Subject: Day 2 - New Delhi - India
From: michael litchfield <m_litchfield@hotmail.com>
To: litchy1.codey@blooger.com
CC:
We certainly picked the wrong day to do any sightseeing with today being India"s independence day holiday and very little if anything open !
After the "emotional" trauma yesterday of separating from my cycling Siamese twin (H) it was nice to have a little sleep in before venturing out on to the streets.
Being a holiday and being Caucasian self and Danish Mike (Redspokes Peru 2012) stood out like the proverbial and were soon magnets for the many spruikers trying to entice us into their various styles of vehicles for a tour of the local area.
It would have been nice to stop just for a little to simply observe more of the everyday street life which included whole families sleeping out on roads with their entire possessions with them - but stopping just simply encouraged the spruikers to have another go.
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Despite being in the newer part of Delhi streets surfaces often had gaping holes, rubbish everywhere was pretty standard and the sight of people trying to eek out an existence very powerful !
By virtue of some rain, one spruiker eventually had us prisoner in his tuk tuk buzzing around the suburbs with a promise of taking us to the local market (simply a commission store) like those in Thailand and Bali that the driver's get kick backs from.
It was only after agreeing to pay for our drivers fuel that we were able to return to our hotel and beat a retreat to the safety of the foyer.
With others flying in from Denmark, US Australia and Ireland we soon had enough of a chorum to adjourn to the proof to take in a few beers and watch the glorious site of a kite filled sky with locals celebrating their day in a unique manner !
A smallish group of 9 we journey tomorrow toward the Kasmir region of India and Manali to our start point on this fabulous Himalayan cycling adventure
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