Arriving in Delhi and onwards

(Sorry if this is a bit messy - my first go at keeping a picture blog...)

Coming in to land in Delhi, the city looked a bit like Johannesburg from the air. Dusty and dry. On the ground however things are hotter and more humid and even more chaotic than we anticipated. Cows, stray dogs, trucks, busses, autorickshaws (three legged motorcycles), cycle rickshaws (pic) and cars all compete for space on the roads and road lines mean nothing. Neither does using your indicator - hooting is the way to go. Every now and then one gets a whiff of something - mostly sewerage but sometimes you get lucky and your nose catches the aromas of the wonderful food people cook right there on the streets. Just today we tried some lunch which cost about 30p - mine was a scrunched up ball of potato dough with some curry sauces and Wouter had a samosa-type dough ball with what seemed to be crispy fried bacon and some yogurt and coconutdressing. Both tasted really good (pic)!


We are staying in Majnu Ka Tilla - a Tibetan Refugee camp north of the centre of Delhi. The accommodation is cheap and the first two nights we stayed in a room for 5.50 pound fifty a night. For tonight we've upgraded to 12 pounds on account of the AC as its called - aircon - plus a cleaner bathroom (see pics). There seem to be fewer cockroaches around too ;0)


(View from rooftop of hotel - see tibetan prayer flags?)

We watched the cricket match between South Africa and the Windies yesterday. Apart from being pleased that the SA boys made us proud, we came away with some good advice from an ex-monk who now lives in Munich and teaches art/painting. He recommended that we head to the northern most province, Ladakh, asap before it gets too cold. So, we've booked our tickets to Leh this afternoon and we will fly out tomorrow morning. We will write more once we have acclimatised to the altitude - on good recommendation we will sleep and drink lots of fluids for two days once we get there.

Phoning home, Delhi-style..