Much done in Delhi

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We have arrived here in New Delhi in a massive cloud of smog. We were very surprised to land actually in the end since we could not even see the ends of the plane wings. The pilot even said that we may need to divert to Mumbai which would be really annoying but it was all good.

Getting from the airport to our host was the usual challenge with it taking over an hour or so and getting lost plenty of times and with the unbelievable thick fog we could not see the side of the road either, he wanted more money and also ripped us of when going through a tollway but it is expected here.
Sleeping for a couple of hours on arrival we were welcomed with our first curry experience for brekki and was quite nice and hot as you can imagine for sure. There is also another CS guest with us from Macedonia and she is really nice and spent the day touring around together as well as a couple of Kiwis we meet at a CS meeting after heading into the city.

First sightseeing stop was a tall brick tube looking thing and it was very impressive to see. Plenty of old building around the area as well which made it a great way to spend a few hours out of the bustle and bustle of the traffic. We were even viewed as a tourist attraction and the locals asking us to get our pictures was interesting but they didn’t see the funny side when we asked for 10 Rupee for the photo as they do to us for thinking about a photo. Next stop we headed to the Lotus Temple which is a fairly new looking church that looks something like the Sydney Opera House with the deign but it turned out to be closed so heading into old Delhi where the fun started to happen.. On the way we got to see pigs, cows, elephants, camels, dogs all over the city and we are talking a city.. Very interesting, and old Delhi was as chaotic as we thought it could be. We were hoping to get some food here but all could find was street food so we ended up giving it a go and it was fantastic! Hot and spicy sort of omelet thing and after 4 hours still no Delhi Belly but 19 days to go.

We headed back to our hosts place after another long journey with the taxi which by the way we have had enough of already. These guys are the low of low when it comes to anything to do with money. Oh they give us the shits and they are exactly the way I remembered them from last time here.
So it was more curry once home and a little whiskey to finish of our first day in India.

We had a little sleep in today and spicy egg mix waiting for us for brekki. Today was uni project day for Diana, getting uni students to fill in a survey forms. We were lucky enough to get a CS guy (Sachin) to take us around the universities of Delhi on the hunt for students, since it is exam time and not to many are about. It was a strange experience to see Diana going up to guys and they seemed to be freaking out to see her talking to them. It was a lot easier to be getting girls to do the survey than the guys.


We headed to a temple after the surveys where with no tourists there it was a great experience and then back into old Delhi to go to a famous restaurant there. It was same as yesterday with all the chaos but lucky to have an Indian guy with us so using the metro and finding the place was really easy. The food was divine and we had so much curry and nahn bread oh and a desert that we had no idea what it was but fantastic.

Heading back home we passed an Indian wedding and the guy who was driving us around asked if we would like to go in for a look and of course we did. He waited in the car and we just strolled in under a tunnel of flowers into a massive area with a couple of hundred of people. Next thing we were greeted by the brother of the groom, having vodka drinks, getting photos with the bridal couple and then the family. It was so wonderful to see this and the people were so welcoming to us two completely stinky strangers sneaking around. They even offered us to stay for much longer time but we needed to be going back to our host. The wedding was in day two of three and the party was just beginning. An amazing experience to see this..


So today was the hard day which we new was coming for us, things have bee going to well.. The morning was fine with our host having brekki and lunch and headed into the city after saying our goodbyes to our fantastic hosts for the three nights, to catch a train to Agra..

Now I am not to sure if you know how the trains work here but it seems that they don't seem to ever work! We were waiting for our train and found it to be cancelled of course. In a normal country you think it would e easy to get the next train but noooooooo, not in India. It was utter chaios at the train station and for us trying to work out how to get to Agra was a nightmare. No trains, no busses with the only option a bloody taxi which we do not want to talk about. But we got to Agra by 1am or so and then the taxi driver could not even find our hostel that we booked so ended up ging to another (a typical scam so he gets money for it).

So it was a long long day with plenty of arguing from 'tourist' office to 'tourist' office and we got plenty of stories from each of them but it is what you get when in India... Delhi was good fun with fantastic times, wedding, and couchsurfing members but the people who drive you up the wall are what brings it down. All in good fun though..

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Photos

P1020351
A very popular place! Even in Lonely Planet..

Comments

[anonymous]

Slugs! How ya goin over there. Bt warmer then where ya were! Got the shits yet? Was Slothy at Lords? Let us know what that orphanage is like mate cause would crtinatly be an eye opener. Talk soon