Delhi, it's only 180km away Strapped into our high and comfy bucket seats – what a difference – we set off along the crowded “highway”. A big added bonus, this driver doesn’t have one hand glued to the horn button. Highway building in India is big business right now. With an expanding middle class, car affordability is outstripping infrastructure. This is especially noticeable in non-urban India. Which was why the trip to the edge of Delhi was going to take us three hours of crawling on dusty side-tracks, with short interludes on completed sections. I may have mentioned elsewhere in the India story, we were informed that 90% of road building funds are siphoned off before the actual building starts. Hence, we see that there isn’t much modern equipment in use and the lower classes of folk are seen carrying baskets of rocks on their heads – road base – or crouched, chipping away, rock against rock, to produce more of the same. At least these people are being employed we think. The days of this type of employment are numbered as the country modernises but surely there won’t be jobs for the hundreds of millions of people striving to break out of poverty. We pull over for a fuel stop and I hunt out the disgusting excuse for a toilet and count myself lucky. After about an hour we pull off to a jumble of buildings for a break. There is a carpark, a U shaped cluster of shops, the café being the main “shack”. Howard and I look around inside the dark shed and decide on a table outside and settle down with what look like Drumsticks or Cornettos, depending on the western version of the icecream. Wrong again! This being India, the ingredients make eating this bulk stuff (like Indian made chocolate) not the same experience. On the outside right hand side is a window with a ledge, into which the owner barks orders to whoever is inside and serves from. Our driver has had a quick meal and changed into a uniform. I gathered from his sparse English, he needed to look the part for our time in Delhi. We reach the outskirts of Delhi as dusk approaches and both the traffic chaos and population rapidly increase. We are meant to be on a highway but no particular traffic controls are evident as we (all the incoming traffic) simply merge into the general melee. Eventually we come to toll gates where we are left in the car while our driver goes into the toll booth/shack with his papers. We are now in the thick of the peak hours. Our hotel is in the Gurgaon district of south Delhi and we have just entered from the north. It will take three hours from here, though we don’t realise this yet. Our driver should have been awarded a medal for his efforts as we wind our way through Delhi, or I should say, above and around Delhi as the ring roads (beltways) are mostly elevated, three or four lanes each way and out of the way of the city throng down on the ground. Surprisingly, the thick traffic is well behaved and drivers are actually in marked lanes. Occasionally, we could sometimes see in the distance, floodlit city monuments as we crawled our way south. When we exited the freeway, our driver immediately found the correct road but had to stop a couple of times for directions to our hotel. Clearly frustrated by the lack of help, he soldiered on for another five minutes until we struck gold! The Gurgaon district is middle class. Tree lined roads with buildings about three or four floors with lots of shining glass. We made a quick U turn and were deposited safely with several hotel staff rushing to our aid. Howard thanked our driver with a 500IR tip which left him speechless, but he’d definitely earned it. I asked whether he would stay the night but no, he would simply drive back to Kalka. The poor man. I suppose he needed to return with the boss’s car, but we certainly didn’t envy him the trip. We’d found this boutique hotel while making our flight bookings and at a good discount for Delhi. www.grdinn.com. Because of airline stuff ups with flights we were going to be here for two nights. It was now 9.00pm. After a longish check in, aided with the arrival of cool water, we were escorted to our small, but very nice room, luxury after the day we’d had, and it was so very welcome. We deposited our gear, freshened up and headed downstairs to the restaurant. While it hadn’t registered yet that we’d driven straight into the middle of the Dussehra Festival, celebrating the triumph of good over evil goindia.about.com/od/indiafestivaldates/f/When-Is-Dussehra.htm. We were the only ones in the restaurant and most of the tables had been pushed to the walls for they were about to start decorating for the festival. No matter! However, English was going to be a problem here but we made ourselves understood and managed to fill our empty stomachs satisfactorily and hastened back upstairs. Our windows had full view onto the street, but happily, the noise was a distant muffle. Once again though, air con was the only option, but at least this one was fully functional and we could turn it down. Unhappily, I had a terrible night. Don’t know how Howard managed to sleep through my constant coughing. Morning brought the realisation that I would need more medical help. First though, breakfast. Howard tried to make himself understood but needed to go down to reception where the only English speaker was and managed to order some mild concoctions to which they added an omelette which we would eventually eat. They had also offered to make an appointment at a local clinic if I could get myself there, but Howard said he’d let them know. Howard phoned an old Bradford student friend, Rineeta, who immediately offered her and her partner Ravindra’s help after work to take us to a nearby hospital, which Howard accepted. What a way to have a reunion!!. I rested for the day while Howard took the metro into the city. The new metro, underway in 2004 and leaving central Delhi a dusty mess, was completed for the 2010 Commonwealth Games. Howard said that it had turned out a top class facility, equal to any in the world and well patronised. The metro had been built with the partnership of a Japanese firm and later Rineeta also explained that it has served as an example of good building practice, one which was being followed on projects elsewhere in the city. So, Today was a public holiday, though it seemed that most people were working, at least part of the day. The major celebrations would start this evening. Later in the afternoon, as promised, R & R arrived. What a lovely couple. And, how thoroughly unIndian! Rineeta, still unmarried and into her thirties, living with the partner of her choice, and loving her career in social work with the UN. She did tell us though, that her family was now pressuring her into marriage. But she told us that she would take her time and continue with her career afterwards! The escorted us across the road to their comfy and newish Suzuki sedan and set off to the nearest clinic, which was closed for the festivities but would re-open after 7.00pm, so continued on through the suburbs until Ravindra spotted the signs to Moolchand Hospital, apparently one of the best public hospitals in Delhi www.moolchandhealthcare.com. In no time I was being escorted into the nearly empty clinic and minutes later the duty doctor had me taken to a stretcher bay ready for an examination. I coughed on cue, looked suitably feeble and even had a sample of the green slime from my lungs (sorry). Some twenty minutes later, with prescription medicines plus instructions that if no improvement by Monday, I was to return to the hospital, all at a total cost of around $14, we were on our way back. The streets were now busy with people as the festival was underway. Floats, bands, camels and fire crackers all creating their own cacophony as we squeezed past and reached the hotel before too long. Unfortunately, R & R needed to be on their way, having carried out this particular good deed and we sadly said our goodbyes. Had those two stayed any longer they would not have been able to drive away. It was really too bad that neither of us felt like celebrating the burning of the effigies of the bad deities. Because we’d been out in the streets – even for such a short time – we’d seen several being set up for different parks. The ones we saw, in groups of three colourful baddies were papier mache and I’d say at least 3 metres tall. Just on dusk, one burning ceremony took place in the park across the street and a short way away so our view was pretty good. This was followed by fireworks and all the time we were grateful for the quiet of our room. In the midst of this we even managed to have some food sent up. You can’t get away from the dust in India, its everywhere even in upmarket Delhi streets, there were plenty of sweepers with little piles of rubbish and dirt. I at least had some sleep but woke weak again. Howard by now was coughing quite a bit. He put it down to his “Asthma” and was already taking a course of his steroid tablets, and downplaying the problem. We checked out ok but had another crazy driver and costly trip to the airport which was supposed to be close by. At least we weren’t coming from the city. That is all for now, Still more fun to come so more soon. Cheers, Irene