My first few days in India

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Hi everyone

I thought I would start updtig my blog otherwise I am just going to forget everything that I have done as I have done so much already

On the flight overhere I got talking to the guy sitting next to me (Manish) who is from Dehli an he was really helpful in giving me tips on how to cope in India, and even gave me his number incase I had any problems.

I then got to Dehli on Saturday lunchtime. Dehli is a very overwhelming place, it is exstremly crowded and unfortunitly you do need to watch everyone who starts to talk as most of them are trying to sell you something. I thik this is demostrated best when I went to an area to get something to eat (I had been told there were a number of good resturants). This Indian guy started to talk to me asking my name and where I was from and then tried to get me in his shop, after I said no he then tried to sell me a trip to Agra, then he tried to sell me drugs, then he just tried begging and after all else failed he tried to charge me for him to go away at which point I walked past a cow and into the nearest restuarant I could find. There do seem to be many cows wodering the streets as they are seen as sacred here. It is amazing to see the contrasts in Delhi between everything like old cars and mordern, grotty shops and upmarket shops can be right next door, and through the middle of this polluted old crowded city is a mordern metro syste,

That night I went to the red fort and watched the light and sound show which although not very spectacular was informative, i then got the auto rickshaw back to the hotel. Auto rickshaws are so much fun to ride. Although I would hate to drive as it looks like a lot of hard work missing cars, rickshaws, auto rickshaws, bikes, pedestrians and cows.

The next day I took a taxi round for 4 hoursand asked him to show me the sights (10 pounds for 4 hours can not be bad). I went to see many different temples and mosques one which I think looked like the Sydney Opra House. In the evening I met up with our tour, our tour leader Monty is from Rajistan and so far has been really good. On the tour there are 2 retired Amerians (everyone else is 25 or under) 3 Aussies, 3 Brits, 2 Danes and 2 Germans. Only me and one of the Aussies (Kerry) are by ourselves and as such are doing quite a lot together. Everyone seems really friendly and is egtting on well though the non englsih speakers are keeping themselves to themselves a bit whih is a shame.

On Monday we went round Old Delhi with the group. Old Dehli seems to be a lot poorer then New Dehli. We wet to a Sikh mosque where they prepare food (which I helped at) and have accomodation for the homeless of any religion although many homeless choose to stay on the streets so they can beg and an actually get more this may. It is quite sad to see all the beggers some of which are quite disabled and have diseases such as polio. On the walk Kerry and Charlie decided to take a picture of a sake charmer and when they didnt pay got a quite confused Cobra poked at them utill Monty calmed the situation.

And that was our time in Delhi. No one has had Delhi belly mainly due to us all beoming veggies for our time here which is a lot easier then you might think.

We got on our 22 hour train journey out of Delhi yesterday afternoon I got an ok nights sleep but was very hungry by the end of the jourey this afternoon. We passed the time mostly by talking and playing cards (firstly uno then cheat, then uno cheat).

We have now arrived in Jasilmer (spelt almost correctly). Which is an absolutley stunning place. It basiclly looks like the Aladin markets and is so much claener, less crowded and less polluted the Delhi and everone loves it at the moment. We are staying in an old fort which has stuning views of the desert. As we are only 100km from the Pakistan border there is a large milatry pressance here as well. I am about to go and have dinner with the tour. so bye all and will update again at some point.

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