The Belly of Delhi

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So we arrived into the dirty old city very late on wednesday night, after hours waiting at Ghandi airport people watching and waiting for our bags. The first thing that hit us was the heat...40+ at 3 in the morning!

We were greeted there by a local with "Amy Forde" written on white paper much to our delight ... delight soon changed to wonder and fear as we took our lives in our hands in the taxi drive to our B&B. There is no description possible to detail our terror which followed for the next 40 minutes. Traffic in Delhi has no sense or order, the most important piece of equipment is the horn! We have since learned the reason for this is that Indians feel if you own something you should make good use of it! We are amazed to see 3 elephants and a number of holy cows mingling happily on motorways with scooters, cars, trucks, buses, cycle rickshaws, auto rickshaws etc etc. Lanes or direction mean nothing in India!

We were blessed to have booked a little B&B over the internet which turned out to be our saving grace and here comes the plug for Perez, his family and New Delhi B&B in Friends Colony. They welcomed us into their home, fed us our first authentic Indian meals and broke us softly into Delhi while also giving an insight into family life.

The first day we were shattered and so took a small excursion to 3 local sites, Humayuns tomb, Lodhi Gardens and Dilli Haat Market. Our first task was to run the gauntlet of crossing a dual carriageway to get to the auto-rickshaws! While dubious at first we soon took to our new mode of transport, a scooter with a small carriage on the back! We also struck our first deal (by haggling!)

Day 2 saw our braveness increase and we ventured into old Delhi...which we walked around for 3 hours in the soaring heat! Old Delhi was crammed, stinking, poor and packed with stalls...we are told 50% of India lives below the poverty line, it felt more like 75%. The afternoon was spent in a whole other Delhi...we moved to New Delhi and North Place (the space once occupied by the British and the nicest coolest MacDonalds in the world!) We also experienced two new methods of transport a cycle rickshaw (which left our poor driver panned out) and the metro (India's newest arrival- It was the cleanest, coolest and most modern metro we have seen in our respective travels)

Day 3 saw us bidding farewell to Delhi (while fascinating...2 days was enough!) and our first train trip on Indian rail to Agra (home of the Taj Mahal)...On the train we laughed when we discovered our lovely spacious ac cabin for 4 Indian rail had paired us with two Irish girls (who travelled to Delhi for a local wedding) we swapped stories and the journey passed quickly.

So long for now....we are writing from Agra where the Monsoon has hit to the delight of the Indians!

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