made it

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I think after illness and several rearranged flights there might have been a sniff of an upgrade for us when we finally arrived at the Virgin check-in desk but, alas, it was not to be. We flew in a near empty plane through the night, enjoyed what will probably be the worst Indian food we’ll have for the next 4 months and arrived without problem at Delhi airport.

The Virgin flight is one of the only ones to arrive in Delhi before lunchtime, so the airport was deserted. Delhi is also enjoying a few days of unusual cooler, wet weather so there was none of the hot, sticky chaos that Tanuja’s entire family had been warning me about for weeks. Tanuja’s cousin whisked us straight into a cab which made the whole arriving in India experience much more enjoyable than it could have been.

Tanuja here! We arrived at my cousin’s flat to be greeted by my uncle and aunt. It was great to see them again after so many years. After a quick clean up we had our first authentic Indian family lunch. David then spent much of the afternoon asleep whilst I “ate my uncle’s head” (per the Marathi translation) so that we could sort out where we were going for the rest of the trip. The day ended with another family feast and a quiet stroll around the block eating saffron flavoured ice cream.

Today was our first day of sightseeing. Again everything was made smoother by our hiring a taxi with a driver, Bharat, who very luckily spoke English and explained everything from where the president lived to which Indian movie stars were in vogue, and waited for us as we walked around tourist hot spots. As we drove around we also spotted India’s local wildlife, namely cows and goats (and the rare sighting of one lonely fat pig). In our first day’s whistle stop tour we strolled around the Red Fort - amazing Moghul architecture - and also round a big circle of buildings called Connaught Place (“CP to the locals”). For our first independent lunch we daringly advanced to Pizza Hut for an Indian style pizza and our first cup of coffee for days.

It’s now the evening and whilst typing this we can hear a very posh Indian wedding going on next door in the most enormous house apparently owned by an MP. I think from the sounds we can hear now, the groom is arriving on his white horse into the enormous house’s huge beautifully lit garden. For anyone whose seen Monsoon wedding this wedding is about 10 times bigger - 500 guests being on average the number of people who turn up.

Anyway we’re off to watch the wedding from our flat’s balcony now. We’ll be heading up to Mussoorie tomorrow morning, where we’ll be for at least four weeks trying to learn Hindi. As soon as we’ve settled down and found a computer we’ll post something new till then, bye.

Bye from me too. The main thing I’ve taken from our first 36 hours is that Delhi isn’t nearly as intimidating as it could have been. There is so much English language around, and a smile and a firm shake of the head gets rid of touts and hawkers pretty quick. Also the totally chaotic road system does somehow work. Everybody from buses and taxis to cows and dogs get where they want to go and I reckon our average speed with Bharat today was way above what Ken and the congestion charge have so far achieved.

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