Early Arrival in Delhi and Trip to Nainital

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After arriving early in the morning in New Delhi, we took the empty modern metro towards the main train station in search for means of transportation to our first destination, Nainital. New to India, we were quickly surrounded by crowds of people waiting for easy prey. There we got into our first and luckily the only scam. After a long discussion and persuasion the sly scammers diverted us from the train station and brought us to an 'official' travel agency. Luckily, we managed to bargain an OK price for a chauffeured car to Nainital. The trip of 320 km took only 8 hours in the scorching heat of Uttar Pradesh.
The India we saw then was not unexpected but still shocking. The road passed through impoverished dwellings. The most surprising was the chaos of the traffic that we were still not accustomed to. Constant honking, overtaking from either side, traffic in the opposite direction, motorbikes and cyclists heavily loaded with goods, cows, stray dogs, monkeys, goats and people dangerously took part in the hectic traffic. Fortunately, not a single traffic accident happened during our presence. People here must have learned to rule and even take advantage of that chaos.

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Photos

That's how it all started...
Two tourists, two backpacks on the way Zurich-Milan-Muscat-Delhi

Halfway to India
The first 6-hour flight to Muscat, Oman, went by unnoticed mostly due to our excitement about the trip and the excellent service of Oman Air.

New Delhi Metro
Having arrived early in the morning in Delhi, we were surprised by the emptiness of the metro from the airport to the main train station. At the train statin though we were overwhelmed by the crowds and the noise that would surround us for the next 10 days.

A road restaurant
Unfortunately, we decided not to shock our stomachs from the first day with a fresh influx of Asian bugs.

A road chai stall
Our driver was kind enough to offer us a cup of delicious Indian chai.