We had already adjusted to stifling heat in Abu Dhabi and Delhi would be no different. We called our hostel and arranged a transfer from the airport and within about 30 minutes a young man arrived with a sign reading something like, “Courtney and Andrew.” Our names were completely misspelled but you get the jist. Our first taste of India was quite exciting! Driving from the Delhi airport into Pahar Ganj in the heart of the city was like something out of a movie. Even after traveling for the last 9 months we felt like it was our first day out of Canada! Cars travel both directions on the road even on one way roads, roads are not only used by motorized vehicles but also by horse drawn carriages, cycle rickshaws and yes even elephants.
I think we are going way too fast to be landing. The plane hit the runway with a bone-rattling touchdown and the pilot hit the brakes so hard that we both flung forward in our seats. Wow, that was rough. We must be in India. We had already adjusted to stifling heat in Abu Dhabi and Delhi would be no different. We called our hostel and arranged a transfer from the airport and within about 30 minutes a young man arrived with a sign reading something like, “Courtney and Andrew.” Our names were completely misspelled but you get the jist. Our first taste of India was quite exciting! Driving from the Delhi airport into Pahar Ganj in the heart of the city was like something out of a movie. Even after traveling for the last 9 months we felt like it was our first day out of Canada! Cars travel both directions on the road even on one way roads, roads are not only used by motorized vehicles but also by horse drawn carriages, cycle rickshaws and yes even elephants. We were a little tired from our night flight so we planned to just take it easy on our first day. This proved to be quite difficult. When we arrived at our hostel, which was located through a maze of alleys, it took about an hour to get checked in. First we had to walk to another building where we sat and waited for 20 minutes or so, then we were brought back to our hostel and sat and waited for another 20 minutes but at least they gave us tea. Then a guy showed up and took down our info and we were on our way. We spoke to one of the employees of the hostel and he started to recommend a few things for us to see in India, he recommended us visiting the government run tourism office for help on booking trains among other things. He then offered us a free ride to the place. Great! We thought. While we were on our way out our driver asked us if we were hungry for breakfast, which we were, so he dropped us off at a little place with pretty bad food and pretty high prices. We ate while he waited and then we continued to the tourism office. The office looked very official; it had air conditioning, government signs, desks and even computers. We sat down with a friendly man and we told him what we wanted to do and see: hike in Manali; visit the Taj Mahal, Varanasi, and the Golden Temple; trek in Sikkim and finally head to Rajasthan and then head south to Goa. We were absolutely shocked to hear that the weather in Manali was very bad right now (despite what the weather websites on the internet were showing us and what we read in our guide books). He recommended that we head up north to Srinagar and stay in a house boat for a few days, then return to Delhi and tour in a car through Rajasthan since there were no trains there. We asked for what that type of trip would cost and the price he gave us was astronomical in terms of what we had heard things would cost in India. Courtney and I excused ourselves from the desk to chat about his offer. We both agreed that this was one of those scams that we had read about, so we bailed. Unfortunately this wasn't the last. During our time in Delhi we were approached by people who were interested in getting to know us, students, dance instructors, people from Mumbai and they all had one thing in common: they wanted us to visit a local tourism office so that we could get some really good and valuable information on India. Turns out they were all touts looking to get us on outrageously expensive houseboat tours in Srinagar. Once we were used to them we had no problems telling them to leave us alone and that's when Delhi became quite fun! We loved visiting all the shopping stalls around our area! We wandered through the bustling Main Bazzar; Chandi Chowk, one of the older areas of the city; and Connaught Place, which has a combination of upscale shops and local markets. We even stopped by an interesting shoe shop where the shoes fall from a hole in the ceiling. One of the helpers asks your size and the shoe you like and calls it up to a stockroom in the ceiling and within seconds the pair of shoes you are looking for falls from the ceiling in a very comedic yet slightly dangerous fashion! We aren't very good at visiting historic sites so we've decided to try improving that here in India. We started with the evening light and sound show at the Red Fort, one of Delhi's oldest buildings that has stood through many different eras of rulers. We had heard the food was great in India but it took us by surprise even with our high expectations! It is absolutely fantastic! After we finish one meal we are already looking forward to the next one! We tried a lot of different things in Delhi and there isn't one thing I can think of that we didn't like. Fortunately we avoided Delhi belly, which is the common term used to identify one who spends three days in the bathroom after first arriving in Delhi. We had a lot of fun in Delhi but like any other city, it eventually wore on us and we grew tired of the hustle and bustle. Fortunately we've met a few people that live in the city that we hope to visit the next couple of times through! Here are a few more exciting pics to get you ready for the last leg of our year trip, enjoy!
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