Ken went for breakfast while Heather continued to rest her back.

At breakfast, there was a new waiter that I'd never seen before. I ordered breakfast and the waiter asked me if I wanted tea or coffee, which surprised me because the previous day I was told that coffee was not on, only tea. I said coffee, and he asked if I wanted milk and sugar on the side. I said yes. Then, after a long, long wait...he brought out a glass of hot water, with tea bags and milk and sugar on the side. So much for coffee.

After breakfast we bagged up our laundry and hauled it down to the front desk to have it sent out. They said it would be back by evening. While there we also firmed up the details of our tour through Rajasthan and made the booking. The tour starts tomorrow and runs for the next 15 days.

While we were booking the tour, there was a commotion at the front desk. One of the employees was arguing with other members of the staff. Then he started to scream as they all started pushing him out the door. One particularly burly guy (who we had never seen before) shoved him out into the road and proceeded to slap him roughly in the face and head and sent him off crying. I guess he doesn't work here anymore. Harsh.

After booking the tour Heather's back was feeling better so we went for a walk to Connaught place. Architecturally it's much nicer than the neighborhood we're staying in, but it's still got it's share of filth. The white walls of the colonnade really make the gutka spit (Indian chewing tobacco with bright-red betel nut added) stand out.
 
We stopped at a McDonald's for lunch, which was interesting. There was no beef on the menu (as cattle are sacred to Hindus) so instead they have burgers with fish or chicken or veggie patties. This includes such winners as the Veggie McMuffin, McSpicy Paneer and Veggie Maharajah Mac, I opted for the McAloo Tikki, which turned out to have a very flat samosa in place of the hamburger patty. It tasted good.
 

As we left the McDonalds we saw the most disturbing thing we'd seen on this trip. There was a man sitting on the sidewalk begging. In front of him he was displaying a very young baby, no more than a few weeks old. The baby was lying on it's side on the concrete, wearing nothing but a tiny t-shirt not moving. We didn't know what to do...give the man the rest of our cash (about $10 worth)? Go back into McDonalds and buy him a burger and and a shake on our credit card?

Begging is a career for many in India and the more pathetic a scene they can create the more money they bring in. So if we gave the guy money would we just be paying him for using a baby this way and encouraging more of the same behaviour? In the end, we did what everyone else did... nothing.

Since we were almost out of money we went looking for an ATM. There was still lineups at the banks. We tried to find an ATM, but they were all either lined up like crazy or else out of cash. So we'd need to make the small amount of cash we have last a few more days at least.

We took the subway south a few stops and then caught an autorickshaw to Humayun's tomb, which is supposed to be an architectural pre-cursor to the Taj Mahal (smaller and not all white marble, but the same basic layout). The ride in the autorickshaw was crazy again, with the driver pulling out in front of real cars and just expecting them to stop for us. (Which they always did.)

At the tomb we found that the price for Indians is 30 Rupees, but the price for foreigners was 500 rupees! Its not that we can't afford $10 per person to get in, though it does seem a bit steep, but they don't take credit cards, and with the ATMs not working we can't afford to part with the rest of our meagre cash reserve.
 

So we contented ourselves with a walk along the outside of the wall.

At one place outside the wall we found an area where the ground was just riddled with holes. We looked around to see what was making them and soon spotted a rat. One of the van drivers waiting outside the temple noticed us looking and brought over some pieces of food to throw to the rats. One by one they would pop their heads up and then run out, grab some food and hurry back to their holes. They are so cute!
 

It's not clear to us if this is just an infestation or if the rats are being actively cared for here. There are some sects of Hinduism that worship the rat, so either possibility might be true. It was interesting that there was no garbage in this section of land (which is weird for India) and that there were bowls of water set out.

Leaving the temple we caught another autorickshaw to the Kahn Market. To avoid the scammers, we rejected several drivers who approached us at the tomb gate and instead crossed the road and flagged down a random auto rickshaw. Later, at a traffic light, we ended up right next to one of the rickshaw drivers we'd rejected. Our driver leaned over toward him and asked for directions. When the other driver saw us he grinned broadly and said "Remember me, sir?" to Ken.

Kahn market was supposed to be Delhi's most up-scale market area. Though it was much nicer than the bazar where our hotel is, it was still not as nice as, say, an average Regina strip mall. We had supper at The Big Chill restaurant (with banoffe pie for desert) which was tasty but pretty pricey.

Then caught the subway home. This was not as straightforward as it might seem because the train we were on stopped before it got to the station we needed, kicked everyone off and went back the way it had come. We had to cross to the other side of the platform and get the next train going in the direction we wanted.

Back at the hotel we reviewed the tour vouchers with the guy from the tour desk (Mr. Rohit). Our driver is picking us up in the morning at 9:00 am. We'll have to take our dirty laundry with us though, as there was some kind of problem with the laundry service and the hotel was unable to get our clothes cleaned.