Our first day in Delhi

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  Delhi, India
Thursday, December 11, 2008

Yay! We finally made it!

I'm writing this at the end of our first day in Delhi. We got to the airport and went down the steps to the customs area and immediately started noticing the smog. Yes, that's right the smog is so abundant around the airport that it's actually inside the building. You come down the steps to one of those big rooms lined with customs desks and we noticed that if you looked to the opposite side of the room, the details on the wall were actually starting to look hazy. Maybe it's just me, but I think that's a bad thing.

We actually got bounced around in the customs lines multiple times by multiple handlers, and we kept getting the slowest line in the whole room, so they'd motion for us to move to a different line

Rebecca waiting in immigration

. Of course as soon as we got there the new line would be the slowest. Eventually we split up, and when one of us finally made it to the front of the queue, the other would join. As an indicator of how bad it was, the customs guy asked us which flight we were on, when we said British Airways he was surprised because he thought they had already processed all the people from that flight AND the singapore flight after that one.

And despite taking forever in customs, we still had to wait about 45 minutes for our two luggage bags to show up. We sat with Shivangi and two of Sandhya's friends that were on our same flight. After all the luggage was found, we exchanged some cash, and walked out the door into the real India. Well, at least the real Delhi.

Sandhya was there waiting for Shivangi, and she also brought us this wonderful bag full of brochures and a book on Delhi and the outfits she'd ordered for the wedding. One of her friends that was waiting with her helped us get the cab that had been sent for us. So we didn't even need to deal with the standard Delhi airport taxi chaos!

On the taxi ride to Devika's house, the first things that struck me were the air pollution

Long lines at immigration

. It was amazingly bad. Even worse than Beijing. But consider that an observation, not a complaint. You can't really have this many people in one place, all driving autos and not deal with some kind of air pollution crisis. Part of me is just sad that some really wonderful cities in the world seem quite a bit less wonderful when people get there and are immediately put off by the air quality.

I've read in dozens of books, and on dozens of web sites "Nothing can compare you for India" and having just gone through that, I wholeheartedly agree. No amount of words can prepare you for those first couple of minutes when you start seeing the way that some people live their lives around here. I read the phrase "abject poverty" many times, but that isn't really the term I would use. I'm sure it exists, but I haven't really seen it yet. It was more about how daily life here for so many is so completely and uttterly different. But maybe that's not even it, I mean the normal things in a day, sleeping, eating (if you are fortunate enough to have food), bathing, socializing. All of those are pretty normal regardless of where you are, so I guess it it more the environment in which daily life takes place. So if an average Delhi street were magically transported to the middle of Eugene, and an average Eugeneian were to walk down that street, with the broken or non-existant sidewalks, oppressive traffic, piles of rubbish and perhaps an old woman squatting down over an open flame cooking a small piece of bread

Getting some local cash

. I think that Eugeneian would completely freak out. They would immediately think of that street as unsafe, "ghetto", a hazard to pulblic safety perhaps, and defenitely something that the government or law enforcement should crack down on and do something about. But here in Delhi, that's normal life. It is not better or worse, it is just different.

Our taxi driver had a difficult time finding Devika's house, so he made a bunch of calls, would stop at intersections, look around randomly and shout questions at the nearest passersby, drivers, and food vendors. He eventually found the place, we got dropped off for a very reasonable fare (550 rupees $11USD) and came in for tea.

Devika's mother is absolutely wonderful. She is friendly, hospitable, and clearly very intelligent, so we quickly skipped over the normal conversational pleasantries, and got right into politics, economy and whatever else I've forgotten in a travel-induced stupor. We had a very nice conversation over tea on their 2nd level patio, now hearing the sounds of birds, traffic and morning Delhi life. Bindu (Devika's mother) wanted to get a good handle on our goals in the first couple of days. So she jumped right on the task of assising us in getting SIM cards for our phones. She made a couple of calls, got the info she needed, and sent one of the domestic help out to pick up the cards

Outside delhi airport

. he was back in the blink of an eye with 2 new sim cards and I got myself a local phone number for India. Rebecca phone isn't working for some reason, it accepts the SIM, but it can't connect with the service provider, so we're not sure what we are going to do about that yet.

We all decided it would be best for Rebecca and I to sleep for a couple of hours before venturing out. We were both very excited to be here and said "I'm actually doing pretty good." Then we put head to pillow and were out like bricks for a couple of hours.

We got up for lunch, also on the wonderful lunch on the patio with Poonam, who assists Devika's parents in the running of their bed-and-breakfast type lodge in the mountains. Rebecca was still suffering from jet lag, so she excused herself to continue napping. Poonam and I quickly got into a very heartfelt conversation about religion. She is a practicing buddhist, and her mentor has referenced both Ghandi and Martin Luther King in his teachings. So of course there was much talk about Ghandi and his principles. She was also quite intrigued how Rebecca and I came to be in India, so I had to explain that whole story (which starts in a tiny little indian restaurant in china, of all things)

In the evening, knowing that we wanted to do some additional clothes shopping before the wedding ceremonies, Bindu took us out to a place called FabIndia, and Rebecca and I were immediately overwhelmed by the enormous number of choices we had for clothing

More delhi airport

. Imagine a quaint little botique shop that is 50x50 ft and three stories tall, absolutely packed with stacks and stacks of clothing, and every single one of them is unique. No racks of the same type of pants, jackets or shirts, every piece of clothing is handmade with it's own color, texture, embroidery and weave. So the number of possible combinations is practically infinite. It was pretty mind-blowing! We spent about an hour or two on outfits for Rebecca, and maybe 30 minutes on outfits for me (they were closing, so we had to leave). We walked out with about half the things we picked out and a 6,000 rupee tab (about $128) we're coming back for the rest of them tomorrow after we convert some more travellers checks. The amount of money being spend was a bit of a surprise at first, but we got lots of outfits for both of us that are beautiful, comfy and unique all at the same time.

Before returning home, Bindu wanted to show us a street vendor in the vicinity. He was essentiallly a hand-pushed cart full of peanuts and bags of kernels, seeds and little sweet treats. He had a giant wok over an open flame in the back of the cart filled with sand. We walked up and started munching of some of the popcorn just sitting out on the cart, and Bindu ordered a bag of fresh popcorn. So the guy throws a handful of kernals into the sand and starts stirring them around. They immediately start popping and I ask "Is that sand?" and she explains that it is actually "black salt" which I learned is just normal salt that has been roasted over a fire for a little while

On the freeway

. This guy deftly uses a thin little metal spatula on the end of a stick while stirring the kernels in the salt and a little splatter-guard type thing to keep us from getting exploding popcorn in the face. When the kernels pop, the surface to the top and are easy to retrieve. He dumps them all into a little paper bag made out of old newpaper and pours a little of the roasted salt on top and we've got a delicious "winter treat". He does the same thing with a handful of spanish peanuts, so they come out crunchy, toasted, warm and slightly salted. Overall it was pretty amazing. I can't believe I've never even heard of cooking popcorn like this before. It is completely without any oil whatsoever, it is amazingly easy, and the cooking in the salt doesn't actually make it too salty. I'm totally going to try this when I get back to the states.

We came back home for dinner, which was another wonderful homecooked meal, starting with spinach-carrot soup. Yes, I know that sounds pretty unpleasant, but it was smooth, creamy, lightly spiced and quite pleasant in the end. Rebecca was still suffering from jet lag pretty fiercly, so she wasn't able to eat much without getting sick. We decided to turn in early for the night, Rebecca went right to sleep and I stayed up a little while to blog.

... I'm excited to see what tomorrow holds...

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

Autorickshaw!	Dad giving his kids a ride to school	Don't look directly at the sun	McDonalds!
Street Vendor	Alongside the road	Buildings	Asking directions
Our room	Contents of the bag	Devika's family	Girl walking down the street
Rebecca on Balcony	Kirby on Balcony	Kirby again	FabIndia
Peanut/Popcorn vendor

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