DELHI

After the bustling streets, busy food markets, the sounds and smells of a polluted metropolis that was Kuala Lumpur I imagined this would be a decent grounding before stepping into the extreme equivalent that Delhi would be - wrong! KL has all the energy, chaos and general craziness of a village fete in comparison and like thousands of others before me it took me a bit by surprise.

First impressions of the place are that it is everything (good and bad) that you expect it to be: cars, tuk tuks, animals and pedestrians all intersecting each other at high speed with incredible accuracy and even more incredible nonchalance!
In a desperate attempt to recapture the spirit of my previous travels I decided to stay in the 'backpacker ghetto' area of the city (Paharganj) where reasonable prices are exchanged for less than reasonable cleanliness, counterfeit good sold with genuine enthusiasm and all kinds of distractions from travel are available - a small minority of which are legal.
The array of interesting things to step in along the way, and my reluctance to travel in anything other than flip flops meant that sure footed progress to my hotel was the way forward rather than expedience. I can't imagine walking through a marble lobby ankle deep in fresh cow shit would be a good start.
My room itself is everything you expect for the miserly price and certainly no worse than any other of the sun starved shoe boxes masquerading as hotel rooms I've stayed in before.
Complacency is of course a short lived thing: plenty of times I've been awoken in my life by traffic, people arguing, farm yard animals howling their signature noises but never all in the same night1
The eclectic orchestra of goats, dogs, cows, scooters and apparently random shouting need a lot more work as a group if they're ever going to be a soothing harmony!

Despite (or perhaps because of) this it's been a fantastic experience so far and everything I thought and hoped it would be. Day 1 proper has been more of the same and an exercise in efficiency that would raise even the most Germanic eyebrow.

Upon taking a quick early morning walk to breakfast I'd already been befriended by 2 locals, and some discussion on cricket, past and present countries withs some recommendations thrown in I was several thousand Rupee lighter and in a car with my driver doing most of Delhi that day!
It must be said that whilst I enjoy winging things to within an inch of their (or my) life the genuine and sincere nature of everyone I've met so far builds an instant trust and credibility that your well being is in hand meaning that good advice cant be ignored. Unfortunately no such advice could be found for avoiding the all-too-familiar school boy error that will no doubt be a recurring theme during the trip.
So, the masterplan for Rajastan was born and all my train tickets are now in hand, KP is at the wheel and we're ready to rock (or whatever the Indian equivalent is).
My 'tour' as such basically involves KP dropping me off outside each of the monuments and letting me guess where he's parked: to be fair to him he is pretty good at spotting a lost white face from miles away so , and in between times discussing rich cultural topics which centre around his insatiable curiosity for the legality of 'sexy business' in Australia. Nonetheless it was an intense but totally worthwhile way to see the city and KP dodged dogs, cows, children at high seed with only millimetres to spare meaning he must be near the top of the leaderboard of the game that everyone appears to play when operating a vehicle.

Some photos below of the amazing sites in Delhi that for me honestly rival placed like Beijing for sightseeing cities. Next stop Agra and the Taj Mahal....

Ps - apparently the cobra has had his teeth removed by the guy on the right.