Day 6: Its all true, (and then some!)

(lowell's rant)

WOW. So today our adventure began for real. And I must say that everything I had been told about the food, the people, the driving, the smells, and the whole experience was true. Everything takes on a whole new dimension however when you experience it yourself. The driving I knew would be crazy because others had told me it would be, and I had seen pictures and movies. This however was my life and it was me in the car in the crazy streets. It was my life on the line and so it seemed word. I seem to have jumped ahead of myself. rewind.

After a long day of flying, we landed in Delhi at 5:00am local time. We were tired and slightly out of it, as per usual it seems, as we went through customs and bag collection. We walked out into the main arrivals area and we were greeted by a kind man who was holding a sign that read "Mr. Lowell Taylor and Zabu Kurian." (That was us) He was a small man from Nepal. His name was Thapas and he was dressed in all white. Thapas had been waiting for us for over an hour by the time we finally waddled out. He did not speak English so he was unable to laugh at all my funny jokes. hmmm, come to think of it, maybe he could understand it and they were just not funny.... Oh no, Couldn't be the case. *smirk* either way, Zab and Thapas spoke in Hindi and I sat in the car and watched beautiful India go past before my tired eyes.

We drove about 30 min from the airport before turning down a very shady looking road. We then turned off this little shady road onto an even more shady alley way. Then we stopped. This was to be our home for 2 days. We were worried. When we walked into the hotel however, it was nice. It was a 3 star hotel. Indian ratings. =) Not that you care, but the name of this fine establishment was "Clarks International." We were too early to check in so we went for breakfast on the 5th floor. (not so important either. Feel free to skim. I have a tendency to over factualize {not a word} my posts I think.) We looked down from the patio and saw people sleeping on all the roofs and along the alley way and roads. We were not feeling very secure about our location.

Breakfast was a buffet consisting of mostly deep fried spicy food! it was good. Defiantly not my regular mini wheats and all bran! There were two German girls eating also. We found out that they were on their way to an orphanage to volunteer their time and get hours towards their social work degrees. They did not have a ticket and were just hoping to get one for a good price by showing up at the airport! We hope it all worked out for them. After breakfast we checked into our room. It was good. It had 2 single beds, a tv, a bathroom, and a fridge. Oh, ya, No squaty potty! bo ya! I am lucking out on this trip. There have only been a few.

Zab and I decided to go get a SIM card for his cell phone so we could make calls. We got dressed in our shorts, put our back packs on and walked into the street. Bad news. We were instantly surrounded by beggars, vendors, and auto rickshaw drivers. Oh ya, there were cute little boys there also trying to get our money. Our best efforts to keep them away were working-ish, but there were getting to be more and more. So after we bought two big jugs of mineral water, we retreated back into the hotel to wait for Thapas! He came and drove us away! What a man! From then on we wore pants and no backpacks. We were trying to fit in. This did not work too great. Oh well. It was a good thought.

He brought us to a cell phone place and helped zab get it all figure out. We have a working cell phone with us at all times. Yeah! This adds to the feelings of security, even though we are with a driver or at the hotel most of the time where we have access to phones.

Thapas drove a small white car (brand name: Indigo) with air conditioning! This little detail matters in India! It is so nice. We would get out of the car and feel the heat engulf us. The temperature is good. Low to Mid 30's with high humidity.

We then drove through the crazy, wild, entertaining streets to: India Gate, the Parliament Buildings, Raj Ghat, and Rhastrapati Bhavan. They were cool buildings. Old and um... Indian.

We then went to Kashmere Cottage Industries. It was a beautiful shop with Kashmere and Pashmena shawls, rugs, jewelry and so much more. Will Smith and his wife had been there 5 months before. We saw pictures. The things there were beautiful and expensive.

We then were dropped off at a nice little India restaurant where we ordered some food. go figure. It was wonderful. We had Kebab, Nan, Rita, and Chai tea. It was fantastic! I love Indian food. Let’s hope it loves me!

We went to an underground bizarre. Here we practiced bartering. We were not good at the beginning, but it got much better near the end. We bought a few cheap shirts and I got a pair of ‘authentic’ fake camel sandals. =)

We had a good time there. We got a lot of attention as we walked through. I was amazed at what all the sold there. Everything! Even ipods! We tried bartering for one, but he was hard and didn’t sell me an iPod for $10. Oh well.

We then went back to the hotel at around 5. We were tired so we decided to have a nap.
We got up from our nap at 9:30, and then went to bed again at 9:45. We were very tired. We slept until 5:40. Near 12 hours of sleep!

(sorry, no time to post images here. We have updated pictures on the flickr acount through. Please use the link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/runlowellrun/)