Delhi Des Res desired...

Flat hunting is the most painful thing in the world, wherever you are in the world. We have spent the entire weekend searching high and low and so far we have seen 12 very unDes Res and 1 that we would happily call our own but is sadly out of our budget as humble volunteers...

Our quest to find our very own Taj Mahal started on Saturday morning. It was a balmy 27 degrees and we liked the look from the outside of Property No. 1. Until we went inside. Then we discovered half of the flat actually was outside. Access to the kitchen and bathrooms involved walking along a caged balcony. We were not sure whether the cage was to stop us leaping out or anything leaping in so thought it was time for us to move onto the next place...

We were at first, pleased to see that the Foxton school of estate agency had not yet reached India. Until we discovered how we were going to get to the next place. No air conditioned Mini and pointing out of the local WiFi coffee shop for us. It was down to us ladies to get on the back (side saddle of course to avoid showing our modesty if we had been in saris) of the estate agent’s moped. By Day 2 I had happily upgraded to jumping on the back of a motorbike (side saddle still of course)and we weaved our way through 5 lanes of traffic/autorickshaws/bicycle rickshaws/cows/pedestrians to find our dream pad, which proved to be quite entertaining once we’d survived several journeys.

The transport trauma was easily forgotten by the time we got to Day 2, when we met Broker No. 3. He seemed to specialise in finding properties for low budget action films. His portfolio consisted of what can only be described as ideal for HQs of terrorist cells. Our favourite place for a very special price of 11,000 Rupees a month (that’s £152 – and 5000 Rupees under budget – Phil & Kirsty would have been proud...) was in a delightful situation down several dark backstreets close to the local tip high on the penthouse floor. After you managed to climb the ‘historic’ (crumbling) stairs you entered into the main reception room where you could find the spacious bathroom (the squat toilet appeared to be missing a door) and 2 cosy (one window between them) bedrooms that had about 8 mattresses on each of the floor... we hastily exited down the stairs as fast as we could to our waiting mopeds...

Despite the fact we decided to visit a local temple in the morning to ask the gods for luck it seems we need to embrace the slow path to enlightenment in our quest to find our own Taj Mahal and one visit to the temple does not deliver results...!

Highlights: this week has been a true mixed bag from riding a camel, having a duvet and watching TV in bed at a country club outside of Delhi all for the sake of VSO strategy development (it’s a tough life being a volunteer!), trying a McMaharajah burger (when in Rome...) and being grateful I packed that cashmere cardi as winter has truly arrived and keeping warm was the last thought on my mind when I left London...!