And so it begins... Flight 1 - Days 1 and 2

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The Trip Has Officially Begun

Arrived in Delhi this morning from London having flown down from Glasgow yesterday afternoon. The trip has officially begun 😱 The flight was fine but did find it a bit odd when we landed and they walked up and down spraying something along the plane...

Quite a random first day. When we arrived at the airport they were filming at one of the baggage claim belts which was pretty cool! A little chaotic as we tried to contact the hotel since we couldn't see our pick up. Having walked outside there were tons of men with signs waiting for people, but none appeared to have our names, and there were tons of others trying to offer us transport. Had no money to use a pay phone, but it wasn't like a normal pay phone, just a man that poned for us and we were to pay him. I made the call while Sarah ran to get some cash, although when presented with options of how much she wanted to get out had no idea what it would be in pounds. Also didn't have a clue what we would be charged for using the phone. In the end she got some cash, bought a bottle of water in the airport shop to get change and then paid whatever the man asked for which I'm sure was too much. Turned out our driver was there the whole time, he was just at the other exit that we didn't notice existed...oops!

Got to the hotel, which is okay but didn't like that we had to sit through a tour sales pitch before being allowed to our room. The woman sat going through different things and it took a while to get across that we were very tired and overwhelmed by everything and could hardly even think about tours at the moment and just wanted to get to our room. Finally though we did and had a nap before deciding to have a wander. Immediately there was a LOT of staring and some locals started chatting to us and said we shouldn't wander around here but should go into town and they would get us an auto. We were a bit skeptical at first but after speaking with a student who spoke pretty good English, he told us the local rate and not to pay more than 10 rupees to take us both to the tourist info in town. And so we had our first auto rickshaw ride through Delhi. A little hairy but very exciting!

Pleased that we had arrived in one piece we walked into the tourist office and asked 'what should we do in Delhi?' And the reply? 'Get our of Delhi!' They said that following the bombing a few days earlier they had found and stopped more at 11am this morning, and that Delhi generally wasn't safe. So, we ended up booking an overnight trip to the Golden Temple, leaving tomorrow afternoon. Not entirely sure where that is but will find out when we get there tomorrow. Tariq at the tourist office then set us up with a driver to take us around some sights in Delhi then back to our hotel. Hope they were not using the bombing as an excuse to get us to book a trip, we haven't really budgeted for this. Either way, we will feel a bit safer ourselves outside of Delhi I guess.

Ended up having a fantastic evening, first visiting Shri Lakshmi Narain Temple (Birla Temple) which was beautiful and had lovely gardens with cute chipmonks (Hindu Temple). Then we went to Delhi Sikh Temple which does not have statues of gods/godesses like Birla Temple but only the Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh Holy Book, surrounded by a gold shrine and with a separate room where it is moved at night. To enter we had to remove our shoes and cover our heads and also walk through a foot bath. After walking around in there we went to see where everyone eats and where they make the food. Really like the the community kitchen where everyone eats together for free and it's principle of equality. There were huge vats of lentil and many people working on the different stages making chapatis. We tried some tea (very sweet) and then even sat down with everyone and took part in the rolling out the dough for chapatis - were not terribly good at this but did try. I think some of the ladies took back ones we had done and re-rolled them into actual circles. A very unique experience, guided not only by the driver but also a very enthusiastic Sikh who the driver knew and who enjoyed explaining everything to us, saying he would see us at the Golden Temple - we will look out for him!

Had dinner in the hotel restaurant then packed a few things to take overnight tomorrow. Will be getting picked up at 9am to do some more Delhi sightseeing then to get our train at 4.30pm

General Thoughts for today

• Initially overwhelming - number of people speaking to us and offering us things, all people, vehicles, cows...
  
• Delhi airport has two exits
  
• Hoping there wont be any more bombings
  
• Glad we have our organized trip!
  
• Enjoyed learning about Hinduism and Sikhism
  

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Photos

Off we go
On the plane looking tired but very excited

Delhi Shri Lakshmi Narain Temple
Also known as Birla Temple

Jaki and Sarah
Walking around Delhi Sikh Temple

Chapati Making
Sarah and myself help out rolling some dough

Fire it up!
Cooking up the chapatis

Chapatis
The cooked chapatis ready to be eaten

Dahl
Vats of Dahl