Delhi

It is with mixed feelings that I spent my first 24 hours in Delhi. After a flight that went smoothly, albeit without much sleep, I was welcomed at the airport by a taxi sent by my guest house to pick me up. The taxi trip was the first shock of the day: traffic is completely chaotic, with cars, buses, rickshaws, bikes and scooters going in every directions without following any road marks and signs... all this with rain pouring down and 30 cm of water on the road (Friday was a rainy day and when it rains here, it is not a small drizzle experienced in London or in Normandy).

My guest house is decent, but the area it is in - Paharganj, or the backpackers district - was a complete shock. This is worn out district, full of hustlers, scammers and bums trying to lure me into spending as much money as possible. This feeling is exacerbated around the train station and in Connaught place, the two spots where governmental travel and tourism offices can be found. People are generally nice but seem to think that I am a walking wallet. Nothing unexpected here, but they just make it extremely difficult for me to get to the places I need to visit for tourist information and bookings. I ended up in various travel shops (including 3 times in front of the same one...) supposed to be the "official" tourism office of India where they tried to sell packaged holidays I-don't-know-where. I guess I am still too nice for this country (and my face saying "where-the-f***-am-I?" probably did not help...), but this drained all my energy as the level of harassment is unbelievable. At least I did not get caught in a scam...

Finally, after wasting hours with various bums insisting to "help" me find my way, I managed to book my train tickets to Rajasthan. This done, this removed a weight from my shoulders and helped me enjoy a bit more of Delhi (that and the fact that I am starting to know where I am and where to go). The last two days have been good, with various visits of monuments and museums (nice when you want some good air conditioning and few hours of quiet...), a lot of catch up of sleep/adjustment to the jet lag, and the discovery of places where I can actually find some cheap food without taking the risk of getting the Delhi belly...

The weather is very hot and humid, comparable to that of Florida in the summer (for those of you that know it, and because it is the only data point I have...). People tell me it is going to get a bit "fresher" in the next few weeks, but I don't really mind as I am sweating so much my clothes are soaking wet after 20 minutes spent outside (I know, classy...).

Few pictures below of some of the most interesting sights the city has to offer:

 Ganesh Festival (Elephant God)

India Gate (their Arc de Triomphe) 

The Red Fort (former Emperor's residence)

Inside the Red Fort - Emperor's wife house

Jama Masjid (the big Mosque)

 The chaos of Old Delhi

Traffic chaos

Next stops: Agra and its famous Taj Mahal, followed by Jaipur and two weeks of train between various cities of Rajasthan.

To be continued...