Strangers in a Strange Land

we arrived in the capital city of Delhi at the unreasonably early time of 4:54 in the morning. having not slept alot on our flight over we were super keen to go straight to our accommodation and just crash out in our beds. as we cleared customs and made out way from the airport foyer to outside a mix of unfamiliar smells and sounds bombarded us from all directions. cars and bikes continuously blared there horns as they moved through the congested traffic directly out front of the arrivals building and smells which are indescribable filled our noses, not all of them pleasant :P with my sharp eyes i saw a taxi stand through the throng of people and so we headed towards it. we knew from the lonely planet guide book that we should be looking at paying around about 300 rupees (i think thats aprox. 6 $) to get from the airport into the city. with this information in mind i confidently approached the counter to inquired about the price of a taxi fare. as i reached the counter i noticed a small indian man away to the right eyeing me off, ignoring him i focused my attention on the man at the counter and asked how much it would cost to take us to hotel perfect (our residence for the next four days). the man replied saying that the price of a fare would set us back 550 rupees, almost double what the book had advised to be the normal price.after hearing this i had a little laugh to myself, after being in the country for less than five minutes someone was already trying to squeeze a little extra cash out of me, a supposedly unwitting tourist. i decided to try and barter the price down a little before looking at other possible options for transport into the city but before i could respond with a counter offer to his first proposal  the man on my right who i saw watching us before piped up and said "550, private taxi. 300, local taxi".

(picture not relevant to story) a warning from intrepid

the man at the counter looked seriously put off and what sounded like harsh words began to fly back and fourth between them. suddenly the man from the counter jumped up, still loudly expressing his anger at losing customers and approached the other man grabbing him by his shirt collar all the while shouting what must have been profanities at him. it looked as though there was going to be a fight as the man shook free backed away being pursued. while this was going on men were approaching us and asking where we wanted to go. one man, large and balding, took a look at the address of the hotel and said he would take us there for 400. still determined to get the normal price of 300 i bluntly said we would pay 300 or nothing (strongly implying we could easily walk away and find someone else if he declined). after a brief pause in which he seemed to be considering his next move he lowered his price to 350 which we thought reasonable enough and so agreed. he led us to another man who was obviously the driver and we threw our stuff in the back of his small vehicle. as we drove he began to chat with us in a very thick and almost uninterpretable indian accent. he asked all the usual questions like where are you from and how long are you staying but also threw in a few comments about the cricket which im ashamed to say, as an australian, i know nothing about in the slightest. after driving for about 5 minutes, in which time i swear we almost crashed about 10 times as our driver kept driving in the center of two lanes (no seat bets were available by the way), the driver pulled out his mobile phone and talked briefly to an unknown person before pulling the car over and stopping on the sideof the highway. not sure what to think i asked him what was going on. he replied wth "im waiting for a friend" as he watched his side mirror intently for this mystery mans approach. it wast long before we sae who we were waiting for, it was one of the men who we had talked to about the price of the taxi. he came up the the drivers side window and after saying something in hindi to the driver said in english "350 we cannot do". miss hearing what the man had said joey began to ask knipler to produce the address and he thought the man didnt know where to go and was again asking for our destination to check it with his friend. luckily for us ur driver was a kind man and after a quick discussion outside of the car with his friend he came back and said "350 no problem". so we set off again along the highway. i observed many construction sites along the the way as well as plenty of already completed (although derelict looking) apartment blocks which seem to be the main source of housing in this area. our driver took us a little way into the city before asking for the address again, obviously not 100% sure of where to go. he pulled up next to a few people and asked about the location of the hotel but strangely he was met with unfriendly disconcern and none of the people he asked were willing to give directions and shook their heads when he asked about it. i am still unsure of why that was.. anyway after a little time he found our accommodation and we checked ourselves in.

me in my single hotlel room :) (the other two are sharing)

later that night,  after a much needed sleep, we went for a brief walk around our area. i have never seen so many people in my life! they covered the streets, most seemingly heading home from work along the road with cars and bikes driving around them in very close proximity. there were stalls everywhere selling everything from shoes to electronics all at what appeared to be quite reasonable prices. being tired, and myself slightly overwhelmed by the sheer amount of people, we headed back to the hotel where im now sitting now typing this blog :P this has been a very interesting introduction to this strange but wonderful place, i can see myself really enjoying my time here aslong as i dont let anything like the poverty of lack of cleanliness get to me in a big way. im gonna go find the guys now and maybe grabs some food! (i havnt eaten all day as ive been feeling like shit but i think i feel a bit better now). ill take some pictures and post them up when my camera is all charged up! :)