Arrival in Delhi

Tom and I arrived late at night after a uncomfortable 14 hour plane ride - we both had tight window seats and two virtually immobile seat mates. I developed a painful leg cramp.

We were picked up by car and driver and had an “exciting “ 45 minute drive to our hotel on roadways jam-packed with vehicles - many tiny 3-wheeled mini cabs, all jockeying to be at the front of the pack, with horns honking and complete disregard of lane markings, and nosing in front of each other with inches to spare.

When we finally arrived at the hotel, it was the only structure with lights on in an otherwise deserted and trash-filled street. Across from the hotel was a large damaged and apparently abandoned building with rubble lying in front. Dogs roamed the street. We looked at each other -- “did I make a mistake?” thought I.

But we went into the hotel. Dimly lit - but otherwise ok. The room was pretty bare. We ordered tea and sat in the weirdly furnished central hall on our floor (4th flr walkup). We drank tea and watched a lizard dart about, and went to our sparse but clean enough room.

We awoke to the drone of what sounded like a Muslim call to prayer - it lasted from 6 to 7 a.m. , looked outside to find a bustling fruit market, with lots of people walking about and bicycles, motorcycles cars, small trucks driving by. It turned out that this was a branch of a much larger bazaar , one street of which ended at the central r.r. station, about a 10 minute walk.

When I stepped out of the shower that morning, I landed into a river of water that was flowing thru a hole in the bottom of the shower stall toward a floor drain on the other side of the room. Tom decided on a sitz bath.

We latched onto a travel agent the next day who arranged a tour of the Golden Triangle (Delhi, Agra and Jaipur) including a drive around Old Delhi that afternoon. Given our jet lag, we weren’t up to doing much walking so we mostly did drive-by sight seeing. During the day, the air pollution seem to get worse and both Tom and I were tearing up.

Biggest surprise throughout this trip is that other than the college educated -- a relatively small percentage of this overcrowded country -- few speak English! Most taxi drivers, hotel staff, often including the front desk, speak rudimentary or no English.