Ahhh (or Arrggh) Delhi

So we've touched down in Delhi, swapped our bagguettes for nan bread, cold summer days for hot sticky humid weather, clean streets for rubbish piles, trafffic lights for horn blaring, order for chaos, tourist info centres for scamming touts, and yes, a settled belly for authentic 'Dehli Belly!' Sophs out exploring, while I'm here mustering up the energy to do some thinking so that at least I've accomplished something for the day! 

A little bit different than Europe?

As we flicked through our guidebook months ago we noticed a few little words saying that it is advisable not to arrive in India on the 15th of August, Indian Independance Day, as the risk of unrest, terrorism attacks and general difficulties is higher.  August 15th? that sounds familiar  we both commented, and true to our thoughts thats when we arrived here, fearing the worst, and not having a clue what to expect, would we be swamped as soon as we left the airport? Would we see our bags again? We had no idea what to expect!

With our amazing memories of Europe still floating around (a perfect way to start our journey, and a huge thanks to all those friends we stayed with and met along the way, we haven't stopped talking about you all!) we ventured out into the world of India, eventually met the hotel boy who led us to our hotel (money well spent, we'd never have found it by ourselves!).  In true Indian style the action started straight away, we dodged death by car accident about 14 times, drifted around car swallowing holes in the highway, flew past kids flying kites in the middle of the road and made it to our Delhi home with great big smiles on our faces (for those wondering, Soph somehow managed to fall asleep in the taxi, much to the amusement of the driver!).



Our rooftop

Indian Independance Day, was it that bad?? not at all, it was actually a great time to arrive, the airport was a breeze, heavily guarded so not really anyone around, the streets, comparatively empty, and plenty of well wishes from the locals who were all enjoying themselves and kicking up their heels a little. A great way to ease ourselves into it all. We also got to see the Independance Day tradition of kite flying.  We made our way up to the rooftop bar for dinner and were shown the view across the city skyline, buildings in all sorts of states of repair full of people flying kites and letting off fireworks while the steady hum of cheering went on for hours!


Rooftop fireworks, you can't see the kites, but there are thousands of them!

We've spent the last couple of days wandering around Delhi trying to come to grips with it all and to figure our how it all works, an education that's for sure.  We've been best friends with more than one local who has generously given us directions to the Government tourist office, which of course turns out to be a private booking office wanting to take our money off our hands, told that the train station is not safe and anyway you have to line up for hours, of course there's no one in line when we get there, been offered massively inflated prices on everything we even glance at.  You really can't trust anyone on the streets, but at the same time its great fun, you've just got to expect it, know what you want and stick to your plan.  No one is overly pushy, trying to harm you, their just making their living.  With all the scamming, pounding of car and bike horns, and masses of people it actually feels relaxed and as the dodgy tourist office guy said, India runs on I.S.T, India Stretchy Time.