Rajasthan 29.12.9 - 1.1.10

Rajasthan 29.12.9 - 1.1.10
Hello again all, yes now I am in India at the starting hotel in Delhi for a 2 week tour of Rajasthan.
I arrived in the early hours of Wed 30th local time (Delhi is five and half hours ahead of UK).
After a long lie-in, I spent the rest of the day walking around the nearby streets. The hotel is situated in a busy downtown area consisting of a series of parallel main streets, linked by many narrow lanes, all filled with small shops at ground level with restaurants, offices, apartments and more shops at higher levels. Thousands of shops and street stalls, hundreds of thousands of people, cars, tuk-tuks(pedal and motorised), motor bikes, bicycles, all battling for space and a way through the melee. It is chaos but mostly friendly chaos.
Not so friendly are the horns. Every motor vehicle has one and it is used unstintingly and aggressively. I think some of them have had amplifiers fitted. (bicycles of course have bells, sadly swamped by the horns and all the other noise of these bustling streets). All drivers are impatient, all pedestrians and other vehicles are impediments to their progress which is interrupted at their peril. Parking is anywhere and everywhere. Pedestrians walk mainly in the street because the pavements are blocked by shop displays and stalls. Electrifying chaos.
This evening I have my first genuinely Indian meal. My choice is restricted (I come from South Devon, my family didn't do 'spicy' in those days) but I enjoy chicken kebab and mutton somethingorother.
Thursday 31st I take metro into Connaught Place. Canned sardines have loads of space compared to these trains. It is a fast modern service at a ridiculously low price, about 15p. Once in the carriage, you cannot turn around or even move your feet. If you are too far away from anything to hold, you have to sway with the crowd as the train accelerates and decelerates. It does neither smoothly. An equivalent tuk-tuk journey cost about £2 but is rather draughty. A taxi would be maybe £5 but I haven't been that extravagant yet.
Connaught Place is a British built, huge circle of buildings, maybe a kilometre around, with a park in the middle. The buildings have been badly neglected but are undergoing renovation as one part of major structural works in preparation for the 2010 Commonwealth Games. As with the Olympics in Beijing and World Cup in South Africa, these events certainly stimulate governments to invest in their countries' infrastructures.
At ground level, there are smart shops, restaurants and fast food establishments. Much of the upper stories seems to be derelict. The whole area is a building site. Let's hope they succeed in transforming Connaught Place back into the beautiful and impressive place it could be.
It is New Year's Eve, the celebrations are beginning. Hundreds of armed army personnel gather in the park then spread out around Connaught Place. Police are everywhere. Mid-evening I catch the metro back to my hotel area.
After a very enjoyable biriahni in a nearby vegetarian restaurant serving South Indian food, I see in the new year amongst the local population. There is fireworks and much excitement. And now it is 2010. The tour starts at 6pm today, the 1st.
All the Best, John