Delhi

We landed in Delhi around 8:30PM and didn't really know what to expect. I had called ahead and booked a room at a hotel and got an airport pick-up. So when we walked out of the steaming hot airport, a guy was holding a cardboard sign with my name on it.

The drive into town was crazy, as expected. About twelve lanes of cars on an old four lane highway; horns honking; near accidents every thirty seconds; everyone going as fast as they can. Typical stuff. It wasn't until we got into the downtown area that I started noticing what looked to me like a war-torn area. Buildings in ruins like a bomb had just gone off the day before. Then I started noticing cows everywhere, walking down the streets like stray dogs. I remember thinking to myself, what a cool part of town and wondering whether I'd be able to find this crazy neighbourhood the next day to check it out on foot. But just as I'm thinking all of this, the cab pulls over and I look up and see our hotel.

Delhi is one of the craziest places I've been to. There are people everywhere and lots of noise and dirt. People go to the bathroom in the streets and the poverty is depressing. Really quite surprising for a nation's capital. But it's something else. It's an adventure just walking down the street. Don't get me wrong there are some cool parts of town but they are just a little harder to find.

Here's a picture of a market type area. As you can see there are people everywhere.

In India they have auto-rickshaws everywhere. A good and quick (or at least quicker) way to get around. But the traffic is unavoidable. This is a road or at least a path leading up to a mosque (The Jama Masjid). It's a bazaar area, like so many other parts of Delhi. It is impossible to take one step in Delhi and avoid being pestered by someone trying to sell you something or beg for money or scam you in some way.

The Red Fort. This huge fort was built over 400 hundred years ago and was used by the Mughal emperor (yes, I'm reading this from my Lonely Planet).This is just outside our hotel.