Indian Trip, part VII: The Voyage Home
The next day, we slept in, resetting our 'breakfast' alarm for a more reasonable time which would still let us make the 12 noon checkout time. As our flight was at 6am the next morning, we'd arranged to share one extra night with Colleen & Richie so that we'd have somewhere to put luggage, nap, etc. during the day; this was just as well as Colleen was really quite ill by this time, and spent the day in bed. Richie came with Anwar & I to Cafe Turtle, where we had gloriously boring (and quiet) coffee, pizza, and 'Cumberland apple crumble'.
We had a look for a replacement bag & scarf for Colleen at M-block market, but it was much more expensive than at Delhi haat, so after a trip back to the hotel, we hailed a tuk-tuk and asked to go to Delhi haat.
At which point, it turned out that there is more than one, and Anwar & I had no idea which one we'd been to the previous time. The tuk-tuk driver was lovely, though; friendly and chatty and generally a delight to meet, and on his advice we went to the nearest one, where he then offered to wait as long as we liked to spend and take us back to the hotel afterwards. We were shown around the whole place by a salesman, and Richie picked out a truly fantastic bag - elephant! mirrors! bells! - for Colleen, and we headed back to the hotel where we met Euan and Katie, who suggested going out for dinner.
Again, we were super cultured; having noticed Pizza Hut at M-block market earlier in the day, that's where we went, though I did at least learn that pizzas having passata on is not necessarily a given; I ordered a 'margherita' which was, essentially, cheese on pizza-shaped-toast. (Delicious, however.) When we left the restaurant looking for a tuk-tuk, we ran into the wonderful friendly man from earlier in the day, who proceeded to fit all five of us into a single tuk-tuk. We got back to the hotel, where we faffed about until it was time to get our taxi to the airport at an incredibly overcautious - by mutual agreement, though! - midnight. We must have arrived at the airport with around 4 hours to kill before our flight, which was probably one of the most dull experiences in my entire life, the only highlights I can remember being the occasional sniffer dog - with big frou-frou paws! - and, once we got past check-in and security, the bookshops.
On arrival back in the UK, we properly caffeinated our driver, and I spent the next two days, as far as I remember, dozing off a lot - in the cat back to Colleen & Richie's, at Colleen & Richie's (in the fluffalicious duvet), in the cat on the way home... It was a wonderful experience, a privilege to share Iona & Shim's second wedding, and, finally, very very tiring.
We had a look for a replacement bag & scarf for Colleen at M-block market, but it was much more expensive than at Delhi haat, so after a trip back to the hotel, we hailed a tuk-tuk and asked to go to Delhi haat.
At which point, it turned out that there is more than one, and Anwar & I had no idea which one we'd been to the previous time. The tuk-tuk driver was lovely, though; friendly and chatty and generally a delight to meet, and on his advice we went to the nearest one, where he then offered to wait as long as we liked to spend and take us back to the hotel afterwards. We were shown around the whole place by a salesman, and Richie picked out a truly fantastic bag - elephant! mirrors! bells! - for Colleen, and we headed back to the hotel where we met Euan and Katie, who suggested going out for dinner.
Again, we were super cultured; having noticed Pizza Hut at M-block market earlier in the day, that's where we went, though I did at least learn that pizzas having passata on is not necessarily a given; I ordered a 'margherita' which was, essentially, cheese on pizza-shaped-toast. (Delicious, however.) When we left the restaurant looking for a tuk-tuk, we ran into the wonderful friendly man from earlier in the day, who proceeded to fit all five of us into a single tuk-tuk. We got back to the hotel, where we faffed about until it was time to get our taxi to the airport at an incredibly overcautious - by mutual agreement, though! - midnight. We must have arrived at the airport with around 4 hours to kill before our flight, which was probably one of the most dull experiences in my entire life, the only highlights I can remember being the occasional sniffer dog - with big frou-frou paws! - and, once we got past check-in and security, the bookshops.
On arrival back in the UK, we properly caffeinated our driver, and I spent the next two days, as far as I remember, dozing off a lot - in the cat back to Colleen & Richie's, at Colleen & Richie's (in the fluffalicious duvet), in the cat on the way home... It was a wonderful experience, a privilege to share Iona & Shim's second wedding, and, finally, very very tiring.