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)

We had a long journey from Thattakad to eventually find ourselves in Delhi early evening of the 17th. We started at 4am from Ms Sudah’s home-stay in a taxi which took an hour to reach Kochin airport, from where we had an early flight to Chennai. As we had changed our travel plans a little last minute we couldn’t connect our later flight to coincide with the early arrival at Chennai and so we spent a good four hours or so working on the blog and editing whilst we sat in the Chennai airport departures lounge waiting for check-in to open. We had a 1.25pm flight to Delhi which got us in just before 4pm. When we exited the airport we picked up a taxi and went straight to our B&B, G-49 Bed & Breakfast located in Nizamuddin West.

After we checked into our very nice ground floor room we simply kicked back and relaxed before deciding on heading out for a walk. The bed and breakfast is a really nice building located on a corner and with only 5 rooms they were full, although the place wasn’t exactly bustling with people as the rest of the guests were a documentary film crew from Switzerland working on a project in the local area. We decided to stay local and explore the streets after getting our food order in for later on. Nizamuddin is the heart of the Islamic district in Delhi and so only a few steps out of the B&B we were submersed in rich culture and flare as we wandered around the back alleys.

Dress-makers were in full swing whilst children huddled around us to be photographed and passers by crossed us in their cycle rickshaws. It was all quite over-whelming having spent most of our time in India in the relaxed Southern states. When we were back at G-49 we enjoyed palak paneer, rice and a mixed vegetable curry. There aren’t many accessible eateries in this area so the owner suggested we eat in. We did feel like we were cheating a little but after all this time on the road it didn’t really matter.

The next morning we were up fairly early and enjoyed a good breakfast of eggs, toast, muesli and fruit, enough to set us up for a solid day of Delhi’s sights. First on our list was Humayun’s Tomb which is only a 10 minute walk from the guesthouse. When we got there we were chuffed to find out that there was no charge of entry as the date marked 150 years since the site was graded as a World Heritage monument. A free day for us so far!

The main tomb is massive, built by a grieving wife, Dave requested that Helen should build one for him to mark his existence on the planet…hm! They did like to go over-board on these monuments though, it was a fantastic build holding the tomb of Mughal Emperor Humayun and commissioned in 1562AD.

They really did know how to do it back then and this particular tomb is said to have been a huge influence on the build of the Taj Mahal. The walled gardens are well kept and pleasant to walk around, we read that a renovation project had taken place around 2007. There were lots of school children in large groups being escorted around the site and so we were rushing ahead each time to get photographs of the space before they would come bounding in.

When we left the tomb site we jumped in a rickshaw and went to Lodi Gardens, on the way the driver kept trying to convince us we should hire him for the day but we didn’t want to caught in the trap of being taken to shopping malls and so managed to leave quickly as soon as we arrived at the gardens. We walked around this lovely site which is open to the public and has lots of nice paths interweaving their way through the park and along it’s edges. There are also ancient tombs and mosque’s in this park and we enjoyed the walk.

When we left Lodi Gardens we exited out of the north entrance which led us to a road up to India Gate. The walk took around 40 minutes and once we were at the gate we took a few photos and then left, mainly because we were being hassled by hawkers trying to sell us things we didn’t want, beads, henna, drinks, food etc…So off we went along Rajpath Road towards to the Parliament State and the Secretariat buildings, all of which are all fantastically built, symmetrically and very monumental indeed.

After we convinced a driver to take us to Connaught Place for 70 rupees we had to again persuade him not to take us to another mall or a different restaurant. When we arrived at Connaught Place we managed to find a vegetarian restaurant in L block that served excellent dosa’s, we were recommended to go there by one of the book shop owners we’d been chatting to earlier on. We’d already noticed the price difference between eating in Delhi compared to Kerala, prices were around double per meal.

We wandered around Connaught Place for a while, went into a few shops, explored the Janpath and Palika Bazaar’s and then went to the peaceful site of Jantar Mantar located very close to both market areas and Connaught Place. Neither of us were in the mood for shopping or haggling with the ever-keen and ready stall and shop owners and so we just scooted around before coming to a complete stop in Jantar Mantar. This is a very impressive architectural site made up of huge instruments built to measure and observe space. We couldn’t imagine these vast instruments being used and it really is a beautiful place to go and observe. This was also a free attraction and so we didn’t spend any money on sight-seeing other than our rickshaw rides.

We sat and people watched for some time before going round and documenting the place as best as we could. It was quite amusing to see the locals being distracted by a blonde 2 year old who was being carried by her American parents, people kept going up to them asking to be photographed with their young fair skinned daughter.

Later that night we ate at Karim’s one of Delhi’s most famous restaurants and there was one a 10 minute walk away from where we were staying. Again we delved back into the local area and enjoyed a very nice north-Indian cooked meal, what we didn’t know is that Karim’s is a mainly meat serving restaurant and so when we asked for vegetarian food we didn’t quite get looks of approval. The food we did have though was really good and different from what we’d experienced in the south.

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

Posting a blog post everyday which involves writing a mini diary and editing through copious amounts of photos takes up lots of time. Therefore we have decided that as we are a few weeks behind we are going to try and condense the posts into multiple days. Also here in China we have access to most websites that we need for general use, however there is no Twitter or Facebook, so we will be very quiet on these social networks until we leave China in early 2011.

So here we go…on our second day in Beijing we were on a mission to find out about trips and local sights aside from the more obvious ones. We obtained a street map from Templeside that gave us pretty good bearings on where we were located plus Frank had informed us of the nearest tube stops, bus stops and the like. What we didn’t really think about was the distance it takes to get from one block to another on foot. We had intended to go to the China Cultural Centre (CCC) to find out about trips and cooking classes on offer but several tube stops later, one taxi journey and a walk 20 minutes in the wrong direction we redirected to 798. We had intended to visit the 798 Art district early on in our visit here anyway so it wasn’t too much of a change of plan.

Although we feel that the many art critics and cynics out there would refer to 798 as art tourism, it still offers an eclectic mix of contemporary art and culture that isn’t so apparent anywhere else in the city. 798 is an old factory complex that has been renovated into around 70 or so art spaces, galleries, studios, cafes, quirky gift shops and restaurants. We thought it was pretty cool, although perhaps not all of the art on show is to our taste and perhaps some is trend for trends sake it does take you away from more traditional aspects of Chinese art and culture and perhaps brings it more inline with the graffiti lined walls of Berlin city. We do love Berlin though so that one is always going to be tough to beat!! But in our minds it did the trick and we quickly forgot about the directionless walk around the city. We picked up a mandarin phrase book which we think will come in very handy indeed whilst we are in China and we photographed buildings, spaces and art on show. (Copyright isn’t really an issue here as you can pretty much photograph any piece of art on show). The photography gallery showcased some interesting compilation work and we liked the Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art, although it seemed much of the space was closed off for an event. We did manage to find our way back to our new home that evening and cooked ourselves our first meal in the Hutong.

The next day we decided to stay a little more local and our first port of call was to visit the Peking International Youth Hostel. Helen was determined to pick up some information from a hostel and we also wanted to print out some information and directions to show taxi drivers. As a general rule they wont stop to listen to where you want to go but will look at the map or if you have where you want to go in Chinese written down bingo you’re in luck! Sometimes even if you speak Chinese but look western they wont listen!! So with that in mind we had some printing to do and our reason for going to the hostel was that we feel by being in the apartment, yes it’s great because we are in with a local community but you don’t really get to meet other travelers or get the best kind of advice. So if you can find out where the nearest YHA is often they will have the info and the passing travelers to meet!! We went away with our print outs, some info on tours and enjoyed an amazing ginger honey tea!!

Within walking distance of the YHA is Beihai Park. It costs around £2.5 to get in and there are a few temples and pagodas in the park. It was a really sunny day and the sky was pretty blue so the white pagoda on the top of the hill really did shine. It was a really enjoyable walk up through the temples and to the top where you have views across the Forbidden City, Beihai lake and beyond. We spent the best part of the day here and also came across the Chrysanthemum exhibition. Something of an anticlimax but it did offer some great photographic opportunities and the low afternoon light was perfect for this.

On our third morning at the penthouse apartment (he he) we ventured to the very local farmers market to pick up some fruit and veg and to generally take in the atmosphere that contains the place. The market sells not only fruit and veg supplies but household cleaning products, gas cookers, bikes, meat, fish, tea and clothes, alongside which was street vendors selling food to eat there and then or noodles to cook, meat off the bone and so on. It’s a very local place and it was loads of fun buying our grocery shopping. We were amazed at how cheap the fresh fruit and veg is to buy. for less than 20 pence we bought a bulb of garlic, one green pepper and two chili peppers…they have money that looks more like monopoly money for values under 1 yuan. We were moaned at for only buying 1 or 2 of any item. Still we went away filling our fridge with good quality fresh food. We explored the local hutong further before heading back for more catch up time on editing.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)