Delhi was the one place in India we had no aspirations to visit. Lots of negative stories of scams and tricksters, Dengue fever mosquitoes, and general madness didn't hold much appeal. However, as with all best laid plans we found we needed to stop over here en route from Dharamshala. Making the most of the situation we researched the best way to get from our coach drop off, and booked a comfortable room. We felt quite pleased with ourselves having managed to circumvent the Kashmire gate touts by using the nearby metro, and the prepaid taxi from New Delhi station. Maybe Delhi wasn't going to be so bad after all. After our usual post overnight journey recovery nap we launched ourselves in the Delhi streets. The hotel was situated in Pahar Ganj - a network of busy streets close to New Delhi station and the Main Bazaar. The streets were dirty and busy, filled with traders selling all sorts of goods, complete with free mandatory grime. Bullock carts vied for space with motorbikes, cycle rickshaws, cars and tuk tuks , all finding their way around pedestrians, stray dogs and mobile vendors. A short stop for breakfast allowed us to view the scene from the rooftop of a nearby cafe. Things didn't make anymore sense, and any rules were hard to find as people and vehicles just pushed their way through. Any optimism we might have had about Delhi was soon squashed as we encountered our first tout of the day. The scary thing about this guy was just how plausible he was. Had I not read a lot about the various scams before we came it would give been easy to be taken in. It's normal practice for people to only be allowed onto the station with a ticket. The tout used this fact to try and stop us entering the concourse to the station. Blocking the way with his arm he told us we couldn't go to the station without a ticket. I explained we were going to the international tourist information centre in the station and therefore didn't need a ticket. He persisted, dressed in his smart clothes, to shepherd us away from the front of the station, and pointing to his map showed us a tourist information marked on on it. Having had enough of his games and knowing full well this was a ploy to direct us to a ticket agency where he would get commission for tickets (which we could buy commission free from the station) I assertively laid into him with all barrels blazing, in front of a crowd of stunned onlookers. The sad aspect to the whole thing was the way he very professionally delivered his pitch, and it would have been easy to steer away anyone who hadn't done their research. Poor John was stunned and didn't know what was happening. Unaware it was a scam he said later he was thinking I'd lost the plot. When I took him into the station and showed him the international tourist information office was there, hadn't burned down, closed, down, or relocated he got the picture. Suddenly I was the heroine of the hour ( or Rottweiller to use John's words ). The title for the blog comes from an advert which is repeatedly shown during any film and at virtually every advert break. India has a big television campaign to reduce smoking - which always had the strap line that " smoking is injurious to health". Having spent three days In Delhi I would say that time in Delhi could be injurious to health. If you don't get mown down by a motorbike on the footbridge, there's every chance the pollution will get you. It certainly makes it more difficult to breathe. It's not all bad though- the metro is certainly very cheap and efficient. Carriages are surprisingly clean and the trains frequent. It's currently under expansion too so maybe it won't be long before visiting Delhi can be done from the relative safety of the metro. Anyway that's about all I want to say about Delhi....we're off to the airport tomorrow to fly down to Goa for the Christmas break. Trains and things get booked up around the holiday so we decided to pitch the tent pegs (not literally ) and stay put for a bit.....while we decide on our next move, and start planning the South East Asia part of the trip.