19.2.19

We were up and about a bit earlier this morning, first stop the metro to buy more one day tickets and receive 50 rupees each deposit on yesterdays.

We ventured off to the Lotus Temple, which is a Bahai temple set in beautiful gardens. We weren’t allowed to take photos inside.

From there we got off at INA station to go to Dilli Haat handicraft and food market which is right by the metro exit.

We did it in this order because we read about all the food stalls and that there is almost a stall for every states cuisine across India.

Never mind the handicrafts, we cut straight through to the food!

We we very pleased to opt for Odishas food, a state in the east of India.

Really tasty and excelllent espresso coffee too.

We started a tradition of buying xmas decorations from places we’ve visited a few years ago so we had to buy this. He will look fab next to our kangaroo with his xmas hat.

To seek revenge on our Turkish neighbour and his noisy windchimes we bought these cute elephants.

The crafts there were fabulous, free from hassle,tuk tuks and beggars. Really well worth a visit.

Our next stop involved quite a long walk after Green Park station that ended with getting lost inside a gated community where some building work was going on, some birds were having lunch and a stunning temple and tomb buildings sat on the side of the road.

Back on track we found Hauz Khas which is what we had been looking for. Fabulous architecture, very similar to yesterdays tombs and very popular with young posers getting fodder for their Instagram accounts, having a sneaky fag, or a romantic smooch.

Surrounding the complex were several high end boutiques and really expensive roof top bars and restaurants.

We worked out that if we hurried we could just about fit in the last thing on our list and got a tuk tuk back to Green Park station. We went from yellow line, to violet line to blue line like locals and from our last stop Akshardam station it was a short walk to Akshardam Temple.

What a drama. You are not allowed to take anything inside except a clear water bottle or ladies purse. Adamant I wasn’t leaving my mobile phone I hid it in my pants and got through the bag search but lost my nerve when we saw there was a full security search later on, so it was either not go in or leave our bags at the locker room.

I almost felt sick and had separation anxiety watching my bag and phone being replaced with a metal disc!

The queues were horrendous, several lines separated by metal barriers with officials putting rope barriers across. Every time they opened a section it was like watching a herd of wild animals running and pushing until they reached the next queue, security scan.

It took almost an hour to get through both.

The Hindu temple opened in 2005, and is the 3rd largest in the world.

It’s certainly impressive but the queuing and leaving your bags ruined it for us. No idea why that level of security is necessary.

These images are from Google.

I did manage to take this one from the metro station of it lit up as we were leaving.

Back to our Old Delhi area and time for dinner at a cafe not far from our hotel.

The noise in the hotel is worse than ever tonight. Mr Arguing on his phone til all hours has been replaced by a group of very loud men in and out, in and out and a load of glass bottles and very loud tv. Great.

John reported them to the night guy at 11.30pm, he did speak to them, but it’s made no difference, if anything it’s worse. I had to watch tv on my tablet with the volume up high with headphones until 1.30am to try and drown out their noise.

Booking. Com have been great, I sent the photos of the rubble alleyway, reported the fact that the double rooms are not on the ground floor, that the stated kitchenette, tea making facilities, soundproofing, hairdryer, iron, bathrobe and seating area don’t exist. I also sent noise recording clips and within 2 hours 25 euro have been credited to my bank account.

It doesn’t compensate, but they have promised to update the room details and hopefully others won’t be fooled into booking here.

Can’t wait to checkout of this place!