My first Delhi experience was of the traffic traveling from the airport to the hotel at 6AM. I'm not sure of the exact distance but I can tell you we traveled very slowly. But to one accustomed to the orderly flow of western traffic, it was an eventful ride. The streets in Delhi are painted with lane lines but these are ignored. This seems to be true of both small streets and highways. You may see three vehicles traveling side by side in the two lanes. We made a right hand turn from the left lane. The horn is used constantly, kind of as a greeting. There seem to be many large trucks with no windows or side view mirrors, but with pretty cursive signs painted in pastel colors "Please Honk". Drivers of smaller cars may keep their side view mirrors folded into the car to make the vehicle more narrow. There is a wide variety of vehicles on the road. Cars, trucks, motorcyles and mopeds, auto-rickshaws, bicycle-rickshaws, bicycles, cows, horses, horse and buggy. And pedestrians - there are lots and lots of pedestrians. Seeing so many people on the street, it feels to me like New Years, or a big party.
Most of my time has been spent in the hotel, where I am staying and attending an orientation. The hotel is very comfortable and restaurant excellent. Aside from hotel time, I've had two enjoyable excursions. Sunday night I had a wonderful meal at the home of Sunita, AJWS's in-country representative. Sunita's hospitality was incredible and the food highly delicious. She thoughtfully prepared foods from many different regions in India so we could sample the various flavors and specialties (she prepared more than two dozen dishes!!). 
The second excursion was last night, we walked from the hotel through a pedestrian market to a store called Fabindia, which has been explained to me as the Gap of India. Wonderful bright and colorful fabrics and clothing, bed linen and towels. Sunita says Indians love food and clothes - I'm starting to see why.
The second excursion was last night, we walked from the hotel through a pedestrian market to a store called Fabindia, which has been explained to me as the Gap of India. Wonderful bright and colorful fabrics and clothing, bed linen and towels. Sunita says Indians love food and clothes - I'm starting to see why.
3 comments:
Well, I guess that gives you an appreciation for American drivers now?
That food looks amazing!
Laura, what a ride...Did you notice many colisions along the road or bent up vehicles? It must be hard to get car insurance..hummm
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