We pull into the bazaar street, where the Namaskar hotel is located, at around 1am. It seems more like Mogadishu than India at this time. Litter is blowing across the road, deserted market carts, dogs barking and people lurking in the side alleys.
The hotel has an echo, there's no soft furnishings here! There are metal doors to the rooms and grilles to the floors below. With the functional pink rooms it's like a boutique prison. I like it.
I settle down to sleep when there's a power cut and a generator that could possibly be the size of the starship enterprise cranks up in (what feels like) the next room. Earplugs IN.
Next day walking out of the alley from the hotel the bazaar is completely different. People everywhere, motorbikes, tuk-tuk's, cows. Yeah! I missed India! Within 5 minutes of walking down the road i'm offered a peacock feather, a whip and a "very good price" USB stick.
This area is the backpacker hangout. There are cafe's, shops and rooftop restaurants selling anything you could want. Legs powered with chai and samosa I stroll north to the red fort. Talking to someone on the street they tell me the red fort is closed today, open again in the evening. Change of plan: I jump in a tuk-tuk and head down to Connaught place, a large mall-like shopping area, from where I can walk down to the President's house and India gate. The tuk-tuk driver asks me if i have a map (I don't) and says we can drop by the official tourist office to grab one, which I agree too. We end up at an unofficial travel agents, where two beaming men jump out to welcome me. Realising what just happened I defend against the organised tour onslaught and walk out with just a map, much to the disappointment of the commisioned tuk-tuk driver.
Walking down to and past India gate I head towards Humayan's tomb. On the way I notice a western girl surrounded by Indian men, she seems a little overwhelmed so I ask if she's ok. She's fine but needs to find somewhere to change money as it's her first day in India. We find a bank on my newly aquired map and I head over with her. Her name's Julia, an Italian heading east later that evening to study oil and herb therapy. We spend the rest of the day strolling around the tomb, which is stunning, and the presidents house then grab the shiny new metro back to New Delhi station.
What happens next still hasn't quite sunk in. Me and Julia grab some falafel at a random restaurant back on Bazaar street, we sit down when over my shoulder I hear "Stu". I turn around and see someone whom i haven't seen in 16 years! I said something expletive and we man hugged and WTF'd for a while then all sat together and had some food. Turns out him and his girlfriend are staying in that hotel. We spend the next hour jabbering in some broken Brummie language, I feel sorry for Julia who had to sit through it all! Later she had to get her train so we said goodbye and me, Will and Sam moved up to the bar for more catching up.
The next morning I find myself sandwiched between 3 Danish girls and 4 Dutch girls. I mount up and follow the guide into the depths of Delhi. This 6am cycle tour takes us through all of the back streets and lesser visited sights, then main sights before the main bulk of traffic starts. The four Dutch are air hostesses for KLM and arrived in Delhi 2 hours before, then fly home later that evening. Tough life! (http://www.delhibycycle.com)
8am next day and I meet Ahn Jong, the South Korean architect I met on a bus in Sri Lanka, who just flew into Delhi. He's travelling on a official government passport so has no visa, and is having massive issues getting a hotel and trains to accept him. We eventually get a train booked to Agra in a few days and he decides to hang back and try and speak to the Korean embassy about hotel issues while I meet Will and Sam. We do the Red fort (I wasn't so impressed) then walk over to the spice market which someone recommended to me. If you go to Delhi you HAVE TO go here. It's an assault on all sense, especially the respiritory system!
I have a confession: we went to McDonalds. What can I say, we were craving western dirt food! C'mon, after a month of curries we're allowed one right? The chicken Maharaja burger, which contained odd coloured chicken patties, was quite bad (how I wished for a big mac) but the fries were NOM NOM!
The rest of that day and the next day were spent walking the tight maze of back streets. No tourists, touts or people trying to sell you anything, just families, local eateries, men chatting next to mini temples, dogs and kids running about. So nice and friendly. Delhi then became my favourite Indian city so far.
That evening, lying in bed, happy from meeting old friends and seeing new places, I suddenly had an absolute sinking feeling: where was my blue mini-rucksack? This was my secondary bag, the first being my camera bag. Realising my kindle was in it wasn't so bad (i can replace that) but then it dawned on me that my travel mascot was in there. I later realised that my sunglasses and a small wooden cat, that i'd bought as a gift for someone, was also in there.
After some odd dreams about Monsta I woke up and decided to make a massive search effort. I delayed my train journey to Agra one day and made some "missing" posters (yes I realise this sounds crazy) then put them up along the bazaar street and all around the hotel where the restaurant was, complete with a reward! The hotel staff were immediately busy and turned the place upside down. I'm pretty sure it wasn't staff or a local that took the bag, it had to be a foreigner. I've since been sending the kindle text documents to see if anyone responds. I've had nothing back yet, and i'm pretty sure I won't see my little buddy again :(
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