DELHI. 13th-15th October

The last Monday in Delhi. Get up in the middle of the afternoon again. After a late lunch, walk to
the Indian War Memorial at Delhi Gate. This commemorates 5oo,000 Indian soldiers who died in the First World War, in Waziristan in 1919, and in the 3rd Afghan War, 1920.
As I want to go back via a Macca's in Connaught Place, I have to ask three separate policemen on duty, and none of them knew the name of the thoroughfare they were in. The third one had to ask a taxi driver, who says it is Rajpath. I follow this, thinking that it is one of the wide thoroughfares radiating from Connaught Place, but it ends up somewhere else, and I have to backtrack a couple of kilometres. Finally find Janpath, the road I want, but have to negotiate 5 roundabouts and two sets of traffic lights to get to those strawberry milkshakes at Macca's. Traffic lights are okay, up to a point, although traffic turning left at the lights tends to keep going, and you need to be pretty quick anyway. Roundabouts are another story, because there are no lights, and to continue along the road you are in, you usually need to get across two other roads, one of which will be non-stop bumper-to-bumper traffic. The longest I waited for an opening on one of these was ten minutes.

So far, I have been able to charge my mobile using my Euro plug. Indian power points give you a choice of two plug widths, and I have been using the narrower one, in which my Euro plug sits somewhat sloppily. Tonight, I plug it in, and immediately fuse all the lights (and air-conditioners) in the hotel, (and possibly in the surrounding neighbourhood). Feeling again like Mr Bean after he's committed yet another faux pas, I lie doggo, and the power comes on again and then cuts out a few times over the next hour. I make a mental note not to try and use my mobile charger again.

Tuesday is another complete wipeout, although I do storm the New Delhi train station, and leaving numerous touts in my wake, make it up to the first floor Tourist Office, and manage to buy a ticket to Amritsar, leaving at 11.10 Friday morning. The first class is booked out, but the lady offers me 'sleeper' class, which I take, fondly imaging that this is somehow superior to first class. I couldn't fault the price of 250 rupees, which was reduced to 170 rupees with senior's discount - roughly five bucks.

Wednesday, I am up relatively early, (1.30 pm), and after breakfast, overcome my aversion to rickshaws, and get a tuk-tuk (100rp) to Gandhi Smitri, which is a memorial and museum at the spot where the Mahatma was assassinated in Delhi. The museum was something of a mirror image of the other Gandhi Museum at Raj Ghat, but both of them were excellent. I had told the tuk-tuk not to wait, but I imagined that he would stick to the entrance to the place like glue. At chuck-out time I noticed another side exit, and took this, and using my mini-Melways, soon navigated to the Lodhi Gardens, a very pleasant spot in south Delhi, replete with joggers, strollers, dog-walkers and courting couples, but it wasn't at all overcrowded. Flag down a couple of tuk-tuks with the intention of returning to Macca's in style, but on this side of town they are prohibitively expensive, and I end up walking again, but (with the aid of my useless 30 rupee map) find a different Macca's, much closer to where I'm staying. Afterwards, I go berserk, and lash out 1199 rupees (35 bucks) on a beaut pair of Bata runners, as I am seriously considering an early retirement for my venerable Volleys.