India Day 11 - Jaipur to Delhi

Up at 4.15am and of course the hot water was NOT on as requested. Very quick shower and off to the railway station at 5 in tuktuk's for a 6 am "express" to Dehli. Now the original 3 hour trip has turned out to really be a 5 hour journey and we'll see how accurate that is; I'm tipping more like 6-7 hours given previous experiences.
Started well and on time until 99km from gangoa where we just sat for over an hour, apparently due to fog. We were informed that Delhi airport is closed due to visibility so this may be the case.
Had some chai masala which was lovely and an omelette sandwich for breakfast, not bad. So we just sat and waited as the temperature rose in the carriage to unbearable. Finally some railway guys started playing with the aircon and eventually got some cool air flowing to everyones relief.
Eventually underway with a couple more stops before arriving into Dehli at 12.15. Tuktuk's to the Hotel Perfect where we booked in and then went off around the corner to Spicy by Nature for some lunch. Vego spring rolls for me and Bira, an India wheat beer, which wasn't bad. 2 hours gone and we returned to the HP before heading off in tuktuk's to Connaught Place to see some markets. Pretty ordinary actually, but Kristin was finally able to find an ATM that accepted her card, better late than never. No real markets to be found and stupid me got scammed by some lowlife who threw dog shit on my shoe and then got another guy to clean it off. Cost me 1000 rupee to get my shoe back, but if that's the worst that's happened, pretty good trip I say.
After a tourist "bazaar" shop we headed back to the HP and on the walk from tuktuk to HP grabbed a fantastic looking chocolate birthday cake for Priyanka who has birthday on Saturday after we all leave.
Little bit of a rest before heading out at 8pm to a restaurant around the corner for dinner. Had the most amazing vego platter, bit spicy but lovely food, all washed down with some kingfisher's. We even got to pop into the kitchen to see the tandoor oven in operation. Priyanka was stoked with the cake, and the restaurant played a really kitschy birthday song as the candles were lit and we all sang. All in all a great finish to the tour and finally got back to the HP after 11pm looking forward to a good sleep. A few leaving in the early hours of the morning, and others over the next couple of days, while 3 more are staying in India for a couple of weeks to explore further south.