First of India- Delirious in Delhi

After pulling an all-nighter, Lex and I said our final good-bye to Korea and embarked on our greatly anticipated journey, which would start in India. Four flights and 20 sleepless hours later, we landed in New Delhi airport and were finally at our destination late on Sunday night. We were exhausted, so we decided to take it easy on Monday morning, but by about 1 p.m. we were ready to go out and get our first glimpse of Delhi life. We would be meeting our group for the adventure tour at 6 p.m. that evening, so we thought we’d just wander around that afternoon. We met a girl name Sophie who was in the same position, so she tagged along as we headed out in to the streets of our neighborhood called Karol Bagh.

We knew that there was a market near by, but weren’t sure where it was, so we just decided to walk. Immediately we were bombarded by the chaos and noise of the Delhi streets, and if that weren’t overwhelming enough, our appearances were giving completely gave us away to the locals. We got a lot of attention as tourists, but just tried to keep our belongings close and not make ourselves look too out of placeWe wandered, admiring the beautiful textiles, shoes, and other random goods, but we weren’t ready to buy anything just yet. After a couple of hours, we decided we had had enough for our first day; this was surely a place that you needed to ease into. We headed back to the hotel for our meeting, where we met the group we’d be traveling with for the next twenty days.

Right away, the group dynamic was fantastic! Our Tour Leader is an Indian man named Shakti who has been working for GAP for 3 years and knows everything there is to know about the places we’ll be going. There are 11 of us on the tour, all in our twenties. There are nine girls and two guys, which isn’t the best ratio, but everyone gets along great so it’s fine. Also, Lex and I are the only Americans, everyone else is British, so that’s a fun dynamic for us. That night we went out for our first Indian meal, and all I can say is, AMAZING! The food is just so good, I’ll try to get some pics.

On Day 2, we met Shakti in the morning and went out to have an orientation walk of Old Delhi. The moment we got to Old Delhi, it was complete and utter sensory overload!! People, cars, bikes, rickshaws, going in every which way and ALL honking their horns. Not to mention the millions of people, dogs, and occasional goat or cow. It was incredibly overwhelming…and at times smelly. But there were so many interesting things to see too. We went to a Sihk temple first, where we watched many people praying, as three holy men sat at the alter and sang. We then went to the community center behind the temple, where volunteers cooked curry and made chipatis, of which any one is welcome to come and eat. They offered it to us, but we were sure our stomachs weren’t ready. Still, watching and helping with the cooking was definitely the coolest experience of the day. We wondered through more markets, checked out the Red Fort, and eventually headed back for a big lunch before boarding our train. We had a 20-hour overnight train to Jaisalmer to look forward to, but honestly I was ecstatic to escape the chaos of Delhi, in exchange for a more relaxing, natural side of India.