First day in India

Mental. Thats the only word I can think of to describe Delhi. After a mahoosive sleepless flight from London to Delhi, we were ready for bed. But the taxi ride from the airport soon woke us up, and I'm not sure if that was a good thing. To start with, I realised that drivers in India drive on the right hand side, which was fine, until I realised a car coming straight towards us. We were supposed to be on the left. No problem though, the driver just swurved into the midle of the road and created a new lane. Sara and I were squeezing eachothers hands so tight with cars going past us on both our left and right, and we were straigh down the middle. And that was only the start. In 20 minutes, we saw horses, cows, stray dogs, monkeys, not to mention an 8 strong family of Indians piled on a little 50cc scooter!

When we arrived at our hostel in one piece, happy to be alive, we were pleasently surprised with our first nights accomodation. The only negative came when I realised that what I thought was the button to flush the toilet was actually a jet powered ass washer which conveniently sprayed me from the groin down. Everything else was fine though!

After 40 winks we got ourselves out into the streets. They're filled with the most random things. From colours that I never knew existed to smells that I've never experienced. Everyone was asking for money without exception, the "hello, where are you from?" conversation was echoed down the narrow streets. If you answered or even made eye contact you'd be sucked in to the Indian cash grab vortex, the only way out is to pay a ridiculous amount of money for something you never needed. But its not all bad. By the time you get used to ignoring people the things you see and exprience are extremely moving and mentally challenging. Which is kind of what we were hoping to go through.

Just as we came to the end of the road after being unable to find something to eat that didn't contain rat or pigeon, a well dressed young man saw we were slightly lost. He was in like a shot asking what we needed, as if he could make some money out of us. When I asked him for places to eat he told us to follow him. He took us to a small eat in curry house that only had two walls. The food was awesome and it cost about a quid for both of us. He sat with us whilst we ate and told us, in broken english, what we should see and where to go. I was preparing myself for the scam. Instead, he told us he worked for the government dealing with income tax and he was waiting for hs father, a local police officer, to finish work, and he just wanted to help. It was a huge juxtaposition with the past 5000 people I had brushed past down the dirty streets. He soon sent us on our way after flagging down a rickshaw for us, and even haggled the price for us! It was by far the most refreshing episode I'd experienced for a long time.

written by

Kav & Sara on November 19, 2008 from New Delhi, India

from the travel blog: Round the world trip!!

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Great blog Juxta Man. Keep 'em comin. At least you've got the most dangerous part of your tour ooy of the way with the old Karcher up the Khyber routine.

Daddy Shoe

written by Roger Shoesmith on November 20, 2008

It's good to hear you are both well and enjoying the quiet streets of Delhi. Managing to get up by 9 is a shock. The photos are great, keep them coming.

I wonder if Have you met the guy who went to the Car Wash, they asked him where is your car?
He said: it wasn't far so I walked it.

Have a great time

Dad

as you can see dad is on form.original name for the dog by the way Sara.blog is great, I award you a 2:1 (upper of course)Love you. take care.

Mum

written by Farrokh on November 20, 2008

hey the blogs are great guys!
can't wait for the next update :)
take it easy, lots of love mandy xx

written by mandy smith on November 26, 2008

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