The sun was setting behind the aeroplane wing as we were welcomed onto the plane. The longest night I have had for a while. 13 hours of darkness and little sleep intermingled with meals of chickpeas, tofu and veges with a stop over in Canberra. Now we are eating muffins and drinkimg tea and looking at Singapore airport carpet and Christmas decorations.
The most challenging thing that happened today was the untangling of the cord for the earpiece and finding something to watch as we whiled the hours away -a tall order for the tired brain. I flicked through a few movies, drowsed a bit and stood at the end of the plane doing lots of stretches much to the amusement of one little toddler.
We got through Customs in Delhi. Taking photos of fingers and thumbs from sweaty tired tourists seemed to take an inordinate amount of time with custom officers lazingly adding info into a very slow computer system and having to wipe the screens with used and not to clean tissues.
Our ride to the hotel was memorable. It started with a long walk to the arranged transfer and nearly being knocked over by a driver who thought he could squeeze between me and two cars. The lane markings didn't deter the local driver and two cars from making extra lanes and certainly encouraged the motor cyclist to squeeze their motor into any little space. No photos of that drive as I tried to absorb our new environment examples include black and yellow lined gutters, long clay pots placed haphazardly along the median strips some of which included dusty and wilting plants, the new metro being built by a company with the logo "imagineering for the future", lots of stalls, dogs, pigeons and the air filled with dust and pollution.
After settling in (Alison had thoughtfully bought some teabags from NZ) we wandered down the main street. I took some photos but didn't want to appear too obvious and so some of the sights will just be in words. The sentry boxes outside every home manned by a sentry (some with guns), the dogs oblivious to the hooting traffic. The drivers saying different messages depending on the length and loudness of the hoot eg "thanks", "I am here", "hurry up", "get out of my way", "I am really pissed off with what you have just done". Every shop had a guard as well some also with guns. Employment seems to be a priority - men sweep the paths with straw brooms. The great thing is that the shop owners smiled and said hi there was no pressure to buy. Colours are great not all bawdy and bright but the subtle pastels creeping in.
We are off to the hotel restaurant for dinner tonight as the food stalls looked great (kumara, corn, roti, smoothies, nuts) but look like just the recipe foe Delhi belly.
More photos to come but here is one of our room and the view outside. We are keeping the curtains closed.
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