Goodbye India
Continuing the theme of returning to cities for a third time we took the Golden Temple Mail from Amritsar to Delhi. I didn’t have the most pleasant of journeys from Amritsar. I’d been gloating to Rhian that I’d avoided any prolonged sickness during out fifteen weeks on the sub-continent only to pick up a nasty case of food poisoning. I spent most of the journey going back and forth to the toilet.
We arrived at Hazrat Nizamuddin station and took a pre-paid auto to the Hotel Woodland (recommended.) By the time we reached our room I was feeling pretty weak and dehydrated. Unfortunately for me we needed to head to the Iranian embassy to collect our passports. Arriving at the embassy at 9am we were very disappointed to discover that the illegible scrawl on our receipt apparently read “collect from 1-1:30pm.” We finally collected our passports and I spent the next day and a half in bed rehydrating and taking advantage of the three television channels dedicated to cricket.
Our final few days in Delhi were spent unsuccessfully trying to locate a wooden elephant which Mam had taken a fancy to in Nepal (I’d told her that they were cheap and abundant in India,) taking in a few sights (Indira Ghandi Memorial, Ghandi Smriti, Baha’i temple and the National Gallery of Modern Art) and trying, and finally managing to, send a parcel home.
For our final meal in India we visited a branch of the excellent Saravana Bhavan for a pukka South Indian “meal.” The aromas and flavours of the south will be a lasting memory.