Delhi to Kathmandu Or the Long and Winding Road Part 1

We managed to check in at the youth hostel by 11am and after a siesta we decided to face the city. We headed out of the youth hostel towards the main centre of Delhi,Connaught Place. What a mistake. We were no left alone. Any western looking people I think are seen as a walking Dollar/euro/pound sign. We had rickshaw/auto-rickshaw/Taxi stopping for us ever few metres. We opened the guide book and we would look up and as many as 4 vehicle would have stopped to offer there paid services. Taxis would even offered there service when they were full. Would they have kicked out the Indian customer for our service? Sometime we wondered yes. From the beginning of my travels, my internal compass was deffective – I would like to say that the Lonely Planet maps are useless – we took the long way into the centre…..

Honestly, I think there are more interesting things for me to write than about Delhi. We visited the Red Fort, Dating back to the Moghul Empire. Walked through the Bazar and then got out of the city – I will let the photos tell the story. However what you come to realise in Delhi and the cities we visited so far, is the shear number of people, animals – cows, monkeys, dogs, goats, sheeps – vehicles – Buses, trucks, cars, rickshaw, auto-rickshaws – street vendors, people sleeping in the street and the constant noise of cars and klaxons. Trully the city which never sleeps. The first rule of the road is that there is no rules.

We spent 2 days in Delhi. We planned 3 days but after the first 2 days we decided not to bother to stay any longer in the city. Our original plan was to go directly on the night train from Delhi to Gorakhapur – the jumping point to get to the Nepalese border. As we could not get in contact with the travel agent which had our tickets we decided to leave a day early and visit Lucknow and Varanasi.