adele and are going to the druggie train station to pick up our train tickets in a bit. We're heading up north to Chandigragh, then Shimala, where there's a groovy toy train which goes winding up through the mountains.

I thought Delhi may be a bit like Bangkok, intimidating, scary and rank at first, but me and Han developed a real affection for it after the second time, and grew to love it living there for a month. Delhi? Not so much. Was looking forward to coming back but the constant heat is stifling and inescapable in the middle of the city, unless you go to Connaught Place and sit in very expensive bars with beautiful beautiful air con. Though we went to one of these, Zen, for one beer last night and there was a mouse darting under all the tables! I never thought I'd be the type to stand on chairs squealing, but turns out, I am! He was cute, but I couldn't get the thought of him nibbling my feet out of my head and sat with my feet up eyeing the floor whilst sipping my beer the whole time. And they reckon they're reet posh! Anyway, I think the Delhi experience has been marred by the thoroughly repulsive hotel we stayed in last night. We're in Hotel Amax now, but they had no rooms last night and sent us to their sister hotel 2 minutes away. Well, if that was my sister, I think the most humane thing to do would be to lock her in a cellar far far away from the public eye and never let her out. The first sight we were greeted with in the room was a babby cockroach. After exhaustive attempts we concluded that they are indeed invincible over here and gave up. I managed to up my mosquito kill count to 4 in the bathroom. Talking of which, there was a hole high in the wall, and we could hear what other guests were doing. I was awoken in the middle of the night by a drunken person falling out of bed, a very distinct sound: stumble, groan, BANG, ouch, hiccup, snore. Adam heard retching and hocking up. Nice. On top of all this I've got Delhibelly and the toilet flush didn't work. Altogether an experience never to be repeated. No one should ever, under any circumstances, stay in room 202 in Hotel Hindustani on Arakashan Road in Delhi. Let this be a warning for all who venture to Delhi.

So yeh, with that and the heat, Delhi's charms weren't making much of an impression. However, that's all man made shit, the natural world's making up for it. We were wondering the streets earlier and I thought someone had gobbed on me from above. But moving away from all things gross, it was the rain, it started with spatters of masssive rain drops, and then commenced full on flooding, a massively welcome relief in all the heat. We sat in a local restaurant and ate proper Indian food, 55 rupees (under a quid) for 2 butter rotis and tomatoe paneer, the nicest I've had so far. The eating experience was only enhanced by the young boy standing on the table opposite us. He was inexpertly messing with a very complex looking box of electricity cables with a very electricity-conducting-looking spanner, whacking the electric cables and sending sparks of leccy over us as we ate, making the lights in the restaurant flicker on and off, giving it all a very charming (and slightly perilous, always a bonus) atmosphere. And the cows! I love them, they walk in threes, mostly, down the street in single file, completely unaware of their traffic-stopping capabilities (of which I am not a little jealous), swishing their tales, and sauntering along in search of, whatever it is they eat here, there ain't no grass, as I said before, I think it's mostly bullshit and newspaper. Yum.