Tuesday 18^th November

Had a fantastic cooked breakfast of chips, eggs, toast, tomatoes, coffee and having paid the bill (27 Rps!!) set off for Delhi along the Grand Trunk Road. It was a great drive. We saw, along the road, an elephant, several mongoose, bright green parrots, vultures (horrible creatures), including a group at the side of the road pecking at a dog. The countryside is very green but swarming with people. The poverty so far is not as bad as I imagined, thank God! Driving is murder as people seem to disregard the car and roadways completely - I’ve nearly hit two people and only been in India a day and a half.

Arrived in Delhi and due to complete lack of signs only found the Tourist Information office after much trouble. Once there the people could not have been more helpful (at least they try to be – Indians seem incapable, as a race, of concentration and try to talk to too many people at once). We tried phoning the hospital but got cut off twice so drove round, found Mrs Menon and got invited round to the chief X-ray doctor’s room (Dr Mao).

During the next two hours I slowly lost my temper as three delightful people attempted to sort out a camping site. In the end I grabbed the phone directory and did the job myself. It seemed camping in the town was difficult so Mrs Menon kindly asked us back to her house to stay. That night we had a great Indian meal. Went to bed early. Rather large insects in bedroom kept dropping onto our bed. Mmmm.