New Delhi welcomed us at 8pm on Monday. At the airport a man stood with a place card with our names on it. Predicting our jetlag we had pre booked a cab whilst in Tokyo to our guest house "Hotel,Cottage,Yes Please". It was neither a hotel or a cottage really, and there began our journey through India, a country of contradictions. We woke early Tuesday morning, sick with colds and aching ears from the flight. It took a while to adjust to the thick smog and general stench of our room and surrounding streets, but after a while my nasal passage became thankfully immune to it. We dressed and walked down the main bazaar of Paharganj dodging cows, rickshaws, touts and general human traffic. We all know that I am not a great morning conversationalist. Can you imagine me tackling the roads of New Delhi at 5am followed by a procession of touts asking 'where you from, where you going, i will take you, i will show you, but it is government tourist office'. More persistant here than Thailand we still haven't quite mastered our response, but are quickly learning that although it feels rude often no response is better than a carefully crafted answer.
On Tuesday night we visited Connnaught Place and found a bar called Regent Blues, which was a bit of an oasis amidst the chaos. It was happy hour, 2 for 1 on Indian Beers. Of course the Indian Beers were actually South African beers and the Blues bar was actually playing Reggae, but hey why not! Yes Luke, Bob Marley again. The man is travelling the globe with us.
Now I am writing from Agra. We caught a train at 4.30 this morning and found a fantastic little guest house in Taj Ganj, just 100m from the Taj Mahal. It is nestled amongst the trees and is peaceful and quiet as the rickshaws are not allowed that close to the Taj Mahal because the pollution is corroding it. The train trip was amazing. I have some great film footage of the sun coming up through the smog.
We have been just walking the streets today and getting some footage. Tomorrow we are visiting the Taj Mahal and then on Friday we will go to Khaledeo Bird Park for the day, about 60km from Agra. It's so great to be here in this tranquil town. I laugh as I write this because there is a constant orchestra of horns beeping about 5 metres from my ears, but comparatively, to New Delhi, things are tranquil here. There are cows walking past the door where Matt is standing, talking on the mobile to his parents. We will upload some photos soon and list our mobile number in the next blog. Matt has been a little unwell so we have not bothered taking many photos yet. Love xo
