Day Two

Tuesday, October 5^th,
Today I depart London for Delhi, India to begin a three month oddesy. I boarded the plane and was pleased to discover that I had been assigned an exit seat and had leg room to rival even that of first class.   I settled in for what would be a comfortable journey. The passenger seated next to me was a young man from Cardiff, visiting family and friends in Delhi. We chatted animatedly through much of the flight about life, food and movies, and I promised to let him know how I spent my three months sojourn.

The new arrivals hall in terminal three was certainly more spectacular than I had anticipated, and is a dramatic contrast with the arrivals lounge of three years ago. The long carpeted corridors lined with travellators.  I could almost believe I had arrived at Heathrow, except that the dull brown and yellow carpets were a give away.  The seemingly endless rows of immigration desks made processing through customs quick and efficient.  The delay came with the long wait for my baggage to appear on the carousel, and so it was an hour and a half after landing, before I pushed my overburdened cart out to the curbside to meet my driver.

Three years ago I had been dazed by the sheer number of people who populated the arrivals hall which was considerably smaller than it is today.  Teeming with hundreds if not thousands of people jostling to be reunited with love ones, whilst anxious tourists strained to peer over the sea of heads, to catch a glimpse of their driver. Only to then encounter a maze of white taxis, parked haphazardly on the open lot . I recall being in of awe my driver as he navigated his way through this labyrinth of white metal and chrome. 

In stark contrast, today I very quickly spotted my driver, who directed me along a gleaming white marble corridor to the multi story parking lot where he was parked.  It was all very orderly and soon we were speeding along the highway toward my hotel. The highway was lined with hugh towering buildings that glistened, under the night sky. Aircel, Mercedes Benz, Ernst and Young, Standard Chartered, and Samsung, were some of the giants that boldly proclaimed their presence.

As soon as we had joined the main highway, I was greeted by the all too familiar bleating of car horns, as cars weaved in and out of lanes in an attempt to get a head of the the lorries. At 1:10am in the morning, the truck drivers ruled the road. Once we had entered the district of Gargoan, the road became an uneven dirt track; the only signs of life, the stray dogs sleeping on the side of the road and the wild pigs, half hartedly foraging for food.

We arrived outside of my hotel and I knew immediately that it would not live up to the glossy, airbrushed images it boasted on its website.  I signed in at the register and gratefully accepted my room key.  I was relieved to discover that though the room though stark and very basic, was at least clean. I would only be spending a few hours here before meeting up with a group and traveling by road to Rishikesh.

There was something both familiar and oddly comforting about my surroundings.  Somehow, it confirmed for me that I now in India, and at the start of an amazing and unpredictable adventure.