I have always wanted to see this country and now, after eight months of travels, we are finally here! When the plane took off from Bangkok, I didn't feel sad to leave Thailand and the Asian cultures for a while but I have to admit, I was a little scared by what was awaiting us. We had heard so many travelers say: "Well, India, hm, India that's, hm, India is just very different. Difficult. A culture shock. You have to go and see for yourselves." Then, on the 3rd of March, the plane took us to New Delhi and we were finally there. Our first experience? At the baggage claim we found the small side-pockets of David's backpack empty (the ones we couldn't lock), someone had stolen our extra locks, someone else at the airport stole 500 rupees (about 10 Euros) out of the front pocket of my jeans (no idea how someone can get a hand in there without me feeling it - they are much too tight), the rickshaw driver did not want to take us to the hotel we indicated (and had paid for) but to a place where he'd get a commission for taking us there, the last 100 meters to the hotel were a dangerous slalom amongst mopeds, bikes, people, cows, cow dung, and salesperson trying to sell anything from toilet paper to their grandmother, the hotel tried to keep back the change after we had paid the room rent (they told us it's all right!), and we learnt that the next day would be a holiday and everything would be closed all over the country. How did we feel? I won't tell. ;)
The next day was Holi - the Indian festival to welcome spring and to drive away the evil winter spirits. This is done by throwing colors on everything and everybody whenever something moves in the streets. People either throw balloons
filled with colored water, or they empty colored powder on already wet people, or they sprey with pistols, or they just walk around with pots of color and paint your face and your cloths directly,... We looked at the chaos from the roof-top restaurant of our hotel, thought about the two pairs of trousers and the five T-shirt we have with us and even though it would have been heaps of fun, we decided not to venture out during the day. :) (Needless to say that we still meet people now whose hair does not want to return to its natural color anymore....)
However, India felt a lot better after a good night's sleep, a good breakfast, and, to my delight, liters of tea. Yes, I am back in a cultured civilization (David is laughing his head off at this!!!), people drink lots of tea here and even though they still use too much black tea bags with tons of sugar and milk and you have to search for the actual taste of the tea, well, it just feels good to have that tea pot and the steaming tea mug in front of you. You think I'm extreme?!?! Well heck, I am traveling through the most fascinating and the most horrible country on earth (at least from what I know), I might at least enjoy my cup of tea! :) So, I said, India felt a lot better and we had soon worked up enough courage to venture out for a second try of the country. This time, we were more successful.What can I tell you about our first days in Delhi without being able to show you some pictures? What is it like when you venture out into those tiny streets, sometimes paved, sometimes not? I'd say you run into three walls. First, everywhere there's noise: cars and motorbikes dominate everything, you either hear their motors or the honking, then there's music coming out of many different shops, people jelling at each other (this seems to be their way of communication here), children screaming or following you around with their constant "bonbon, rupees, school pen", cows lowing (muhen - yes, you might laugh but that woke us up a couple of times!!!). You actually have to get off the streets and into one of the parks or up on one of the roof-tops where then, you'll get that second of golden silence, you can hear a tiny bird chirp, and you can marvel at what survives in this jungle!
Second, everywhere there's dirt and filth and bad smells, people throwing rubbish out into the streets, cows leaving their dung (and people complain about dog poo in Paris?!?!), people spitting red paan (a tobacco and nut mixture) on the road or urinating against walls and corners, and a terrible middle-aged wastewater system
adds a finishing tough to the agreeable mix when people just pour the water out of their windows (careful not to be underneath it!!) or when it runs through the open gullies along the road. Sometimes, you definitely have to hold you breath if you don't want to be intoxicated. However, you shouldn't do it for too long because otherwise you might miss out on the sweet smells drifting away from bakeries and sweet shops, or on the hundreds of different perfumes of the women here. What you can see in the picture is a mix of sugar and anise seeds you get in every Indian restaurant after your meal. You mix the two to your liking and chew them - it freshens the breath and smells really good! 
And finally, third, everywhere there are people. Mostly, they are men and children, but they are everywhere. They drive around like crazy in rickshaws, on motorbikes, or on bikes, they flock around the hundreds of stores, they just sit around doing nothing or watching the people going by, or they try to sell you everything - truly, I am sure, they would sell their grandmothers if they could! It's impressive. Wherever we go, everybody tries to speak to us, everybody has a special offer, everybody has a special price just for us, everybody wants to take us somewhere,...Especially as a woman, those people can easily become a problem. I should have been warned by my time in Morocco, but I have the slight feeling men here are even worse than over there. Whenever I venture our on the road, men stare at me all the time. Some only turn the head, some follow me around, some try to pass me and tough rather sensitive parts of my body, and quite a few try to take pictures of me and when I turn away they keep following me around until they get a good one. My protection? I thought about different cloths but it didn't change a thing, so the only option is my dear David. He protects me, walks behind me, walks into pictures, and confronts the starring guys by starring at them in return, which works wonders because they turn away like beaten dogs. If I am alone on the street, my only protection is ignorance and I guess I am getting rather good at it.
Well, here we go. I hope I have given you a first impression of what we have landed in and hopefully, I'll soon have the time and a computer without antediluvian Internet speeds to tell you all about our visit of Delhi, our first travel experiences in India and why I love this country so much.
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