Delhi

Hi everyone and sorry sis for not acknowledging all your comments. That includes Jack, Paula (don’t be jealous just do it!), Maria, Skip (Tell Mom Iraq is beautiful this time of year) and my flight sim buddy Lou. Again, thanks for the comments and please keep them coming, its keeping me sane believe me.

On arrival in Mumbai the temp was about 86 degrees and a bit humid as expected. Wow, getting from the international terminal to the domestic terminal was a mixture of the movie Mad Max and a news clip on CNN from Islamabad, Afghanistan. I was met by 2 Indians from India Tours who I used to book my domestic flights here and my tours of Agra, Taj Mahal and Mumbai City. Let’s just referred to them at this point as Laurel and Hardy! Not even a hi how was your flight just come, come and then one started off to fetch the car while his side kick stayed with me having me sign numerous ridiculous pieces of paper I guess acknowledging they had successfully met me and had given me paperwork I already had for months from the company. The guy fetching the car came back quickly without the car and handed me his cell phone and said speak to this person. I said hello and the person on the other end said my flight had been changed to Delhi and it was leaving much earlier which was good news to me as the sooner I get to my hotel in Delhi the sooner I can literally collapse. Then the person said you must go quickly to get to the domestic terminal. Anyway, I felt the rush of adrenaline and soon the driver returned with the car. There seemed to be massive construction going on in the airport area but honestly it looked more like a bomb had gone off in Bagdad. As we tried to speed away from the terminal we were soon in the craziest traffic I have ever seen and I’ve seen a lot around the world. I honestly do not know how we didn’t side swipe and knock a rear view mirror off our car and all the others that we narrowly missed making contact and then there were the 3 wheel motorcycle cabbies (like the ones we used in the northern part of New Zealand Cindy, remember those?) Honest to god, my butt checks were so tightly clamped shut I guess just trying to hold on the seat. We never got faster than 10 miles an hour at best so I wasn’t afraid of dying or anything. Soon I was laughing uncontrollably as the two weaved and pointed out opening in the traffic. I wish I had filmed it because it was priceless. It turns out the flight was an hour late taking off anyway and even if it wasn’t I arrived in plenty of time without the mellow drama but if was a good laugh for me although Laurel and Hardy didn’t understand my joking.
I feels weird to be so dependent on others on this portion of the journey but I couldn’t take a chance on navigating this country on my own. Anyway, I’m looking forward to seeing some country side and the Taj Mahal (voted the #1 Wonder of the World. I’m going to try to get something close to 5 hours sleep which seems to be a lot in any one night these days.
March 26 - I will write tonight about experiences in Agra and Mumbai where I am now. Mumbai looks much better than Delhi already. Got to run to meet my guide for city tour and Elephant Island. Hugs, Mark