Cheryl and Mike’s Adventure

Well, had a nice day today in one of the major shopping/commerce districts of Dehli. We slept in late (the jetlag is still sort of in effect, we are both just completely wide awake from like 5:30-8:30AM and then completely crash until late morning, it’s weird), and then after a nice lunch (we basically have it dialed in at the Wongdhen House restaurant, Cheryl got Banana Pancakes and French Fries-they call them “finger chips”, and I got Vegatable Fried Wontons and rice….MMMM!) we decided to take a chance and try our hand at the Dehli Metro system and head downtown. Yikes. A dicey idea, for sure, but we got some help from the wonderful staff at the Wongdhen House, caught a little ‘tuk’-cab-thingamabob (we’re sort of calling them ‘tuks’ ’cause that’s what is familiar to us from Thailand/Vietnam, but I don’t think that’s what they’re called here) to the station, and headed out. It’s actually very nice, the whole Dehli Metro system was just introduced in 2002, very similar to the “T” back in Pittsburgh, right down to the soothing lady talking to you over the intercom, and definitely a much more noticibly upscale, professional individuals riding them. We walked around, got some Ice Cream smoothies and soaked in some “New” Dehli. Lot’s of shops, street vendors, people, more people, tons of restaurants (we even saw a Pizza Hut and Dominoes, I had to restrain Cheryl physically), and some more people, followed up finally by some more people. This city is absolutely one of the most densily poplulated areas I have ever seen, and I’m sure in the world. But, we’re actually starting to get used to the area more, etc., it’s still complete madness (more or less), we’re still 2 of the I think 6 overall white people we’ve seen, and stick out like sore thumbs, but naturally, the people, streets, etc. are becoming much more manageable and comfortable and we got alot of help today from some very nice pedestrians and people. English is very common, alot of people speak some (broken) form of it, thankfully for us, and most signs are written out in many languages.

So we’re going to catch some dinner and rest now, because tomorrow morning we are catching a cab early to the airport to catch our flight to Kathmandu, Nepal, where we will be staying for a few days before we begin our trek! (Side note: You have to be at the airport no less than 3 hrs. prior to your departure. No exceptions. It’s like the 1 hour rule in the States. We’re getting there 3 1/2. If that doesn’t sum up how hectic things are, I don’t know what does).

Very exciting about Nepal, KTM sounds like a great city (we’re really excited to get a beer, little Tibet’s dry), we’re (suppossedly) staying in a pretty nice place, and hopefully when we’re there we can start getting some pics up on this blog of where we’ve been for everyone to see (assuming we can get online somewhere close). At least that’s the plan. We’re doing well so far, Cheryl doesn’t smell too bad yet, and we’re playing it fairly safe so far when it comes to food, etc. Signing off for tonight, so long (for now) to India, excited about Nepal…

Cheryl & Mike

This entry was posted on Friday, October 26th, 2007 at 9:57 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.