Welcome to India

Hey everyone,

Just a quick note about our first day in India. We arrived into Delhi at about 6.10 this morning. The flight was fine, nothing special. The airline managed to leave Corinne's bag at Heathrow, but hopefully it'll turn up in the next day or two. We were met and taxied to our hotel (Delhi YMCA). A note about Indian roads: they're pretty crazy. Our driver told us, in patchy English, the rules of Indian roads, "1st time, horn; 2nd time, brake; 3rd time, good luck!". Lanes just don't apply in India, cars drive wherever they feel like it, basically (imagine four cars and a couple of motorbikes, bikes and pedestrians on one 3 lane road). Everyone honks their horn, constantly and repeatedly. I'm still unsure on which side of the road you're meant to drive (although I think it's both, usually at the same time). As for crossing roads, 3rd time rule applies.

We got to the Y fairly early and were treated to a 120Rs breakfast (I suspect that's a bit much for what it was, but never mind) of eggs, toast & ridiculously sweet jam and these spicy veg ring things (for want of a better word). We wandered around Delhi a little bit - the poverty is visible among some people in some places, but it isn't oppressively terrible - at least as far as we went. We were worn out quickly by just a short walk because, of course, it's bloody hot.

After Indian soap operas, came our trip to the bank. And what a trip. You might think that changing 25 quid (no pound sign on my keyboard, by the way) to rupees is pretty quick and easy to do? Think again. After going to the bank to find half of it in rubble and the lifts temperamental at best, we had to go back and forth to pick up passports, etc. to do the transaction. Then there was Douglas. That wasn't his real name, but it became his name. He gave us forms to fill out, did God knows what with our passports, then took our money. And that was it. He told us to sit and wait for "Rupee". Rupee later (we decided) turned out to be a balding, white-haired, moustachioed Indian legend of a man. Probably senile, but hey ho. After an hour or so more, Tom scored some free tea (lots of sugar) from India's answer to Tom Cruise, and after another half hour or so, we eventually got some money. We spent the entire time in fits of laughter, but I guess you had to be there... Oh and the lights and fans cut out randomly too. Twice. Incidentally, Douglas gave us our cash. Which was in a draw. Under his desk. Where it had been all along. Yeah.

Since that time we've been slowly whiling away the hours to dinner, which was a generic curry. And that's about it. It's 7.40pm over here, and we'll be off to sleep in the next few hours. Tomorrow we'll be up, as bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as I always am in the mornings, for our first orientation stuff. It'll be nice to meet someone who knows what the hell is going on...

Put simply, India is awesome.

Love Robbie