Oct 5 The real Delhi…

…we found today in Old Delhi. About 30 minutes by car from our hotel close to Connaught Place which is the downtown of New Delhi, people and vehicles everywhere. Both Bibi and I are curiously unfazed by the traffic.  Mind you, two Gravol probably helped. We were accompanied by Sweety, a guide we hired to lead us through the maze. And a maze it was. Never would we have ventured into this labyrinth of narrow, narrow alleyways of Chandi Chowk,

where in thousands of little cubbyholes everything, from jeans to beads to vegetables, was sold.  The first part of the trip was by bicycle rickshaw, but we soon found that the ride was too bumpy and all photos blurry, so carried on on foot. The alleys are so narrow that little light filters through. The film, Fifth Element, comes to mind... the maze of electrical wires veils any blue sky there might be.

A week of walking and photography would not be enough to capture the confusion and colours of the bazaar.

In a quiet alleyway we found a jewellery wholesaler (ie the wholesaler found us with Sweety’s help) and a good time was had by all admiring stones and jewellery…glitz, shades of Vienna!

our bicycle rickshaw drivers

Bibi floating through the bazaar

The Red Gate, famous museum and monument, we admired from the outside….just for now we’d had enough of museums, after Vienna. Tomorrow we’re off on our eight-day train trip through north-east India on the Palace on Wheels (website). More to come.