Old & New Delhi

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Jan 12 - Day Two. Aka Bring you Goat to Work Day (and dress it up in either your grandmother’s favorite sweater or grandfather’s suit jacket - your choice). Let’s start with last night. Freezing my friends, freezing. What was I thinking!!! Getting out of Brussels’ -7 snowy weather - that’s what!!! It is about 60F at the mo’ and bring on the same 10 euro sweatshirt (sorry Austin I gave us away) I mean American Apparel - cough cough - bite our tongues, and jeans that I’ve worn for the past few days. Awesome - wearing them again tomorrow. But at least the showers are hot!! Anyways, last night was freezing; it might have had to do with the fact that our room was on the roof of the building with a plastic door. Hmmm?? What do you think! I changed our rooms this morning but it doesn’t seem much warmer! Let’s hope!!

Breakfast was free and nice! Hot tea and toast. What more do you need - Mr. Hall I have not yet experienced banana pancakes! One shower, much joking between hostellers about me leaving Pete somewhere in the city. (We are the odd couple and have even had one English guy say he would rather give up his own trip just to follow us around cuz we are a hilarious pair). I don’t disagree! Having only meet twice before, it’s a bit of a gamble. So far so good! And so far, I have no paid a visit to the Porcelain God. (or Pete for that matter). Excellent. We took a rickshaw of death to the Red Fort in Old Delhi. I say rickshaw of death because there are no rules to the road over here. We ended up weaving precariously through traffic, honking horns, whipping along the highways, ending up going head on with on coming traffic before swerving back into the correct “lane.” Madness. Took about 1h, 30 kilometers, and only 150 rupees (2.2 euros). Wow. We explored the Red Fort - a symbol of Imperial greatness. - Pictures will better do it justice. The main event of the day - the utter chaos that we got our selves into after that is more memorable. The filth, stench, incense, goats, chickens, piss, food stalls, book stores, electrical wires, dirt, and a million other sights and smells that live in and about the old bazaars of Delhi. Old British grandeur sits side by side with the slums of India. What a mix. Trying to cross the road on the way home was another adventure that was little less than wrestling a crocodile. Just run/dodge/jump back/jump forward/basically do whatever you have to do to get across that road. We tried rice cakes and dosa (crepes filled with potatoes with spice) amazing! And so far it is staying down!! Good news! Let’s hope for the best and try another one tomorrow! Chillin in the hostel since around 6pm - and its now 12pm - having a couple of brewskis, had some rice curry that is free at the hostel, and a hot coffee with milk and sugar.

We are trying to plan the next leg of our trip. We are thinking going west and then doing a loop before heading back to Delhi and flying south! Beaches here we come in 3 weeks! Time for bed and another hectic day tomorrow! Miss you all! Austin - here’s a shout out! Miss you girl!! There has been no dinosaur dancing yet! ☺

Pete’s Point of View -

Firstly may I just say to Austin, have never met you, heard plenty however and I simply cannot wait to get in on the Dino dancing scene!!
So, what more to add to Em’s fantastic explanation of our day?? Well, other than to correct her slightly. Em didn’t quite have the bravery (understandably, due to an incident she has in Egypt) to partake in the first tasting of authentic Indian cuisine. She did remark however that she would tomorrow, if I should manage to keep today’s helping in! So far so good on that front! Actually, just thinking….. clever girl that Emily, just like the Americans during the wars, let the British risk themselves first, then join in when all seems safe!!
Yeah, so, what else??? Not too much to add really, there’s almost too much to take in at the moment, as Emily said above, the sights, the smells, although not alien to me, the total eclectic mix of them all appearing, randomly entwined, my mind needs a little time!! More to follow!

Speak soon my lovers x

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Photos

Backpacks!
Our huge backpacks on the car of death to the hostel!

"home"
Finally to our hostel !

Rickshaw!
30 Kilometer rickshaw to the Centre of Old Delhi.150 Rupees. (2.3 euros)

Red Fort.
Constructed by Shah Jahan between 1638-48. Mughal.