Day 1 - Delhi Belly

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Namaste!

Arrived in Delhi on a very smoggy Saturday morning at 6am. After 20 hours of flying, stopping over in Abu Dhabi and never being able to sleep on a plane, I'm pretty exhausted. Thankfully, customs and baggage collection goes smoothly and I find my guide holding an A4 sheet of paper with my name scribbled on it. He awkwardly leads me to my car transfer, which seems like miles away, and off we go into the big smoke.



I'm asked to pay for my tour in American dollars, which I didn't have, and so after 5 phone calls in Hindi and some compromise, I'm taken to a very dodgy atm on the side of the road to withdraw 30,000 rupees and pay the man. And so I did.



My driver leaves me at the hotel with the advice of 'Go walking, OK, no talking, and no walking night time'. By that stage, its only 730am and already feels like evening to me. The room is dark and pretty dingy and I realise, I am completely alone, in this very strange place. I ordered a beer, a curry and slept for an hour - after which the excitement of it all woke me up and I was forced to brave this crazy city.



So I walked outside, took a deep breath and went down the road. Almost immediately, Sunal appears, as if out of nowhere. "Where are you from?" "What is your occupation?" "Where is your husband?" Sunal was my first tout experience. From the 3 minutes that he escorted me to the end of the road, I learned that he was Muslim and had his engagement party the day after - to which I was cordially invited and absolutely had to come and meet his family. We walked by a mosque at which he stopped and said a few words. I asked him if this was his mosque and he said - 'yes, but Muslim, Hindu, Christian - same same, anyone comes here'. Sunal and I parted and in the 5 hours I was walking, he was the first of about 10.



I never walked alone on the streets of Delhi. As soon as one young man left, another one appeared. "Hello, where are you from?" And as much as I've read about these touts, and was given advice from my driver, amongst others, it didn't really phase me. There was never any agression, they just wanted to walk with me and talk. Eventually, the conversation steered to their friends shop, or restaurant, or tailor, or anything I could have asked for - but when I said no, they left without a problem. Realizing eventually that I was lost, and feeling somewhat overwhelmed, it was the last tout that told me the way back to the hotel - otherwise I don't think I could have found it.



The traffic is in Delhi is something else altogether. I literally felt I was risking my life each time I crossed the road. But then I saw a couple of small school children crossing the road in between cars and took my guidance from them and did the same. It's funny - my first instinct was to grab them and pull them out of the way, but they had no fear. We fear so much in our world, we fear everthing and yet live in such a controlled, sterilised environment. These people show no fear, and yet there is absolutely no safety, no structure. Just chaos.



Not only that, but the most overwhelming thing for me was the noise. Everyone beeps all of the time. There are 5 lanes created out of 2 and people are pushing their way in any which was they can. But no sign of road rage. That's one of the first things I noticed about India - there is peace in such chaos.

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Comments

[sunharra]

thanks for noticing the peace even in such a chaos. Need any help about Rajasthan ? you are most welcome here.

[leah]

hello
Glad u made it. Sounds u have had a first good day. Love the blog. Keep it coming xx Keep safe

[Tomek]

Hello Sis
Hey Sis, we're all very excited for you here in the very cold UK :) Do take care of yourself, don't take any shit (not that you do anyway lol) and we can't wait to see you!!! PS some pics pleas :)