And we made it

After 1 hour to Newark, 4 hours in the Newark airport (yeah Maui Taco!) and 12 friggin' hours on a plane we have arrived in Delhi.

We have arrived in Delhi....

Delhi....

OH MY FUCKING GOD! This place is so ridiculously intense. All the time, everywhere. And this deciding to do everything on our own, wow, we will survive but it is going to be creative.

So we arrived at the airport, and it had that (amazing, at least to me) third world smell. Like smoke, exhaust, moisture, weird plants, and poverty (I will allow you to disect that smell for yourself). After an crazy car ride on the wrong side of the road, we arrive at a dark alley which we are lead down to an even smaller darker alley....to a completely not lit passage where you have to turn sideways to walk...and into our hotel. We are staying the main bazzar, Paharganj, in between Old and New Delhi.

After a half an hour long lecture about how we should take one of the tour guide lead tours through India, sponsored by our hotel (NO ONE ISN'T TRYING TO SELL YOU SOMETHING...sorry about the double negative and the shouting) we ventured out into the relatively quite/empty main bazaar. I don't know what is more intimidating...it full... or empty. We tried to find food and a place to sit and wrap our heads around the whole, the whole, the whole...well we still can't wrap our heads around it.

We ran into two people (Americans) from our plane flight (weird huh...), which was nice because there is comfort in numbers right? We ended up finding some food with them...and the food was fantastic. It was interesting eating only one handed, with your fingers. Ever tried to rip bread with only one hand? But the food was great and the biggest sucess was me managed to NOT get sick...yet.

So we ate, and crashed at about 2 in the morning. And our poor bodies...well they woke us up at 6. The time difference is 10 and half hours ahead and we were being seranaded by pigeons out our window...so Bryan and I decided to get up and take a walk through the bizaar in the early morning....with the sun shining weakly through the smoke (yes, the forcast calls for haze...see for yourself). It was amazing. The bazaar was mostly empty accept for the cows and the people sweeping the trash into the middle of the street and burning it. It was actually almost serine....we then headed back to the hotel slowly to the yells of children running to school (how do they manage to keep those uniforms so white?)

Later we ventured out for the day, and to sum it all up quickly. We got lost, pestered, followed, begged....and ended up walking all over the place and not seeing much. I am tired. It is only the end of day one, and I need a break from haggeling with people, telling them to go away, or conciously ignoring them. I have not made eye contact with anyone in like 5 hours because I don't want to attract attention to myself...but my blond hair kindly does that for me.

Today we did manage to see Laxmi Natayan Birla Mandir, a Hindu temple, and Connaught Place, with all the city's government buildings. Tonight we are meeting up with the Americans we hung out with last night....to go get goat? Tomorrow Chris catches up with us....but have no idea what we are doing during the day!

So thanks for listening....and we will try to keep this as updated as possible, though these here internets will surely get harder to come by!

Peace out
-jen