Well, I've made it to the last week of the India section of the course! After this there is one more week at the base in England, and I'm done (though I'll have a lot more to say on the blog after that, especially with photos of the time away).

The train journey actually took about 24 hours - not the same 24 hours we were expecting (the train arrived about 90 minutes late), but at least we arrived in Delhi near enough when we should have done. Once here, we had to first find the correct end of the platform to exit the station, and then negotiate a price for the rickshaw taxis to take us the the hotel. The taxi experience is quite different here to the west. First, as I mentioned, you negotiate a price for the trip first (so they have a chance of getting more out of naive westerners, I think) , and then you have to cope with holding on for your life to anything you can grip on to in the rickshaw, which have no side doors. Our journey to the hotel was quite more intense than the trips further south. I've learned that two vehicles can somehow drive at each other and pass through one another, but here, they try to prove that far too often!

Anyway, we got the hotel and settled in, and slept.

The next morning (yesterday), we went for a bit of sight seeing in the city. There is a large mosque here, so we all went there to look at it. Again, remembering why I'm here, and who I'm here for, all I can say for now is, there is a lot of contrast! It all comes down to maybe one word: grace.

The rickshaw drivers on the way to the mosque did something our leader had warned us about: they first drove us to two shops for us to browse and maybe buy things from, before they took us to our required destination! They get commission. It is funny though: we have to haggle over the price of a rickshaw, then they take us to shops where almost everything cost over 1000 rupees!

Then we split up into different groups to see different things. my group wanted to go to the Costa Coffee they spotted previously, and as we passed some manual cycle rickshaws, they gave us what we thought was a reasonable price to go there, so we had fun being biked to Costa along the narrow, but busy back streets of Delhi. Or so we thought. Once we arrived at the drivers' destination, we were a little disappointed to find that they had taken us to the local McDonald's instead of Costa Coffee. "Coffee, coffee", they said, as they pointed to the golden arches of western imperialism. We had to get off the bikes and just be glad we had a fun experience. We didn't actually want McDonald's coffee though, so we started walking down the street to see if there was anything else. I spotted a "Cafe Coffee Day", a coffee shop they have here a bit like a Costa, so things were not too bad after that. There are several CCDs here. There was only one in Rajkot, the city we were staying in previously! After that, we went back to the McDonald's for some in our group to try the fries there, then we had to negotiate the price for another (auto) rickshaw back to the Hotel.

Soon after arriving at the hotel, we set off again for dinner. Our leader had kept our dinner locating a secret, but said we would all like it. It turned out we were going to a mexican resteraunt. I ordered from the "Indian" section of the menu, and had a fantastic meal: some Indian bread, with boneless chicken peices and masala sauce (a bit like Chicken Tikka Masla, but the chicken was served separetly to the sauce!). It was really tasty and filling, but it isn't really 'Indian' like the Indian food we have been eating previously. The others enjoyed their Mexican food. The waiters were dressed up like cowboys. They were cowboys and Indians at the same time!

This morning we have talked a lot about the last 8 weeks, helping to process everything we have been through.

Impressions of Delhi: scary driving from the rickshaw drivers. A lot more western than other parts of India (in fact, if you want to come here, you might as well go to London (or so it seems sometimes)). A bit cooler at night.

We are going to the Taj Mahal tomorrow, which should be fun (even if we have to leave at 6am because of the 4 hour bus trip!).

I'm looking forward to going home and seeing my girlfriend. This trip has been amaing.