Arrival in Delhi

Less than 36 hours since we landed in Delhi and what tales we have to tell already! Our flight was fairly uneventful, though it felt long as we left Glasgow at 1.p.m. on Saturday (having been in the airport since 9 a.m.) and landed in Dubai just after midnight local time, though just after 8 p.m. UK time. We then had to wait over four hours for our connection to Delhi, and were served breakfast as the sun rose over the sub-continent. Our watches moved on another hour and a half and we landed in Delhi a little after 9 a.m. on Sunday. Immigration, customs, changing money, and negotiating a taxi to our hotel took us to early afternoon, so we thought we'd catch up on a little lost sleep, but the street noise was such that we were only able to doze. Being next to the street wasn't the best for sleeping but our room had a balcony so we were able to enjoy the sight and sound of bands gathering and young men dancing in preparation for Beating the Retreat which was due to happen later that evening.

At 6 p.m. we met with our group leader and the rest of our G Adventures tour group, and set off to a restaurant for our first meal. There are two Canadian couples of roughly similar age to us, plus another Canadian travelling alone, a young English couple, a Scots girl and another six young females of various nationalities, mainly Swedish or French. We spent much of the evening talking to one of the Canadian couples, from Vancouver, who have travelled widely, mostly with G Adventures, and are experienced sea kayakers. We should explain that G Adventures, which used to be called Gap Adventures, is a Canadian company.

On the way to the restaurant we were taken down a lane which we can safely say we would never have ventured into by ourselves. We certainly got a flavour, and a few aromas, of Delhi. The food was excellent and cheap, the beer was Kingfisher, and the wine was much too expensive for us, even the local variety which we were told is not that good anyway. Maybe we'll just become beer drinkers for a while.