India Here We Are

It was a tight schedule, but we made it to Delhi with no problem. London was the squeeze - we had just about an hour to get from terminal 1 to terminal 4, but we found the fast track and got to our gate as they were loading the plane. It was a two overnighter trip. We left Vancouver at 8:30 pm and left London at 3:30 pm but were quickly flying in the dark.

Our arrival in Delhi was at a rather early 4:45 am, and the moment we touched the ground we could smell the smoke of the fires in the air. The air is thick with smoke - we're guessing cook fires or heating, maybe it's cow dung too- and it was the same all day today.

The trip from the airport to our less than auspicious hotel was almost uneventful - we did have a young man who swerved into the front of our car on his bicycle without bothering to look, but he didn't manage to hit us. Lucky for him, I guess.

At the hotel we were a little early for a room and were sent up to the restaurant on the roof for coffee and a goodly wait of more than two hours before a room was ready. It was at least a chance to update our notebooks, do a little reading and later to meet four people who have just finished the tour we are starting and gave it high marks, including the other hotels on the list - apparently this is the second lowest hotel (and the lowest was because of the noise in Agra), and the other hotels are all very nice.

Mind you, our room is very spacious and the beds are comfortable - we've been sleeping on and off all day. It's 11 and a half hours difference in time zones so while we are going to bed you will all be getting up. Of course our bodies will be on your schedule, so this morning at 3:00 am we will probably be wide awake and doing crossword puzzles. Let's hope the jet lag is not too long.

We did go off on a mini adventure, walking in our neighbourhood this afternoon. It's very close to a market area so we walked through it after shrugging off a few tuk-tuk drivers, a woman who just wanted a "banana for baby" and an elderly man dressed like Mahatma Gandhi who asked for alms too.

The market has a little of everything - a couple of guys sorting nails and screws, a lot of tailors busily sewing, tire repair, naan sellers (the bread looked good) and other food stalls. Too bad the hotel couldn't find someone to clean my shirt of the lovely red wine stain I managed to put on it when I tipped my wine glass over in the confines of the airplane. Note to self:" white wine for planes from now on. I washed it myself in the hotel sink and think I did a reasonable job of getting the colour out.

After walking the length of two streets of the market, we headed back and stopped at a "sweet shop" where we ordered some food - a paratha (bread) stuffed with shredded potato and a little spicy heat, a scoop of potato curry, and a spoonful of yogurt which I was told by one of my knitting buddies is good for Delhi Belly. The paratha was finger burning hot and fresh from the tandoor oven I'm guessing. It was indeed tasty fare - we enjoyed it as well as the milky coffee we ordered to go with it.




Tonight we did a little walk up to the nearest Metro station to see if we could figure out the system - we think so. Looks relatively easy. We may or may not use the system since it is relatively cheap to hire a taxi for the whole day to tour around. We may do that to visit the Red Fort and the market, which are not on our itinerary our first official day with Imaginative Traveller.

So, so far so good. Thanks to the folks who posted notes. It was nice to read them. And I think I know how to post pictures so will no doubt be doing that soon enough. There were few picture opportunities today, although I did take a picture of Geordie's meal. For those of you in the know about my camera woes, my camera did indeed arrive on time from Pennsylvania - at 9:30 am on the day we left for India, so cutting it close.

Our official tour starts in two days so we have to do some looking around here in Delhi, hence the need to think about taxis and metros. We will certainly be looking for more adventures to share tomorrow.