Holy Cow

Sorry, that was inexcusable. But it's true.

First I'll start off by saying: I love India. It's bizarre as hell, crowded, noisy, full of garbage, the poverty is astounding, the stench can be awe-inspiring, the power lines are absolutely terrifying... but I love it. The only downside so far is this shitty internet connection (completely with wobbling screen that makes me feel a bit sick to my stomach) and the pollution. Oh my word, the pollution. Within about two hours I could feel a sinus headache coming on, and the dust and grit sticks to your skin like bug spray. It's gross.

But there are so many beautiful sights! But before I begin with that, I should back up to say that I've met a great temporary travel partner. Her name is Arnika and she's from New Zealand. We met waiting at Heathrow for the flight to Delhi, and I noticed her t-shirt. It had a picture of garden gnomes on it and said "hangin' with my gnomies". I'd seen the shirt in Seattle so I had to say something, and from there we started chatting and each realized that we were flying into Delhi literally by the seat of our pants with no hotel reservation and only a vague idea of where the airport was in regards to the city. Haha. Anyway, we're checked into a decent place in the Karol Bagh area, much quieter than the Paharganj where we were originally going to go. I was able to catch a couple hours' sleep on the flight, so when we arrived-- at freaking 5:30am, by the way-- I felt fine. Arnika wasn't so lucky, so when we got to the hotel she passed out while I had a private car hire to take me around to see some sights.

Delhi traffic is, in a word, frightening. But in some perverse way it's kind of fun as well. There are not really "rules", per se, they're more like guidelines that no one follows. If you drive in Delhi, there are a few rules you must follow:

1. Exhibit a cheerfully careless disregard for life, limb, paint jobs and fender benders.

2. Dodge cows. At high speeds, at low speeds. A lot.

3. Dodge pedestrians. They exhibit the aforementioned careless disregard for life and limb and wander out into the middle of the road with reckless abandon. It's enough to turn your hair white.

4. When in a trafic jam, make sure you leave no more than approximately 1/2 inch from the car in front of you and about three inches and/or the size of your side mirror to the car next to you. I am not making this up.

5. If you're on a motorcycle, please make sure you pack as many people as possible onto it. Including infants sitting on the gas can and ladies in saris and salwar kameez sitting sideways on the back. Oh, and by the way, if you're male, you're allowed to wear a helmet... but no one else on the bike is.

6. Honk. Honk A LOT. Honk incessantly. Honk when you're happy. Honk when you're sad. Honk when you're angry, depressed, irritated, cheerful and any emotion in between. Then honk some more. And when you're done honking, honk again. Repeatedly. Don't worry, no one pays the slightest attention to your honking.

Yeah.

The sights I saw today were amazing, but the one that took the cake by far was the Lal Qila, or the Red Fort. It's absolutely immense. It's from the mid-17th century, I believe, and is a stunning example of Moghul architecture in ruin. The photos truly do not do it justice. I also went to a beautiful Hindu temple for Lakshmi. Alas, my only photos are of the outside because cameras were prohibited inside. I wandered around and swear to god, I got goosebumps. It was that beautiful.

Tomorrow I may be heading to the Ladakh and Leh region of the northwestern Himalayas for a couple of days. After that I'll be heading back to Delhi with a private car hire to Agra to see the Taj. Starting to crash now so I'm going to go hit the sack and hope the skeeters don't eat me too much.