I was in India 7 years ago - my first time out of Australia, and I remember I found Delhi utterly daunting. I couldn't believe the numbers of people sleeping in the streets and the abject poverty everywhere. 7 years later, older and wiser, Delhi was a much more pleasant experience. The number of homeless seems to have dropped some, there were nowhere near as many beggars and touts (but make no mistake, they are still all-too-plentiful) and there is now a major metro system, provided on credit by the Mitsubushi corporation. The project should have paid itself off in another year or two, and the Indian government plans to reduce ticket fares to more affordable prices then, so more people can use it. I was astonished by how many people were using it. It was packed. It was also clean, air-conditioned and patrolled by the army. You have to go through metal detectors and bag-searches to get in.

I've heard talk of India's rising middle class, and it was clear to see in Delhi. Brand shops all around Connaught Place - the city centre - and very few street sellers and beggars. Most people wore modern western dress, and many women wore tank tops and camisoles with shoulders and cleavage showing - something the guidebooks advise against for foreign women. It's become a modern cosmopolitan city, albeit with chewing-tobacco/beetlenut stains in every corner and insane traffic and horns blowing and Hindi pop music blaring.

We stayed in the north of the city, in the New Tibetan camp Majnu-ka Tilla, at New Peace house. I love this area, it is small and quiet and a welcome oasis away from the intensity of the city centre. There was a kind of mix-up with Sonam and Phenthok and they arrived quite late at the airport - we had already decided to get a cab to M-T (it was getting dark) so we missed each other. I sent them e-mails as soon as we got to M-T and they had the sense to check their emails at the airport, so we finally met up in M-T at about 11 that night. They are such great people. Phenthok had to go to uni the next morning so she had to leave, but Sonam stayed with us and took care of us for the whole time we were in Delhi. He's grown into quite a handsome young man, 23 years old and studying 2-D animation at art college. He lives in a big Tibetan youth hostel in the west of the city, with about 300 other young Tibetans. In his free time he paints Tibetan thanka's for westerners. He's good at opening beer bottles with his teeth when there are no other implements around. Lucky us.

We caught the 6.10 a.m. train from New Delhi station to Jaipur on Tuesday, 17th July, 2007...