Sunday, September 17, 2006

We actually made it to India!

After 3 very relaxing weeks in KL with my dad, it was time for us to move on again in our journey. It was difficult leaving as we were so comfortable and it was nice being able to spend time with both family and friends there. We knew if we didn't leave soon, we'd get too lazy so everything got packed up again in our backpacks, booked our tickets, and here we are in India!!!

We arrived in Delhi yesterday. The flight over was fairly uneventful. When checking in to our flight in KL, again we had slight problems with only having a one way ticket into India. The airline made us sign a waiver removing them from any responsibilities if we were to get deported once we arrived. Arrived in Chennai and no problems.

It is difficult to comment on first impressions of India while in Chennai as we really only saw the airport and for the most part, it looks like any other city. Airport was old and unremarkable.

However, when we arrived in Delhi, for the first time on our trip, we got seriously scammed! In the airport too, nonetheless. We were at the prepaid taxi stand getting a ticket for our taxi so we wouldn't get ripped off by the taxi themselves and the ticket guy pulled a fast one on us! The bill came to 170Rs and Ian pulled out a bill (which he thought was 1000Rs). I wasn't watching carefully and the guy handed back a 100Rs and said it was 170Rs. I handed that bill back to Ian and told him that was only 100Rs. Since neither of us were on the ball at that point (we were still in the airport!), Ian pulled out another 1000 and gave it to that guy. Later on that night, we were counting our money and realized we were missing 900Rs and linked it back to that. Bastard. I can't believe we got scammed so badly in a supposedly official place! Welcome to India, huh?

Anyways, back to my impressions of India. After we left the Delhi airport, everything changed. Holy smokes, if we thought traffic was bad anywhere else in the world we've been too, they were all nothing compared to this place. This is utter chaos. Everything is everywhere. On our taxi ride in, the streets were busy and such but nothing prepared us for the minute our taxi turned onto the Main bazaar street where most budget hotels were. I was instantly overwhelmed, this was chaos of all chaos. Cars, tuk tuks, bikes, motorcycles, rickshaws, people, and cows! everywhere.

We are finally a little more settled in today in a decent hotel and will be exploring the area. More updates to come!

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