Delhi-Wallah dinners and the scam

Next stop Delhi, capital of all tall Indian travel stories, not to mention the country. We were very smart - as in posh - in Delhi. We had two equally spoiling dinners, to which our only contribution was our questionable humour. We were not very smart - as in brains - because we stayed in a bad area and got scammed by the oldest scam in the (guide) book.

First the dinners - Mr Peter Harvey of international jet-set and medi-pack fame - shouted us some of the best sushi we've ever had, at a hotel that can only be described as over-the-top and we capped the evening off by allowing his clients to pick up the bar bill. Have we no shame. Apparently not.

This was followed the next night, by dinner at Tim, Anna and Felix Bond's - Felix at just two weeks old was much better behaved than us. We failed to arrive with even one bottle of plonk and the culmination of the night saw us finishing the last of Tim's whisky. So in summary, both times we were the guests from hell, but lucky enough to have heavenly hosts - hallelujah.

It was so good to see friends and in the case of the Bond's eat a home cooked meal, that we spent our hangovers thinking more than ever about our return to the UK and what we've missed while we've been travelling.

We loved the Bond set up in Delhi, there is the swish modern flat, which neccessitates a cook, cleaner and driver - this is expected otherwise you're not playing your part in redistributing your wealth. Their address is brilliantly simple - say this to anyone in Delhi and they can get you there: S501, GK2. Blows those pesky postcode things out the water. Anyway they were a world away from the muddy street scene of our hotel and we were very pleased for it.

Finally the scam. We'd both read about it and still got done, it's that good. We arrived at the station to book our tickets to Jaipur, on the way in a man asked what we're looking for, informing us the tourist booking office is under refurbishment and we should talk to one of the staff upstairs. We walk upstairs (bearing in mind there are thousands of people everywhere and the place is a building site) and the first official we ask confirms the story and tells us where to go and says how much to pay in the Tuk Tuk. We head to the tuk tuk rank, another man asks where we want to go, we tell him and he says he'll take us and names the correct (good) price. We smile and hop in - half way to our destination - we spot the flaw in the scam - you never get a tuk tuk for the real price - ergo we're being scammed. So it proved, its perfect execution is what let it down - nothing works so smoothly in India. Once we got to the travel agent, we just walked away, but totally aghast at the brilliance of the scam and only out of pocket to the tune of two (correctly priced) tuk tuk rides.