Harish & on the way to the Red Fort

Our first day in Delhi when we needed to go clothes shopping for G we flagged down a took-took (auto rickshaw) and our driver was Harish.  We liked Harish.  He spoke good English, was friendly and helpful.  After having difficulties getting a car that evening for the engagement ceremony and the next morning for the wedding we gave up on our hotel helping us out with this.  We wanted an AC car for our whirl-wind tour of Delhi on Saturday.  It was too far and too long of a time to spend the day on took-took.  The fumes in Delhi are a bit potent, especially on a took-took only one foot from some other vehicles tail pipe.  Most of the time we spent taking a took-took we had to cover our nose and mouth to block some of the noxious fumes.

So, as we were driving to get dinner on Friday night we decided we would call Harish and see if he could hook us up with a car and driver.  It turns out that our took-took driver to dinner is friends with Harish, so he called him for us.  We agreed on a price for 7 hours, an AC car, a driver that spoke a little English, and our pickup time.

Based on my research, I was prepared to pay up to $50 for the day for an AC car and driver.  When Harish told us 900 rupees ($20 USD) for the day I was shocked and quickly told Chris to accept his offer without negotiation.

Saturday at 9am Harish shows up at our hotel with a car and driver.  After some slight confusion on our part we realized that Harish was coming along with us at "no charge" because he too is "friend of Krishna."  (My tip to you:  wear neck beads to India, even if you aren't even close to being Hindu, it turns out they can work in your favor, even in the most bizarre of circumstances.)

So the reason Harish was coming along with us was because he didn't own the car, but his friend who was driving us was the owner but didn't speak English at all.  So Harish was coming along as our sort of guide.  We were actually quite happy with this situation and it turned out to be a huge help that he was with us  Which I'll get into with the next post about the Red Fort.  And how we insisted on paying more than just $20.

Random photos on the drive to the Red Fort: