Pictures: Lotus Temple (Bahai)

Revival!

Cathedral Church of the Redemption

Wonderful sweet peas in Cathedral garden

Boy and big monkey employed to scare off the pest monkeys!

DELHI

Made it to Delhi - a little ahead of schedule, but no bad thing as it would have been worse to miss the plane home. Found the hotel and spirits fell a bit. The area was none too salubrious, and the hotel lobby didn't inspire confidence. Our room is on 4th floor up a rattly lift and is such a surprise. A really lovely room with balcony (never mind the outlook!) and bathroom with tub - heaven! The staff are a bit persistent about trips etc, no doubt arranged at double the going rate, but are quite courteous so long as you don't mind waiting for things. Anything you remind them of, the answer is, 'Just coming..' The guy who looks after the rooms on this top floor takes it all very personally ('You are my guests, I look after') and wants you to check and pronounce yourself satisfied when he has cleaned the room. I confess I always said men couldn't make beds, but watching this guy, I have to admit some can!!

Delhi is just as filthy and monstrous as we remember from a fleeting visit with a tour group. It has some lovely parts, but they seem so much at odds with what else you see. Lots of people sleep in the street and many more do very menial jobs for a pittance just to keep body and soul together. The traffic is terrifying, the smog is pretty heavy and the rubbish in the streets is horrendous. Add the touts and scams to all this and Delhi isn't a place to linger. We did a quick dash round some of the sights (yes, the driver tried to take us to his uncle/brother/relative's shops!) and enjoyed the Red Fort and Humayan's Tomb. Visited the Bahai Lotus Temple, loved the gardens and the building is quite something, but found it somehow smug and self-satisfied. Shame!

Tried to contact Delhi Brotherhood to visit. Ian flies in stuff for street children to them and I am in email contact with them, so we wanted to meet them, but were surprised to get no reply to emails and telephone calls. So we bravely went looking. After much misdirection we found the cathedral, and there was a revival going on in the schoolroom next door. Explains where everyone is. Lots of people, much singing and dancing and clapping (see picture) and we were made very welcome. There was the usual massive enthusiasm and people of varying ethnic origins and languages joined in together without hesitation. The cathedral is in the posh part of Delhi, but doesn't seem to suffer from ex-pat syndrome (you know, photo of the Queen behind the altar..) The people we met were friendly, down- to- earth and everyone seemed to be involved in the worship and maintenance in some way. One unusual problem they have is there are too many monkeys in the grounds and they wreck the garden, so a boy with a big monkey is employed daily to keep the monkeys off the flowers etc! (see picture) Arranged to be at Cathedral tomorrow to meet people and learn more.