Delhi

I almost died today. About 50 times. I took a taxi tour of Delhi today in a Tata (that's an Indian brand car, which is tiny, but for here is pretty decent sized). The guide drove me from site to site, seeing Gandhi's house, where he died, the Red Fort, the largest Mosque in India (forget what it's called), some old Mughal tombs (huge and way cool) and some other stuff I'm forgetting in my sleep deprived state. In between those sites I sat shotgun on the world's craziest car ride (at least that I've ever experienced).

Basically there are bicycle rickshaws, motor rickshaws, motorcycles, scooters, cars and buses crowding up the streets. Most streets are 2 "lanes" although everyone entirely ignores the designations and just drives wherever they feel like it (resulting in 3 to 4 vehicles side by side at all times). There is non-stop honking and yelling since bumpers come within inches of colliding every few seconds. Then, it rained. Monsoon rain. Drops-the-size-of-quarters rain. Ten minutes later half the streets were flooded. So then the honking and what I can only assume is Hindi swearing continued on slick or flooded roads. It was a white knuckle ride for sure. But I survived. Somehow.

Despite sleeping poorly in my "air-conditioned" room, I feel a lot better about my trip today. I talked to a couple people here at the hostel and it sounds like it takes about a week to adjust to this place, so I think I'm well on schedule.

I again left my itinerary in my room so that'll wait until tomorrow, but I feel great about not having to book everything myself. I think I'll see a lot more that way. Tomorrow night I take a train to Bikaner, in Rajasthan. I'm looking forward to it. This city was not meant for 16 million people, so maybe one less will serve it well.