So we have made it to Delhi!! Flights were excellent, comfortable and on time - so long as you ignore the excessive turbulence leaving Gatwick. Hannah was a bit scared... I of course was a total lad about the situation and was cool as. We arrived into Delhi about 4:30 am and to say there was a bit of fog is an understatement. There was so much you couldn't see the wing from the window and the pilot couldn't see where he was going meaning we had to wait almost an hour for a tow to the gate. Not what you needed after a full days travelling. The fun didn't stop there either!! Our taxi pick up never appeared so we had to sort one out. Not ideal at 5:30am when your brain isn't working anymore and people are trying desperately to get you to go with them. Ended up in an old beat up hatchback which was seemingly held together by Gaffa tape. Now by this point the fog still hadn't cleared and we were basically driving blind. Hannah took a video which I'll try and upload in a bit. Very interesting!

Once we'd arrived at the hotel we slept for half the day and then went on a walk around town in the afternoon. So far my assessment is as expected. Its all a bit mental (especially the roads) with a few people trying to scam you for this and that but not too bad as long as you're firm with them. More updates to follow when we've seen a bit more of Delhi.

Love to you all.

Tom and Hannah xx

UPDATE

Time for a bit of an update as to what
we've been up to in Delhi. Firstly we found McDonald's and
KFC....hehe not intentionally honest! We visited The National Museum
and India Gate. At India Gate I was accosted by a lady doing Henna
tattoos. She grabbed my hand from behind and in a split second
started doing one on my hand before I could pull away. b*****!
Needless to say that done in 30 seconds means it was TERRIBLE. Have a
laugh at the photo! She then demanded to be paid and we refused as I
didn't exactly have a choice. She then chased Tom around with her
baby for a bit. We had to pay her some money in the end just to get
her to leave us alone. Lesson learnt! (keep hands in pockets!)
We went to the Indira Ghandi Memorial
Museum (Ghandi's grand daughter who was prime minister and sadly
assassinated) as well as Ghandi Smriti (memorial museum of Ghandi).
Both very poignant marking the locations of where they were both
murdered. The museums were full to the brim with info about their
lives, fascinating reading. Baffled by the large numbers of locals
visiting the museums, filing in as fast as possible and then filing
out again as fast as possible without really reading anything!

Then came three days of Delhi belly. We
knew we'd be ill at some point but not expecting it to be quite so
soon! Tom was quite poorly bless him. Went and found some antibiotics
and they fixed him right up :) Phew!
Had a relaxed day on our first day
venturing out after dodgy tummies visiting Lodi Gardens. Was nice and
quiet (relatively) and you could sit in peace without being hassled.
In busy areas (mostly everywhere) you are very aware that if you're
not marching on with a clear destination or if you stop anywhere
people will generally come over straight away and ask if you want to
buy what they are selling, get you to use their rickshaw, try and get
you to go to the “Tourist Information Office” ie. their mate
around the corner etc etc. Even though this does get a bit
tiring/annoying it wasn't as constant as we were both expecting and
mostly people weren't persistent at all so it was fine. We found
quite often people would come over and talk to us asking the usual
“Where are you from? Where are you going?” and it would be 50/50
as to whether they had an alterior motive or were just wanting to
help us and show us where things were even if we knew where we were
going! Met some nice welcoming locals :).

Getting straight back into the
craziness of Delhi we visited Chowri Bazaar (Bazaar = market) on the
way to Jama Masjid which is India's largest mosque. Was supposed to
be good for shopping and food. We managed neither. Was just too
mental! Just trying to walk from one end of the street (very long
street) was a mission in itself. Will try and give you an idea... The
street (dirt road, width of a normal residential road) was just
crammed with mopeds, rickshaws, bikes, a few cars as well as people
trying to go in either direction, whichever side of the road! All
continuously beeping their horns (which mostly seems to be for
letting everyone else on the road know you're there). The pavements
were also crammed with people going in both directions so very
difficult to stop as you just got carried along with the flow.
Everyone else was in a rush (obviously). Impossible to have a look at
the shops around you as take your eyes off where you were walking for
a second and you'll have fallen down a big drop in the pavement,
trodden in something gross, walked straight into someone else or
tripped over some rubbish/pots/people on the floor. There was rubbish
everywhere as there are no rubbish bins. You throw all rubbish on the
floor where you stand and people clear it up overnight. (I can't do
this as i've been programmed not to). Now all of what i've mentioned
is the case everywhere in Delhi, it's all mental. Just this
particular place being in such a confined area made it VERY mental.
The shrill noise of horns, the chaos combined with the smog, the
heat, trying not to get run over every 2 mins, people openly
slaughtering chickens every 10 shops along....after an hour it was
too much for Tom so it was time to leave! We headed on to Jama
Masjid. Was very impressive, got some good snaps especially since we
were able to climb one of the towers (40m high I think) so got some
great views over Delhi :).

In our final few days we visited The
Red Fort and the zoo as well as the Lotus Temple (Absolutely
beautiful! Very peaceful inside. Pics to follow) and Humayan's Tomb,
again another lovely piece of architecture.

What else can I say about Delhi? The
Metro - is great, all new and modern and so much cheaper than
rickshaws and without the hassle of negotiating prices. We were
surprised at the orderly queueing on the platforms. This quickly
descends into a stampede as soon as the carriage doors open and it's
every man for himself! I quickly got used to being completely bashed
out of the way. Same goes for getting off the trains. The trains are
always packed and as soon as the doors open everyone just pushes hard
from behind, nearly lost my flip flops on more than one occasion!
People also queue jump all the time. A blatantly long queue, you'll
reach the front and then people will just turn up at the counter
either side of you and put their money through the hatch first to get
their tickets, what a cheek! Difficult not to get ruffled when we're
so accustomed to waiting so politely in line! So long as you shout
the loudest you'll get your ticket first (damn straight!). Also women
don't have to queue apparently and there are even separate ladies
only carriages. To be honest it seems in comparison to men, few
women use the metro so not really a big deal.

The food – Some food has been great,
some food not so great. Has been a struggle sometimes to find none
vomit inducing fare as we're on a budget. Totally up for eating
street food and some possible filth that may come along with that but
some of the places we have seen you just couldn't risk it! There have
been some continental options too as eating curry every day, no
matter how great that might sound is difficult! We've both been
absolutely loving eating out every day though and just getting to try
so many different foods and types of curry we've not had before. Most
menus don't have English translations so we're having fun learning
and trying to remember what everything is :).

The poverty – There are many many
people living on the streets in Delhi. Not something we've
experienced before to this extent and we've seen some people in a pretty bad way.
Very hard to walk on by. Lots of people as well as children begging
for food. Very sad.

Spitting – Men spit anywhere and
everywhere to the point you have to keep an eye where you are
walking. Every few minutes you'll hear that pleasant sound of someone
giving it a big old snort and coughing it all up. Absolutely gross.
Even in the middle of the night there will be someone you can hear
doing it, lovely.

Boys/Men holding hands – It seems to be
the case that they hold hands a lot. Not in a gay way, just as
friends. Weird.
Photos – It has been an at least
three times daily occurrence for people to come up to us and ask if
they can take our photo. Quite often we've been sat down somewhere
and someone has come along and plonked their child in the middle of
us and asked if they can have a pic. Bizarre. At first we didn't mind
a fews pics but then it just got awkward. It's at the stage now where
we can see people a mile off discussing about whether they should
come and ask us at which we promptly walk in the other direction! As
far as we've discovered it's a prestige thing and since hearing that
sometimes people go off and print the photos so they can tell
relatives that we are their friends so they can be looked upon more
highly, it's just a little strange.

I think that's most things covered :).
Hopefully you've got a good idea of what we've experienced so far.
There is so much more we could have seen as there is just so much to
do in Delhi but sadly time didn't permit. We've had fun and seen a
few eye openers. Delhi is such an assault on the senses and not in a
bad way, every day you see things you haven't seen before, it's
fascinating. Time to move on now though, next stop Agra!

Lots of love 

Hannah and Tom
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