After a day in Hong Kong (where we managed to find some CCD cleaning swabs for our camera, an LP India and a Business-class flight upgrade), and 10 minutes downing champagne in the Cathay Pacific Lounge we arrived in Delhi at 3am - having nothing booked we were a little concerned how things might pan out. We ended up at a hotel chosen by our taxi driver - one that he obviously made commission on bringing tourists to. 'Is it central?' 'Oh yes Sir, close to centre yes'.. It turned out to be nowhere near the centre of Delhi, at least. In the morning we moved to a hotel in the 'Main bazaar' for our first day in India. 'Expect the unexpected in India' was the mantra we had learnt from our new guidebook, and it's certainly paying off and keeping us on our toes. Walking through Main bazaar reminds me a little of walking down 'Poppies Lane' in Kuta, Bali, but with far more dirt, poverty and general craziness. There are cows, dogs, piles of cow shit, rubble and fast moving traffic to contend with as well as the sellers, beggars, hotel touts, rickshaws etc..
As we only had one full day in India before flying onto Pakistan, we hired a car and driver for a tour around the main sights of Delhi. At India Gate we seemed to be the only tourists, and were descended upon. Kerry was attacked by some crazy women with henna while I seemed to be constantly shaking peoples hands. We even got our photos takens with a nice Indian family.
Our final destination was the Lotus Temple, which looks amazingly like the Sydney Opera House, but kind of rearranged;
During the drive home, stopped at some traffic lights we took pity on a small boy knocking on the window, and gave him some money. He immediately ran away only to be replaced instantly by another sad little face. I could see others converging on our car from all sides as the lights changed and we pulled away. There is a LOT of poverty here.
We have just finished dinner on the hostel rooftop. We ate while our waiter amused himself by throwing bits of raw carrot at people walking in the street below. Apparently it's Indian independence Day in about 2 weeks, so it's starting to get busy here. Tomorrow we fly to Islamabad, Pakistan (via Lahore).
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