London to Delhi,

Well…we made it! Despite both looking like we were about to pass out rather than embark on a round the world trip, we arrived in Delhi a little later than expected!

And of course, our bags were last to arrive…just what you need after a nine hour journey!

Anyway, when we arrived we were met by Raj from our hostel, who was very friendly and welcoming! He took us back to the hostel where we got some sleep after the epic journey!

The next morning, we were both excited to go off exploring, but instead Raj insisted we go for breakfast. He took us to a 5-star-hotel, where we spent hours drinking chai tea in the beautiful grounds! Sounds like a perfect start, especially as he would not allow us to pay for anything! But… (there is always a but)… he seemed to be getting us on side in order that we book our train tickets and hostels through his 'on the side' tourist information office! So after lying our way back to our room, saying we needed a lie down after traveling for so long, we jumped in a tuk tuk and headed for the city!

This is where the true essence of Delhi hit us. There were beggars in the street; children dancing, jumping through hoops, doing back bends all, and men with missing limbs crawling in the street knocking on doors asking for money as cars flew by them! It was definitely shocking and hard to see, but we liked the fact that we saw what Delhi was really like for ourselves.

After a few tuk tuk rides we met a very nice man in the city center who helped us plan our stay in India. He provided us with a driver and took us to a restaurant and onto a five star hotel where we had cocktails on the 20th floor and looked out on the whole city!

The next day we left the somewhat dodgy hostel after receiving grief from the owners and moved to the other side of the city!

We spent the rest of the day sight-seeking in the blistering heat. Although it was nice to have a driver show us round we kind of wanted to explore the city and find out what it was all about, so we dragged our driver out and went exploring all the outdoor markets!

It was unbelievable; you could buy everything and anything! The city is surreal, to put it into words I'd say it is lined with rubbish, homeless people, markets a, tat, Indian cuisine, and darted with random wild boars and cows, just to make it even more different!

It was interesting to see, but we were both glad to leave, and wanted to move on and see more things for ourselves!