the computer just crashed and wiped what I had spent awhile writing (as you can see technology isn't great here) so not sure how far I'm going to get again...
Singapore wasn't quite so exciting as the rest of Asia- however it was safe to cross when its a green man AND cars actually stopped at zebra crossings... pretty impressive...
I thought I should really explore Singapore on my last day there... so I went to little India (far more mellow than India itself!), Chinatown (where the market was SO expensive in comparison to what I had been spending) and wandered round the riverside- all very pretty in their own ways. Soon, however, I was DYING from the heat so took refuge in an airconditioned mall and ended up watching slumdog millionaire- an AWESOME film!
The plane to India was crap and I was to ONLY westerner on the whole plane- people were giving me rather strange looks... probably wondering why on earth I was going to India! The taxi driver at the airport tried to rip me off but thankfully, even though it was 3am by this stage, I was still awake enough to argue!
Slept in a hotel near the airport that night then braved the Delhi traffic (which was insane- but not as bad as other places in India since cows are banned there so can't walk all over the road and cause havoc- like they do in the rest of the country!) to my new hotel. Then I had an explore of the local area
The next day I got a rickshaw round Delhi- visiting a temple where I had to wear a shawl and was given some strange sweet stuff to eat- also I got a red dot on my forehead so I really looked like a tourist. Also saw a church, india gate, lodi gardens, parliament house and the presidential palace (no stopping allowed so I had to hop out the rickshaw while he drove in a circle so he could take a picture- strange rule really- they also have random metal detectors in the streets of Delhi- probably due to the terrorist attacks as they didn't happen that long ago...) Saw Akshardham temple at sunset but it was too late to go in and learnt how to cook chapati.
I met my group the following morning and me and my new roommate, Rachel, went to Akshardham temple (which was AWESOME- probably more beautiful than the Taj Mahal in many ways... but probably because it isn't hyped up!) It was abit of an effort to get in with lots of security checks (not helped by the fact I was cleverly wearing my Tens machine- they don't even notice that in airports!) and it was interesting trying to get lunch in the huge foodcourt. Then visited Red Fort and a mosque before randomly wandering round the totally hectic streets of old Delhi- followed by our taxi driver who wanted to protect us and continously gave us rather odd looks!
Agra was the next destination- it was quite entertaining at the train station- am very glad we had reserved seats as people were running and trying to pile in the door of the unreserved carriages before the train had even stopped! Got a picture of my vietnamese hat on the other side of the river from the Taj Mahal and visited the market. In the afternoon was the trip to the Taj Mahal - it was awesome to finally see it "in the flesh" and it was very beautiful. One thing I've noticed in India was that people are forever asking to take pictures of me- the funniest time has to be when a guy crept up in front of me with his mobile phone and took a picture (given away by the sound the phone made!) so got embarrassed and ran into the crowd- maybe you had to be there...!
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