Day 61 - 16th Apr 2009

We had a leisurely start to the day and began with checking our emails. The hotel is a little bit strange, I think they mean well but it sometimes comes across as weird. We thought there would be wifi and there was a complaints form which said if wifi was unavailable they'd give you 100 rupees but when we asked they just said it wasn't working yet as they didn't have the security installed. They also kept asking if everything was ok with our room and then asking our room number. We decided to use their internet cafe which was also slightly strange, but the computers worked so I guess it didn't matter. We then had breakfast at the hotel which was also slightly weird, they have a menu with breakfast items on but you have to really insist to see it as they seem to just want to sell the buffet. Anyway we were insistant and managed to get what we wanted.

We thought we'd have a walk to Connaught Place. This was ok but we spent awhile saying no to rickshaw drivers and then telling people we didn't want to go to their shop. It got a bit tiring to be honest. We ventured into an underground shopping mall which was kinda interesting but we didn't stay down there for long! We also walked round a small market where I ended up getting really annoyed and pretty much shouted at a tiny Indian man selling wallets. He just wouldn't take no for an answer and when he started tapping my shoulder I lost it! We also called into a government run shop which was very odd as nobody hassled us at all, in fact they really didn't seem bothered in helping at all! Once we had chosen our purchase we had to take it to a counter, the lady there gave us an invoice which we had to take to the payment counter, after paying we had to take the receipt they gave us to the collection counter where we could pick up our purchase and then when we walked out security had to stamp our receipt. It was all kinda complicated.

After a fairly short debate about where to have lunch we choose the not very adventurous option of McDonalds! At least you know what you're going to get and you're pretty sure it won't make you ill.

We then headed to the National Museum. This was interesting and we got an audio guide which was quite good. It was definately good to be out of the heat.

We then went back to the hotel and decided to have dinner on the roof terrace, well some tables and chairs that they'd put on the roof. As we headed for a table we were asked in a hushed voice if we wanted any beer we said we'd have 2. After placing our food order, which was slightly complicated but we eventually got ourselves understood, and waiting for quite a while our beer came. It was presented to us in big coffee mugs! The food was really good and we ordered 2 more beers. Two local looking people sat on a table next to us and all beer talk went quiet, eventually our next 2 came in our same mugs. Later when Adam paid we found out that the hotel isn't allowed to have alcohol and they don't offer it to Indians becuase they get too lound after a drink but foreigners can handle it. So if anyone asks they say we've got fruit juice!