London to Delhi

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After some dramas again with the visa (they told me it wasn't going to be ready in time for travel) I finally picked it up the day before Christmas!

I flew out to Delhi on Boxing day night and arrived in Delhi at about 11am in the morning. I hung out in the arrivals area for a few hours for Rachael to arrive and then we hopped into our transfer to the hotel. Okay, so I'm a little bit used to traffic chaos (Egypt), so we were expecting the same kind of craziness, but it didn't really happen. There are heaps of tuk tuks, its quite loud and very dirty, but not overly crazy.

We checked into our hotel and then wondered around the street markets for the afternoon which were right next to our hotel. Some initial impressions:

1. There are no such things as footpaths in India (so I've found thus far)
2. Cows and dogs are everywhere and you have to be very careful where you walk!
3. There are people everywhere in every street doing everyday things, such as hanging washing our washing themselves!

Basically you are left with no doubt that there are more than a billion people in India. We tried our first local food, which was paneer (looks like tofu but is cheese) kebabs which was really yummy. The next day we tried Ayuervic massage (we are on holiday after all) which turned out to be less massage and more just wiping a HEAP of oil all over you. Different, but not something I'd do again.

We then met up with our tour group that night to find that there are 12 of us, all Aussies, with only one guy (partner of one of the girls) and our tour leader Chandra. Poor guy, he is not coping well with all the shopping going on!

The first morning of the tour we jumped in some motor tuk tuks and drove thru the crazy small laneways and bazaars into Old Delhi. The streets were so small and all kinds of traffic goes thru including motor cycles, bikes, cows, pedestrians, bicycle tuk tuks, the list goes on! There are so many people about and its quite overwhelming. We then jumped into the bike tuk tuks (I felt sorry for the poor guy on the up hill parts) and checked out the Red Fort and old Mosque.

We then went and checked out a Siqh temple and saw where the local Siqhs (they are the caretakers if you like of the Hindi people) offer accommodation and free food to anyone who needs it. We saw massive cooking pots and woks which feed hundreds of people for free every day - was very cool.

The rest of the afternoon was spent wondering around and trying not to be taken for fools by the local guys who try and take you to the dodgy shopping areas, and then boarded the train for Jaisalmer.

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Photos

At the Siqh temple
Rach and I at the Siqh temple - we had to cover our heads, hence the fancy orange bandans

Local food
Trying the local fried bread, Parantha, in the backstreets of Old Delhi

Delhi
Streets in Delhi - check out the crazy round about - those on it are the ones that give way!