We arrived in Delhi at 4am after a very pleasant flight with Turkish airlines during which we had 2 seats each which was a luxury. On arrival we were met by a driver from the tour company Intrepid and taken to our hotel (Hotel sunstar heights in the Karol Bagh area of the city). Unfortunately all the roads leading to the hotel were closed of so we had to drag our bags the last 100m. On arrival at the hotel the night staff were all asleep on the floor, we managed to arouse them and though they did not seem to know who we were or expect us they let us have a room. Hotel is actually really nice with a large plasma screen TV showing an alarming selection of Indian channels and a rain water style shower. We then slept until 11 as we were so exhausted. We were awoken by the hotel manager demanding some sort of proof of who we were which eventually he was satisfied with.
As the hotel does not have a restaurant (does have room service) we decided to hit the streets and find something to eat. Quite a big mistake as we were immediately followed by several men who wanted to sell us something or chat to us before trying to sell us something. Also the area did not seem the type of place where we were going to find somewhere easily to eat without knowing where we were going (the dead rat on the pavement rather put us off!!). We were then persuaded by a tut tut (auto rickshaw) driver that he could take us to a restaurant and to the centre of Delhi. He was a nice chap who even offered to let Chris drive his tut tut and to take us home to meet his wife. We declined both of these suggestions. However he did take us to a very nice restaurant and even Chris managed to find something to eat (fried prawns). The driver then tried to take us to numerous crafts shops (so he could collect vouchers for taking us there). Unfortunately the shops were onto a loser with us as we have no space our luggage at all (something that the shopkeepers or tut tut driver was at a loss to understand).
We spent about 3 hours out of the hotel and for the first day this was enough. To say the sights and sounds of Delhi are in a different world to ours is definitely true. The traffic was relentless consisting of tut tuts, cycle rickshaws, bullock carts, lorrys and cars all beeping away with no traffic rules applied. We went down narrow streets were people were engaged in all types of different industries (furniture making, cooking, aquarium shop!!).
The tour starts tomorrow and we are kind of looking forward to having someone tell us where to go and what to see and all the transport and accommodation sorted. It is certainly going to be an experience to travel across India but it will hopefully provide many interesting memories.
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