Saturday – March 15th, Delhi, India

Streets of Delhi

Feeling great, excited to be here but sleep deprived, the six of us debated whether or not to take the “hop-on, hop-off” sightseeing bus or hire a private car which the hotel was recommending.  The private car won out. For under $20/person we could have a private car (almost) large enough for the six of us, and a driver for two days that would take us where ever we wanted to go, pay for their own parking and wait for us until we were ready to move on to the next place.

The car is a newer model Toyota and quite nice compared to any other vehicle we have seen since arriving.  The three of us girls are squeezed into the back row while each of the guys have a roomy bucket style seat.  We even all have a seatbelt which seems to be a luxury here.

Wanting to go to the spice market area of Old Delhi, our driver got us to the edge then said we would need to use cycle rickshaw drivers from there.  Negotiations were completed and for 100 Rupees ($1.63 USD) each we hired three drivers for an hour.

Of course the 1 hour turned into 1.5 hours, which they “rounded-up” to be 2 hours.  In all, Tim and I paid 500 Rupees ($8.17 USD) which included a nice tip for a unique and fun experience.

Dick and Tim hijack a bike rickshaw as Gary and Jan enjoy the ride

Dick and Karen in a bike rickshaw

Gary and Jan

It will be difficult to describe the chaos, noise, mass confusion, color, wave of humanity, vehicles, horns, animals, kids, vendors, and so much more ~ I LOVED IT!

I hope these pictures will give you a small taste of what we experienced today.

Elephant mixed in with the traffic

View from our cycle rickshaw – traffic jam

Spice Market vendor

People lined up to buy colored powder and water balloons for Holi Festival which is on Monday

Streets of Delhi

We got off and walked for part of the way to further experience the madness that makes up the streets of Old Delhi.  There were times the cars, tuk-tuks, rickshaws, motor cycles, bicycles, pedestrians, animal carts came to a complete gridlock.  Then miraculously one by one everyone wove their way through the knot and we would continue on a few more feet or even up to a block before coming to a stop again.

Selling flowers

Just another mode of transportation

Scaffolding

Woman in purple

There is a 12.5 hour time difference between Los Angeles and Delhi.  This is the first place that I have been where the time zone is broken up in a 1/2 hour segment.  We truly are on the other side of the planet from home.

Other stops included lunch, unsuccessful attempts to get money at an ATM and bank, and a wine shop.  By then it was getting late in the afternoon and our jet-lagged bodies decided to head back to the hotel.  Time to get caught up on sleep…

GRATITUDE MOMENT:  Today I am grateful to be able to meet up with dear friends half a world away and share in one adventure after another.