Visually enriched, physically weary

Saturday 5th April

- Purana Qila
- the Crafts Museum
- Safdarjang's Tomb

we slept from midnight right through to past 9am, throwing our early rise and afternoon nap plan out of the window, but possibly reminding ourselves that we are on holiday and not in London anymore. still with no morning appetite - although we have not really wanted anything English since arriving here - we wandered down to check out Panharganj's main bazaar.

Panharganj, Delhi

so this is where all the Westerners are. you hardly see them anywhere else, mainly because they all seem to be trudging up and down this road. such a contrast from the locals - miserable, set faces that don't respond when you look their way and smile.

we hopped in a rickshaw to get to the Crafts Museum, something Phil really wanted to see, unsurprisingly. our driver's lack of English meant that we had to direct him via the Purana Qila fortress, which we also wanted to visit. we got off in the wrong place and spent a while trying to find anything we recognised, but an impromptu walk past the High Court did give us the strange sight of a robed barrister in full court attire sprinting past us in the heat. as it turned out, we also saw the Khairul Manazil mosque and its infamous 'bloody gate,' another example of Britain's less than exemplary manner of dealing with dissent and uprising, but Delhi is so festooned with imposing ancient ruins, remnants of its 'Seven Cities.' that it's quite easy to get confused between them all.

finding the Craft's Museum constituted a lot of wrong turns and even a chance encounter with the Sikh rickshaw rider who had taught us the correct Sikh greeting days ago. in a city this big, what are the chances? it was clear that he certainly remembered that we had been staying at The Park for the price that he tried to quote us.

it was also clear after a short while that no-one knew where the Crafts Museum was, so we went first by rickshaw to Purana Qila, which we knew to be 'next door.' it turned out to be a good decision, as it was most impressive.

the entrance to Purana Qila.

more ancient red sandstone mosques with deeply inlaid Islamic script,


as well as beautiful gardens and an impressive observatory and library - octagonal, as usual - particularly well known because Mr Humayan, the great leader and battle commander whose tomb we visited two days ago, met a rather inglorious end here by falling down its steps and killing himself.

Here endeth Humayan the Great.

ever present, squirrels constantly scurry about.

a couple of nicely slow hours in Purana Qila and we were ready to find the Crafts Museum again, via a walk around a Boating Lake set beneath Purana Qila's steep battlements and dominating North Gate.

we did find it, and it was pretty much deserted but well worth the hike - Philippa clearly loved its sizeable and highly impressive textile gallery, declaring it later to be her highlight so far. Edd had faded quite badly that day and was wilting through blisters, tired legs and a lack of energy, so the museum may have got less of his attention than it deserved.

emerging from the museum and partaking of a rejuvenating drink and a packet of nicely salty crisps - two things always available in India - plus two holy men in their loudspeaker bedecked mobile shrine, we decided to skip the afternoon rest and carry on to Safdarjang's Tomb, a post-Taj mausoleum further south. clearly a theme for the day, our new rickshaw driver didn't know where that was either, but a quick stop and the usual scurrying of good natured people keen to help soon set him right.

Safdarjang's Tomb, Delhi

we rather liked Safdarjang's Tomb. although still following the laid out gardens, red sandstone and black and white marble layout, its rococo flourishes have led it to be branded rather decadent by some - not us, though, with Phil saying it was pleasantly feminine for a change.






it also gave us the chance to view more of the amusingly lacklustre way in which monuments are restored, here, which seems to involve a lot of sitting around and the occasional, random breaking of the odd stone. having rained at night twice already this week, we know that the weather is 'cooler' than usual, but we'd be less than inclined ourselves to haul masonry around in this heat.



napping - and unstable bowels - finally commenced on our return to Panharganj, followed by some internetting down on the main bazaar. tired to an extreme, we threw choice to the wind and perhaps rather disappointingly ate in the same restaurant again, barely able to stumble very far. night was punctuated by a vivid, vibrant storm that sprung up for some time, freeze-framing the room in lightning strobes.

there's so much to see and do, here - a 5 minute walk throws up extreme poverty and obvious wealth, ragged old cycle-rickshaws and air conditioned saloons, religious buildings' brilliant domes and spires punctuating the run-down, crumbling grey street dwellings, food vendors, street barbers and cobblers and living and working in the dirt, frequent - and entirely accepted - public male urination, skipping children and brightly coloured, immaculately turned out, silk-wearing women.

no wonder we're tired.

namaste

edd & philippa