© 2012 notworkrelated - David Rutter & Helen Roscoe. All rights reserved. notworkrelated_india_delhi_64

India – New Delhi – 19th April

We woke up to our very last morning of our travels, for the time being at least. This was our last day of a trip that has seen us journey through 14 countries in 13 months! We were finally going to be making our way home, and this time we were ready. We packed our bags and were able to have the room until 5pm so for the day we went off to sight-see and head to a few shops.

We started with the Lotus Temple located in the heart of Delhi and were happy to find out that it was another free admission site. This is a really worth-while attraction to visit, it’s beautiful and sits serene like in the middle of a park area. When we got to the temple we were directed to the information center where we learned about the Bahai religion and where other temples are located throughout the world. When we got up to the temple we were asked to leave our shoes behind and continue on bare foot to the top of the steps where someone met us to give us a little non-comprehensive spiel about the temple and the religion, from where we were asked to join a queue and go inside to pray. Obviously we weren’t going to sit inside the temple and pray but it was a very beautiful space to sit within and absorb the sounds of the prayers being said around us. Some of the prayers were in song and others read from the bible, the sound resonated throughout the large space. We really enjoyed our time at the temple photographically, although inside no photography is allowed we certainly made up for it on the outside.

When we left the Lotus temple we asked a cheeky rickshaw driver to take us to Delhi Haat where more of the craft bazaar’s are located, we didn’t realise it was so close and so the 50rs price for the journey was a little steep (although we were quote something like 200rs for the same journey by another driver!). When we got to the bazaar we didn’t really know what to expect, perhaps we were after something more authentic but this was a little bit of a frustrating place for us as all the shop owners kept following us around desperate for us to buy something whilst the rickshaw driver was waiting for us outside trying to go into each shop so that her would get a commission. Helen bought a few items of jewelry but we didn’t really find anything else and so asked our driver to take us to the Kahn Market. Once again he wanted to take us elsewhere but we were quite stern and said we only wanted to go to Kahm Market.

Getting our own way we made it to the market and started to have a look around, shopping in Delhi really is quite difficult as there are so many places to shop and even in a more upmarket bazaar we got a little bored. Anohoki had a few nice items and gift ideas but it was Fabindia that was probably the easiest shop to spend time in without being hassled or getting snooty looks from the shop owners. Helen bought some wild baggy trousers and we stocked up on tea for the family, that we should have really bought in whilst we were in Munnar.

When we’d had enough of the shops we had some pricey food at The Kitchen and then took a rickshaw back to Nizamuddin. The previous day we tried to book onto a culture tour with Hope whose office was very close to where we’d been staying, and so when we got back to the guesthouse and checked out of our room we went back into the heart of Nizamuddin and tried to find the office. The main problem being that the house numbers are very random and we couldn’t find the place at all. So we decided to head back to the guesthouse to call them but when we did no-one picked up the phone. This was a real shame as we had wanted to get to know our area a little more and so with a guide we’d have felt much more comfortable roaming the backstreets knowing more about the culture and history of the area.


As the tour didn’t go ahead we decided to place a dinner order for later on and took a walk over to an ancient tomb that sits directly opposite the gas station on Nizammudin West. This place hadn’t been as well kept as Humayun’s tomb but it still had its charms and relics about the place. We liked the atmospheric, ghost like presence this tomb seemed to hold, much of the decorative parts of the building had been taken and reused for other tombs some hundreds of years ago.

Later that evening we went out in search of the Thursday night Qawwali, an event that takes place in the Nizamuddin Dargah, where a group of well-known musicians form together and sing traditional melodies. It’s a very enchanting experience that takes place in an extremely busy open courtyard in the middle of the temple complex. We could hardly move it was so packed, from a possessed woman who seemed to be untamable to babies offering money as gifts to the Qawwals, it was a very eye-opening and cultural experience. What a way to finish our travels.

Back at G-49 we enjoyed another home delivery of Indian food and then waited for our taxi journey to the airport. We had to wait until 2.20am for our flight to London and so when we checked in and found ourselves a few chairs we nestled down in anticipation of our overnight flight home.

So this marks the last post from our notworkrelated adventures, well the travel adventures at least, but we will be moving it in another direction and our notworkrelated concepts and ideas will very much remain within the core of our development as artists. We will keep you posted with our next moves and hope that we have inspired you along the way with the 250 or so posts since our journey began in October 2010.

Many thanks for following us, we appreciated your comments and it wont be long until a new adventure starts. Helen and Dave x

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0, 18mm f4, 90mm Tele-Elmarit f2.8 processed in Lightroom 3)

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One Comment

  1. claudia
    Posted 26 Apr ’12 at 2:37 pm | Permalink

    thanks for sharing your travels. I enjoyed during my own travels learning more about the places i already been or where i’m at the moment. I wish you have a safe travel home and you will enjoy the upcoming time when all the inspiration of your journey starts to process .
    lots of love

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