Will had his sunglasses case stolen from his rucksack while waiting to cross the road outside our hotel – luckily he was wearing his sunglasses. Got the metro to the national museum. Walked across Rajpath where the parliament buildings are.
The museum has some really funky animal sculptures from 6000 B.C. Had tea in the canteen then took the metro to West Delhi to see what the shopping malls looked like. Normal malls but a lot of the shops too expensive for us. Most shops seem to have more staff than customers and it's really off-putting being followed by a horde of shop staff! Went to see "Houseful 2", a Bollywood film. The plot was a little hard to follow (being in Hindi and all) and the films are very long but I enjoyed the songs, dancing and costumes.
Walked back from the metro via the “backpacker” area - really horrible and skanky. Had dinner in the sweetshop / restaurant opposite our hotel – a very nice dosa.
I do find the juxtaposition of rich and poor in India odd. Like today walking across a bit of wasteland between 2 malls there are street kids who hang around (out of reach from the door guards) near these malls that have shops like Hugo Boss and Lacoste. Or you see a flash business man on his phone on a cycle rickshaw. Or very expensive 4x4's driving around old men pulling massively heavy carts. It must be weird being middle class and having a life much like my own but being surrounded by people who's lives are unimaginable to me. I think I have been surprised by how well fed and the animals are and that most people seem to have food (food seems to be everywhere - like on the floor and in the piles of rubbish), but still there are a lot of poor people surrounded by a lot of rich!
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