Mandawa - New Delhi (Day 14)

The last stage of the travel started today with a 2-hours walk through Mandawa. The guide showed us beautiful houses (havelli's). These are (or actually were, because most of them are impoverished) beautifully decorated with drawings on the walls, facades and balconies etc. After this tour we left for New Delhi. This is about 6 hours driving. On our way we stopped for a nice lunch. Because it is our last stage we invited our driver to come eat with us and we joined the other Dutch couple who were already sitting at the table. After the Dutch couple left we took a look in the garden of the restaurant. Here are all different kind of trees growing. From citrus trees to banana trees, unbelievable!

Our driver got a tip from the Dutch couple's driver of a beehive that's in one of the trees. With full force they smoked out the hive and cut it loose, so our driver could squeeze all the honey out of the hive into a cut open plastic bottle. This honey is used for medical purposes (honey contains antibiotics). With this whole process and the lunch we were sweet (😉) for 2 hours. Eventually we continued our way to New Delhi, where we arrived by evening and with the smog in the rush hour at hour hotel. On the backside of the hotel there's a small shopping centre (vehicles aren't allowed there, that's very pleasant in this country!). Here we ate in an American bar / restaurant and after that we had real coffee accross the square (coffee in India is in general instant coffee). After that we made an appointment with Dutch couple to have a drink together, to close off the travel we had together. We had a good time! Tomorrow we have a full day in New Delhi, probably going to the Bahai temple and in the evening we are going to meet my old neighbor (he was born in India and he has a business in this country). Tomorrow evening we will checkout at the hotel, to go to the airport and at 5 AM we will be flying to Abu Dhabi where the transfer flight to the Netherlands awaits us. Tomorrow (if I succeed) my final update from India, after that I'm back in the country. I have to say that I really like India (or at least Rajasthan). I really had a great time and I can recommand it to make such an organized trip! I had to reconsider my idea about India. I would love to come back one day. But I can learn much about the country from my old neighbors! 🙂 On the other side I'm glad to go back to the Netherlands, because I missed my life and my friends there! But don't worry friends, I'll be back... before you know it! 🙂

Day 13

Travel overview

Day 15