After a good flight we touched down in Delhi at 1:50am local time. We were VERY relieved to see a rep from our Indian travel company standing there with our name board as Peter had said on the plane wouldn't it be awful if no one was there and they didn't answer any of the contact numbers we had!
We decided to stay at a home stay in South Delhi, where people open their homes for guests - kind of like a small B&B. We were pleased with our room, it is quite large with a little balcony - and because it is in a residential area it is nice and quiet.
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| Our bedroom |
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| Living area just outside our room |
We eventually got to bed at around 3:30am and woke up just before 10am this morning! After a late breakfast we decided to head to the local market and asked for directions - to be honest we couldn't quite understand the man we were asking so when he asked us a question and we heard the word market we just kept saying yes and we ended up in a totally different place than where we wanted to go, but at least we got to see the local area!
In the afternoon we walked to the metro but got lost - we were standing right next to the metro station but couldn't get to it because of a big fence! After a long detour we finally made it to the other side. After getting our ticket (which cost 12p each!) we then had to go through security like at an airport, having our bags scanned and walking through a body scanner - glad we don't have that in London! The metro was packed but we were only going 3 stops so it wasn't too bad.
Our destination was Lodi Gardens, a 90 acre park in the centre of Delhi which has a number of historical buildings dotted around within the park. I had read the park was very popular with families on a Sunday and when we got there there was lots of families sitting around eating picnics, people playing cricket, badminton and football and just enjoying themselves - it was a lovely atmosphere and we enjoyed looking around and people watching.
Whilst waiting for the metro on the way back a man came up and stood right in front of us staring - it was a bit disconcerting as he stared for ages and then suddenly smiled at us and asked where we were from - when we said he asked if we knew Kevin Pieterson (he is a cricketer for those of you who aren't forced to watch hours of cricket like me!). When we said yes we knew who he was he said he was a big fan and then off he went! Very weird!!
In the evening we had a lovely homemade meal of chicken curry, daal and chapatis at the Homestay which was very nice. We had a dessert as well but had no idea what it was, even after we had eaten it.
We have enjoyed our first day in India. The weather was nice and warm today - just right for wandering around in. Our main impressions so far is that there are a lot of stray dogs and it is very dusty!
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