Trains, Planes And....: India Arrival and Delhi

Our flight from Dar Es Salaam took us through Doha, on Qatar Airways which was easily the best flight/airline I have ever been on. The 12 hour flight went very quickly and before we knew it we where in Delhi, India at 3am with the name of a hotel and an address for our taxi man. To our surprise the streets we're empty and the city was calm on our way to Paharganj which is the busy market/backpacker district by the New Delhi Train station. We arrived at our destination only to find that our hotel was closed. Unable to check into anywhere until noon we fell asleep in the lobby of a decent hotel and woke at 7am to what we realized was the calm before the storm.

As the sun rose we saw the true chaos of India. All of the things that everyone told us were true no matter how impossible they may seem. The route on this trip had prepared us for pretty much everything and we're glad we came here last. There are people and cars/scooters/bikes/motorcycles/buses/rickshaws/dogs/cows and SHIT(both poo and garbage) everywhere, it is complete and total chaos, but not organized chaos like the morning commute into Toronto, it is completely unorganized and Dehli seems to be 20+ million people fending for themselves by any means necessary.

After getting used to the overpowering smell of urine and having to wade through cow manure we really begun to enjoy it. We saw a few sights and ate some amazing meals. We went out to a swish hotel for my birthday dinner and for a few hours we were transported out of India and enjoyed one of the best meals of my life. The food in Delhi is amazing and unbelievably cheap, usually $3 for a couple curries, rice, naan, and drinks so loosing weight here is definitely not likely.

We were able to spend a day with a friend we met in Istanbul and he shared some amazing stories of his travels in India and definitely got us excited to see the rest of this amazing place! Tomorrow we head to Varanasi to get our first glimpse of the Ganges and see where Hindu's come to be cremated and break the cycle of reincarnation.