India - first impressions, by Kerry

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So it's 11:20 and we've been in Delhi for 9 hours. Graham is still resting but I couldn't sleep any longer so here's my first impressions...

It's hot. We arrived at the hostel at about 3.30am after a 45min wait for our baggage and a 20-30min taxi ride. The dark 2 or 3 alleys leading to the hostel were stinking & littered with bodies sleeping when we passed by. The main street leading up to it where the driver had parked wasn't much better - less people but with cows & their associated smell instead. Thankfully our driver got out and walked us to the hostel after asking if he might get a tip once there. Thankful because we would have struggled to find it, not having bothered to prepare a map since we'd ordered airport pick up. I regret now that once we arrived inside we were too confused by the lack of lighting and trying to work out what we had to pay that our driver was waved outside without his tip. He went quietly without complaint so we hardly noticed.

I didn't sleep much and I think my lack of sleep was mostly because it is hot but also I hadn't thought much about India at all and arriving made me think that maybe I should be more prepared so there was a lot running through my mind. But I have showered now and am feeling fairly refreshed, very relaxed and quite excited about the next few weeks.

We're staying one more night here so today we'll get orientated & plan our next move which will hopefully be north to some cooler higher ground. First though, we need to upgrade to an air conditioned room (30% extra), pay up and get our passports back.

Note, as I'm writing this as I am certain that we will have a great time in India. Already I am feeling positive and quite like our little room now that I'm used to it and didn't get bitten in the night (it's not as aesthetically pleasing as the ones in China).

So, overall, not the best intro to India that we could have hoped for but it's Delhi after all and we weren't expecting to much like it. It was at least hassle free and pretty quiet. I could have added something (or more) about the drive but I think it goes without saying that the driving is not very reassuring for the Western traveller and we are quite used to a bit of careless lane changing & hard breaking after China.

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Comments

[Ed]

I too had a dissapointing Indian Introduction Last Night
There's a new curry house opened on my road....won't be going back.