July 10th and 11th

Saturday morning was a bit of a write off after Friday night out - managed to wake up at 12! We did venture out though after lunch for a while to go for dessert. They have loads of desserts here, which are all so so sweet - very nice though! The heat however was unbearable - the shop was only 5 mins away and we were both knackered by the time we got there - so the rest of the afternoon was spent resting in the house. Not very exciting!

We did however venture out in the evening to the Lodi gardens - very impressive free park where you cannot hear any traffic (for a change) and the air seems much cleaner. Lots of nice tombs and ruins to see as well. We then went to Khan market, which is much more upmarket to what you would expect, and unsurprisingly saw many white people there - more than I have in my entire time here so far! It was nice though, went for a drink and a wander around and was nice to get out of the house seeing as we had been inside all day.

Sunday was much more successful, although the heat was unbearable. We ventured out around half 10 to visit the Red Fort which was very impressive. I expected it to be more like a castle, but the Mughals' idea of a palace was a large impressive series of gardens with large marble buildings used for addressing the people, dressing rooms etc. What was a bit weird was that when people were taking pictures we were trying to get out of the way (as you do) but they were actually asking us to be in the photo because we were white! Other people literally came over to us and took our picture as if we were just some tourist attraction - very amusing. After the Red Fort we ventured over to the largest mosque in Asia, but were not allowed in because we were wearing shorts, but from what we did see it was very impressive. Another extravagant piece of architecture built in the era of the Mughal rulers - no expense spared!

So that was the first weekend of sightseeing done - have a lot more to plan ahead. Over the weekends and the 12 days at the end of my stay that I have assigned for travelling I plan to see a lot more of Delhi as well as Agra, and hopefully a lot of Rajasthan including Udaipur, Jaipur, Jodhpur and Jaisalmer.