Hello from India! I arrived in India yesterday around 4:30pm. I spent a leisurely morning running one last time in my park in Kathmandu, packing, having lunch in a local restuarant and then headed out to the airport. Over two hours was barely enough to get through the ridiculous lines to: - have my checked bag screened and tagged (they forgot to tag it the first time so I got to do this twice!) - pay my airport tax - check in at the airline counter - get my passport stamped on the way out of Nepal - go through security which includes a bag search by hand - ride the bus literally less than 50 feet from the terminal to the plane - get our bags hand searched again as we got on the plane even though we were locked in a contained room since the last time we had it searched (this one confused me on the flight to Lhasa too but its best not to say anything) Delhi airport was refreshingly efficient and (thank heaven) air conditioned!! The ride from the airport to my hotel was long but it gave me time to look around. Like the guidebooks all say, Delhi is a complex, large city full of contradictions. I saw abject poverty, lush wealth, four lane roads with lights and neon billboards on which a yak was pulling a cart next to an SUV. I saw cows on the side of the road and signs for computer training. Mostly though I saw smog. The air quality here is probably the worst I've seen (which is saying a lot after living in Riverside, CA and visiting Bangkok) but the streets are cleaner (relative to Nepal or Thailand) and don't smell like sewage so it felt cleaner to me. And the weather was not as humid as I was expecting. It actually cools off at night to a reasonable temperature. I had a delicious buffet dinner at my hotel (in the air conditioned restaurant!), went for a walk around the neighborhood, and mostly hung out luxuriating in my hotel room (they have towels and soap that smells good and air conditioning and a mini bar and refrigerator and clean comfortable sheets and a tv and a phone that works and hand dryers/hair dryers and all kinds of comforts! I know these all sound like basic hotel amenities but I was fascinated! I loved it!) Sunday I woke up and went for a run - to the usual stares of the locals. I found my way down and ran along the Yamuna River. I didn't see anyone else out jogging. The air quality is so bad it probably was a wash weather it was good or bad for me but it felt good for my muscles. And I discovered that where we might have cats (like along the walls or fences), here they have monkeys - which freaked me out a bit - they are clever and mischevious and like to take things - but I escaped with my iPod and sunglasses so I was happy. Then I headed out for some sightseeing. I started at Qutb Minar which was begun in 1193. It is a beautiful complex with both Islamic and Hindu architecture. The grounds are beautiful and cool also. Then I came back to the hotel to check out and headed to the train station to buy my ticket to Dharamsala tonight. The travel agent for the hotel had had not luck but the trains reserve seats just for foreigners so if you go in person you can often get a seat when no local can. And sure enough, I got a ticket for the overnight train to Dharamsala tonight, a ticket down to Agra (where the Taj Mahal is) on Thursday night and a ticket back to Delhi on Saturday. So I'm all set for and the cost eliminated the need for two hotel rooms so that worked out good too! Then I had a great spicy Indian lunch and went back to sight seeing. I went to the Mahatma Gandhi museum which was small and homey but interesting. They let you take pictures there so I'll upload some in a few days. And I bought a book on the relationship between Einstein and Gandhi to read on my trip up north. Its short and sounded interesting. India is fascinating in its mix of religions. In one day I saw the largest Muslim mosque in Asia (although as the book predicted they were not welcoming and wouldn't let me in unless I paid the expensive photo charge even if I agreed not to take photos. So I took photos of the outside only but got a peek inside.), the oldest Jain temple in Delhi, a very welcoming Sikh temple, and a Baptist church, and if I had more time I could have seen a Hindu temple, a Catholic Church, and a Ba'hai temple. I also walked by the Red Fort which was the seat of Mughal power from 1639 - 1857 and is the main attraction in Old Delhi and drove by many other important sites such as: - the India Gate which commemerates the Indians who died in WWI and the Rajpath which leads from the India Gate to the Parliament Building and looks a lot like the mall in DC with a lot more air pollution - Rajghat where Gandhi was cremated - the Lodi Gardens - the Delhi golf course and many 5 star hotels pointed out by my taxi driver - numerous street markets but most were closed today because it was Sunday - and lots of Old, New, and South Delhi I was frustrated experiencing first hand what the book had described but I hadn't really comprehended how annoying it would be - the Indian custom of saying yes to everything. Even if they don't know where something is they will say they do and give you directions or drive you somewhere. You have to ask them to show you on the map where they think it is but some of the rickshaw drivers are illiterate so getting a ride to somewhere a little obscure is quite a challenge and I found it easier to walk to some places. Due to the traffic and complications getting my rail ticket and incompetent drivers I didn't get to see everything I wanted in Delhi but I was satisfied with my preview of the city. I got a good feel for its character and got to see the major sights. And the main purpose of my trip is to head up to Dharamsala which I'm looking forward to. Seeing Delhi and the Taj Mahal are bonuses for this trip. I'm very much looking forward to 3 quiet nights in one place in Dharamsala. It will be nice to relax in what should be a peaceful town. I'll write more from there tomorrow.