Delhi. I’m going to backtrack a little because I haven’t taken much time to reflect on w

Delhi. I’m going to backtrack a little because I haven’t taken much time to reflect on where we’ve been thus far. We landed at 2 o’clock in the morning and almost immediately the crowds of India appeared. Walking out of the terminal, hundreds of dark-haired, wide-eyed Indian men pressed up against waist-height steel gates, expectantly awaiting arriving passengers. In that surreal moment, the dense throng of eyes and faces seemed like the most people I had ever seen at once. We scoured the pieces of paper each one held until we spotted both of our names on one. That was our driver! It seemed miraculous that we could possibly find the person who was looking for us. We followed him to his car and hopped in. Already the smell of polluted air - thick with dust, exhaust, garbage and smoke - filled my nostrils. We zoomed down the highway towards our hostel - swerving between lanes (where ever there was room to drive), and lurching through intersections (where cars come all at once in all directions and it is very challenging to see who actually has the green light).We spent five or so days exploring the city. Some highlights were Jama Masjid (India’s largest mosque), Old Delhi, the trendy Haus Khaz village in New Delhi, and a spice market that we happened upon. It was tucked in behind the main street and was bursting with chili peppers. As we first turned down the narrow passageway leading to the large square, my throat seized up and I couldn’t help but cough. At once I heard others coughing too - looking around I saw that almost everyone in the vicinity was hacking into a handkerchief or the fold of their elbow. It was the chilis! Bags and bags of red hot peppers lined the passageway - this coughing was a permanent consequence of the trade. It was a pretty funny sight, everyone plagued by that spicy sting.I experienced my first tuk tuk rides in Delhi - it took a few to finally relax and surrender to the wild traffic and the oncoming cars that would swerve at the last minute - barely getting by without scratching the green and yellow paint of the three-wheeled taxi. Cycle rickshaws are quite something, too. The first one we took was in Old Delhi, where it seemed like the metro had taken us not 10 stops from our hostel, but 100 years back in time. The bicycle rickshaws fit right in. I enjoyed rolling down the streets at a human pace - leaving time to take in our surroundings…the thick tangle of cables draping off of every power pole, the layer of garbage lining both sides of the road, the feces (animal, dog or human) squished into the pavement, and the hoards of people walking, sitting, cycling, talking or cooking on and around the street. You can imagine the mixture of smells that wafted from such a street. It was overwhelming for the senses but exciting too - one of my favourite activities was walking down the narrow side streets of Old Delhi - getting a bit lost but feeling totally bewildered at every turn.The city was both modern and prehistoric - depending where you looked. As my first glimpse of India - I was a bit overwhelmed by it all. Some mornings I resented the dust and the crowds and the honking, but by the afternoon I was charmed by it all. We took a train from Delhi to Amritsar, which I’ll write more about later. For now I’m off to sleep! -- source link

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