Dazed,Driving and Dogs - three days in Delhi!

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Well having got off an overnight plane, feeling really rough and looking it too, the last thing I wanted was to be stared at...by around fifty taxi drivers, who seriously acted as if they had never seen a westerner before!It was very surreal but that was the welcome I got at Delhi airport at 7 am. This pretty much set the tone for the entire rest of our time in Delhi, totally surreal, and lots of stares!
Delhi is a completly mad place, that is the only way that I can describe it. There is so much to take in that iI felt like I was walking around in a daze. The first thing that hits you is the driving. I will never again allow any criticism of the driving in harehills because compared to this it is like a case book example of the green cross code! I think it is supposed to be left hand drive but hey why drive of the left when it's quicker to on the left? Lanes? Who needs lanes, they're for sissies. They drive, admittedly very skillfully, but like maniacs! They will leave literally centimetre gaps between the vehicles and seem to just rely on their horn to make all the other vehicles, cows, pedestrians and dogs to get out of the way! Talking of dogs one of my very first thoughts was uh oh...why didn't I get that rabies jab again? There are loads of stray dogs and every single one of them looks like they have rabies!
The poverty is immediately evident and really hard to see, literally hundreds of beggers, many children, many disabled in some way, dot the streets of Delhi. It is horrible to not be able to help them but the second you help one they flock round and that can get pretty scary. At one point we saw one who initially seemed to be asleep with a covering over their head, until we got nearer and we saw their flesh was rotting and had flies in it and realised they were actually dead, which is really pretty grim.
I don't mean to make it sound really rubbish, it's not, it is just that it is so much to take in that you tend to only notice to bad bits especially when only there for a few days.... bad bits like the smell. O the smell! I've never smelt anything like it, Leeds fest doesn't even compare! Think sewage, mixed with fresh urine, and nice smells like fowers and cooking and you have something which is nearing the smell!
We did some sight seeing whilst we were there. We went to the Red Fort which is really impressive and a Mughal emperor's tomb which was really peaceful and beautiful. We went in a few auto rickshaws, where admittedly you're placing you life in the driver's hands, but are great fun!
There is so much to write about because it is such a fascinating place but I've not got the time to write about it all, but there you have my main impression of Delhi!

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