Delhi

We arrived back to Delhi and dropped my bike off at the shop for them to begin work on the paint job. I swapped it for one of their hire bikes for a few days whilst mine was being painted.

We had about three days until dad's flight back to the UK. We researched things to do in Delhi and started ticking them off. The red fort - an old walled royal settlement and fort, Qutab Minar - an ancient temple and tomb settlement, India gate -  a huge archway war memorial, Janter Manter - an old site used for observing stars and time keeping and a park area. We weren't too bothered about seeing each sight but it was more of an excuse to ride the bikes and gave us a purpose and a route. The ride to the red fort took us down Chandni Chowk, the oldest and busiest market road in Old Delhi, and we ended up going down the wrong side of the road!

On the roads you have to avoid tuk tuks, cows, scooters, cows pulling carts, camels pulling carts, horses pulling carts and the occasional pig. There's no concept of queuing to wait your turn, everyone just fights their way through carving each other up. Considering the amount of chaos and the occasional bump there is very little road rage, people just accept that's how it is and get on with it. Out on the roads there is a big range of potent smells. Rotting garbage, amazing spices from street restaurants, human excrement from open sewers and nice smelling incense.

There are some sad and thought provoking sights whilst walking around at night. You see whole families with young children bedding down for the night on a pavement under a bridge, all huddling under one blanket. You see a significant number of people begging who have extremely bad health, missing or deformed limbs and skin conditions. It makes you really appreciate the healthcare and welfare systems at home. It makes you feel pretty shit after spending a reasonable amount of money on a motorbike which would of been enough to fund a basic shelter for a family. But that money has gone into the Indian economy one way or another which is better then not spending the money at all.

Each night me and dad did the same routine. Walk under the bridge and go to what we named the bridge cafe. Each night we ate the same food, two stuffed naans, a chilli paneer and large chi. The naans are cooked in charcoal fired ovens, they are stuck to the inside of the barrel. We got to know the staff quite well. Each night after food we walked about a mile to Conaught Place, three contra direction roundabouts inside each other. The centre one is about a mile long lined with nice shops and Western takeaways. We had a mcflurry most nights. MacDonalds only sell chicken and make it clear on signs that not pork or beef is sold there. But still tuk tuk drivers, who are normally fighting for our custom, would refuse to take us to MacDonalds because they disagreed with the company due to religious regions.

We went to check on the work being done to my bike. They had stripped the whole thing down to the frame which was also getting painted. It looked like they were doing a through job.

I said my farewell to dad. We had a good week together and I enjoyed seeing what I had heard so many stories about from my childhood.

The lads arrive in Delhi. It was good to meet up with them after 3 weeks apart.

I collected my bike from the shop and it looks lovely, very pleased with it.

Rob