We made it....
Despite a couple of scares on the way. It turns out Dani doesn't like turbulence that much, and neither of us seem to enjoy circling Istanbul airport for two hours before landing. A mad dash to our connecting flight to Delhi, and some tactical delaying by Turkish Airlines (cheers lads), meant that we still made it in one piece, arriving at ~7a.m. local time (1:30a.m. Irish time).
We set low expectations of ourselves for our first day considering we haven't slept properly in nearly 48 hours. The adrenaline has been surreal. Also quite scared the jet-lag/exhaustion would kick in, which it most definitely did eventually - we managed to make a good stab at it for the first half of the day.
We had, in all honesty, set somewhat low expectations of Delhi in general. Various blogs/guides warn of how hectic the place can be - and often advise starting off in a more chilled out part of India and giving yourself time to acclimatise, before getting to any of the major cities.
While we imagine that's still good advice, We can only speak for how we're holding up here in Delhi (note, on 24 hours and no more) - it's not as tough to deal with as we had feared. Lots of people, traffic, noise, dust - but so far nothing unbearable.
Our hostel (Madpackers Delhi) seems the ticket, nice place in a relatively good area. We set off from there to sit in the sun at a local park - highlight being two girls no older than 7-8 seeming to play rugby with their 1-2 year old baby sister/brother. The youngest sibling being the rugby ball in this game.
Moving swiftly on from that, we decided we'd had enough of the rugby, so went for some aimless wandering through two villages/towns in Delhi (Shahpur Jat, and Green Park) - nice way to see what different parts of the cities are like, and what they have to offer (mainly street food it appears).
That led us to finding a lovely area next to Hauz Khas Lake, highlight being Blossom Kochhar Tea Room, a quiet, secluded cafe that let us get a real breather from the hustle and bustle found just outside. Dani went for an apple/ginger/blackberry smoothie (10/10), while I went for the 3-spice chai tea (somewhat decent, though I don't like tea).
At this point - Jet-lag intensified and drew a close to our less-than-intense first day in New Delhi.
We decided to get a tuk-tuk home, which was more-than-intense. It was terrifying. See for yourself!
After a couple of hours down time we ventured our to get some dinner and it didn't disappoint! We got a mountain of the most delicious Indian food we have ever tasted for less than €5 each. Amazing!
That's it for day one, we're both about to pass out. Next instalment will most likely be around the time we leave New Delhi on the 15th, at which point we can look back at how wrong we were on Day 1 and how we never want to see the place again.
Big love, from Dani & Stu.
Currently Listening to:
Despite a couple of scares on the way. It turns out Dani doesn't like turbulence that much, and neither of us seem to enjoy circling Istanbul airport for two hours before landing. A mad dash to our connecting flight to Delhi, and some tactical delaying by Turkish Airlines (cheers lads), meant that we still made it in one piece, arriving at ~7a.m. local time (1:30a.m. Irish time).
We set low expectations of ourselves for our first day considering we haven't slept properly in nearly 48 hours. The adrenaline has been surreal. Also quite scared the jet-lag/exhaustion would kick in, which it most definitely did eventually - we managed to make a good stab at it for the first half of the day.
We had, in all honesty, set somewhat low expectations of Delhi in general. Various blogs/guides warn of how hectic the place can be - and often advise starting off in a more chilled out part of India and giving yourself time to acclimatise, before getting to any of the major cities.
While we imagine that's still good advice, We can only speak for how we're holding up here in Delhi (note, on 24 hours and no more) - it's not as tough to deal with as we had feared. Lots of people, traffic, noise, dust - but so far nothing unbearable.
Our hostel (Madpackers Delhi) seems the ticket, nice place in a relatively good area. We set off from there to sit in the sun at a local park - highlight being two girls no older than 7-8 seeming to play rugby with their 1-2 year old baby sister/brother. The youngest sibling being the rugby ball in this game.
Moving swiftly on from that, we decided we'd had enough of the rugby, so went for some aimless wandering through two villages/towns in Delhi (Shahpur Jat, and Green Park) - nice way to see what different parts of the cities are like, and what they have to offer (mainly street food it appears).
That led us to finding a lovely area next to Hauz Khas Lake, highlight being Blossom Kochhar Tea Room, a quiet, secluded cafe that let us get a real breather from the hustle and bustle found just outside. Dani went for an apple/ginger/blackberry smoothie (10/10), while I went for the 3-spice chai tea (somewhat decent, though I don't like tea).
At this point - Jet-lag intensified and drew a close to our less-than-intense first day in New Delhi.
We decided to get a tuk-tuk home, which was more-than-intense. It was terrifying. See for yourself!
After a couple of hours down time we ventured our to get some dinner and it didn't disappoint! We got a mountain of the most delicious Indian food we have ever tasted for less than €5 each. Amazing!
That's it for day one, we're both about to pass out. Next instalment will most likely be around the time we leave New Delhi on the 15th, at which point we can look back at how wrong we were on Day 1 and how we never want to see the place again.
Big love, from Dani & Stu.
Currently Listening to:
We stayed in madpackers as well. Good to hear it's still a good spot. Delhi was great : glad to hear ye didn't have any issue acclimatising either :)
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