With my train from Agra been delayed, I arrived into New Delhi station late at night ~1am. I had a fair idea where my hotel was, it was walkable along the Main Bazaar Street of the Paraganj area of the city. It was in an alley way just off the main street. I tried to take an auto-rickshaw or a bicycle-rickshaw but they weren't keen on taking me, just pointing me down the correct littered alleyways. Half way down the alley, a few stay dogs took exception to me been on their patch. A couple of locals chased them away and helped me find my hotel.
I had a ticket for the first of the games in Delhi against Afghanistan (£10) due to a double booking error by one of the lads. The biggest game on the Saturday was against Sri Lanka, which I wanted to source a ticket for early. It was easy enough to buy a ticket (£5) when I went to the booking office with a friend who had some pre-order tickets to collect.
So my cricket tickets for all 4 England group games totaled £25, not bad value at all. That said, I feel that they were overpriced, which has resulted in many games been left less than half full. When I went to the first ever T20 World Cup in South Africa in 2007, tickets were just 20 rand (little over £1 back then) and consequently had full stadiums with a great atmosphere.
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| Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium Delhi |
The game against Afghanistan itself was a poor tight affair, England were excellent for a small spell of the game during the last 3 overs of batting and first 3 of bowling. This was enough to overcome an emerging Afghan team.
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| View from the top tier |
Some of lads were heading home after this game so we had a few (lots of) post match beers in the Immigrant Cafe (better than it sounds) located on the modern pleasant Connaught Place.
The next morning was Holi Festival in Northern India. The festival of colours is celebrated with people throwing paint powder, squirting you with water pistols (often with paint mixed in), throwing water bombs and generally having 'fun'.
I went out to the shop to buy some Indian sweets for a present. Kids were covered in coloured paint head to toe. A few of them tried to play Holi with me and I had to negotiate just a smearing of paint on my forehead rather than a clothes ruining soaking.
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| Managed to get away with just a little paint on my head |
I went to a house party for a meal to celebrate Holi, it was quite far (in another state) and sourcing a taxi was not easy due to it been festival day. I arrived at Indu's house (a friend whom I used to work with a couple of years back) which was a apartment block and all the youngsters were playing with water, paint and dancing to some banging beats. It was great to see the real festival at close quarters. A couple of kids fired water pistols at me but I survived a paint attack. Half of me wishes I'd just gone for it, got totally soaked and truly embraced the festival.
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| Everyone playing Holi outside the apartment block |
Indu and his family had gathered from Northern India together for a special meal. It was really nice to have been invited on this family celebration, it was similar to been invited to a Christmas lunch. Once again the Indian hospitality that I received was first class as was the food.
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A fine Holi lunch
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| Indu (right) and his family |
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Back in Delhi with it been Holi, no bars were open, but on the off chance I tried the rooftop bar of the hotel my friends had been staying in, sure enough beer was flowing up there. I heard a reasonably loud bang, on looking out from the rooftop I saw a car on its roof, within 30 seconds a crowd of 50 had gathered round. The crowd rose as time went on, the central reservation was more like a terrace for a better view. By now the road was blocked and a cacophony of horns blasting was filling the early evening air. Even after the police arrived it took them a long time to get the traffic moving again.
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| Seconds after the car crash |
I had a free day for some sightseeing so got the very clean and efficient metro towards Delhi Fort. I have visited the Fort before and gone inside, but last time I left with the feeling it was better from the outside, so I just took a few pictures and carried on.
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| Delhi Fort |
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| Delhi Fort walls |
On my previous visit, the chaos of Old Delhi Bazaar was quite mind blowing. As I did it back them I hired a bycle-ricksaw to peddle me through the narrow streets. Sadly my 'driver' was more keen to get me into specific shops to boost his commission. This got annoying and I cut short the 1 hour tour and paid the bloke the £2 fee we had agreed and continued the tour on foot.
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| My bicycle Rickshaw rider |
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| Spice market |
I'd agreed to meet a young lad that evening called Gav (on his first tour) for a few beers. The pace was quite quick and we got through far too many of the large 660ml Kingfisher beers. The night ended with us in an Indian dive bar with 3 female singers screeching out tunes, whilst we got chatting to a Nepalese trader and a very drunk South Korean. At 2 AM when we went downstairs to leave we were locked in as an argument had broken out with one of the punters and the owner over his bill.
When I got back, the laundry man was waiting for me with my clean clothes and wanted his 150 rupees (£1.50). He had been there since 8pm (6 hours) sadly I had spent up and only had a few coins. He knocked on my door at 9am asking for it but, surprise surprise I hadn't been to bank in those 7 sleeping hours. I did go and get him his money as I was feeling guilty.
After that massive drinking session the next morning was very slow. I just about managed to make it to the barbers for a shave. I put back the optimistic time to start drinking again with Gav to 2 PM, when we met back in the Immigrant café prior to the final game versus Sri Lanka.
Beers started off going down very slowly, but following a meal and the build up to the game it soon started flowing again and we managed a bit of a pub crawl around Connaught Place.
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| The large proud India Flag flying in the centre of Connaught Place |
The game was a must win game for both teams, it was effectively a quarter final where the winners went into the semi finals and the losers were on the plane home. England were cruising to victory at one point, but a spirited fightback from Sri Lanka took the game closer than it should have been. In the end England held on for a well deserved victory.
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| Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium Delhi |
I was on the top tier of the stand which gave for cracking views, the stand also had a small vociferous group of Sri Lankan fans who were studying in Delhi. It made for a decent atmosphere and despite still been a little hungover from the night before, I really enjoyed the game.
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| Mixing it with the opposition |
Among the thousands of fans leaving the ground somehow I managed to get straight in a tuk-tuk and was back in the bar within minutes of the game finishing. I think a test match in Delhi would be a good one, especially when the open the Metro station by the ground.
On my last day in India, I took in a bit more tourism sights. I went to India Gate and the Presidents Palace. The roads are really wide with little traffic on them, once you step out of the metro station you feel you are in a different country. The Presidents Palace is great to wonder around outside. I'm surprised how easy and free to move around you were.
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| The East wing of the Presidents Palace |
I than took the 3km walk (so the several tuktuk driver's told me) in the heat to avoid the 20p fare, with which I bought myself an ice cream.
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| Myself, Indu and his wife Saumya after my last meal in India on this trip |
My stay in India has been a fabulous experience, the time has flown by, yet also it feels I've been there for months. Thank you to all that played a part in such happy memories.
Next stop, Kuala Lumpur - a return to the start of my career reboot in October 2015.
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