In a magazine in a coffee shop in Connaught Place metro station I saw the following quote 'It's there, beautiful, unchanging, mystifying, filthy - the perfect metaphor for paradoxical India', which I thought was a pretty good description.

India currently has a population of 1.4 billion people and 14 million of them live in Delhi and don't we know it. I think this is the biggest culture shock for us, the sheer amount of people! But there are other things such as the rubbish, the traffic, men urinating everywhere, cows walking down the street, hundreds of clone emaciated dogs, the heat and people staring.

Here are some India facts to start the blog off:

There are 100 domestic TV channels/over 5200 newspapers in print/24 is the average age of the population/70% of the populace is engaged in agriculture/India has 28.3% of the worlds cattle/there are 933 women to every 1000 men.

Getting to Delhi was quite an event in itself with a 36.5 hour journey and 4 flights - not something either of us would want to repeat again in a hurry. But both Mumbai and Delhi airports were clean, organised and efficient so the whole process ran amazingly smoothly. It was quite a picture as we were marched in a line to our waiting taxi each accompanied by a man wearing a white uniform and carrying a yellow umbrella. Our hotel was in the Karol Bagh district of Delhi not the most salubrious area but our hotel room was lovely, in fact it was downright posh in comparison to where we have stayed in the past - take a look at the photos! We aren't quite sure what we did to deserve this but we paid less than our travel companions and stayed in the best room with both complimentary breakfast and newspapers! Hello India!

We had 3 full days in Delhi and I think we managed to visit most of the major sites with the aid of Lakan our tuk tuk driver and our Intrepid guide Anuj. Lakan started his working life as a shoeshine boy but after many different jobs saved enough money to buy himself a tuk tuk - his ultimate goal! Being i the business for 10 years we had to go through the obligitory and painnful battering process until we reached a price for the 2 days that we were both happy with. So where did this jolly man who loved the phrases 'alright mate' and 'lovely jubbly' take us? Well we went to a hindu temple called Birla Mandir, India Gate, the Presidential Estate (where the viceroy once lived), the Lotus Temple and Humayun's Tomb.

Every place we visited was alive and buzzing with people. As it turned out we'd hit Delhi on a 3 day holiday. The first day was the birthday of some deity, the second was Independence Day (the day the British handed indian rule back to the indian people) and the third, well I think that was just to get over the other two. On the birthday of the unknown deity we sat down and watched a celebratory performance from some guy who looked remarkably like a Bollywood star with long flowing locks. It was all going well until the heavens opened and the concert came to an abrupt end!

The women look amazing here in India no matter if they are a nomadic gypsy or a wealthy women - the saris in bright colours and the array of jewellrey all look so beautiful. In contrast the men look a little less exotic. They fall ito three categories, they either wear traditional dress, they dress in a modern way or they look like they have just walked off the set of a 1970's sitcom.

On our first day with Intrepid we ventured into Old Delhi on a public bus. The left hand side of the bus had seats reserved for women so we all managed to sit down eventually. The bus was heaving and the conductor was screaming his head off trying to get the everyone to stand closer together so he could shoehorn a few more people on.

We visited 2 temples on this day - a muslim mosque and a Sikh Temple. What a contrast! The people in the mosque made us put on a horrendous robe, at a fee, despite the fact that we had all worn appropriate clothing! They were also rude and sullen and even tried to charge Hayley when she went to pick up her sandals off the pavement on the grounds that they'd to look after them - naturally she told then where they could go! In contrast the Sikh Temple was warm and welcoming. It treats everyone as equals and has a community kitchen open 24/7, 365 days a year, in which it provides free food for all. We all had a go in the kitchen and then tried some of the food on offer. When we offered a donation they told us it was enough that we had visited and could spread the word instead - so that's what I'm doing!

Old Delhi has amazing narrow, old streets and as we meandered around these we stopped at a man on the street for the best chai tea I've ever tasted, made with ginger and fresh cardamon it was delicious!

I can safely say that if this is a taste of things to come we are going to love India!