Old.....New Deli.

O.....M......G.......India.

Taking no time to settle into this chaotic new world we’ve found ourselves in we opted to jump into 3 bike powered rickshaws and blaze the streets of Old Deli. I hardly feel it’s worth describing as there are no words but it reminded me more of some liquid physics experiment than anything. Cars, donkeys, rickshaws, mother cycles, people, bikes, and all manner of stray dog, cat, and the occasional cow flowing through the street as if different density fluids all moving together but never mixing(except that brief moment our rickshaw was hung up on a merging cars fender.) It’s insane. Then throw in extremely low hanging electrical cords with monkeys hanging off them and even chewing on them every so often and you’ve got a good idea of the visuals of the experience. But that leaves out the sound which is a near constant buzz of car horns and bells mixed with the occasional shout. Then there are the smells. To me not as bad as expected but we did end up in the pepper market and at a couple occasions I literally knew what it must feel like to be pepper sprayed-no seriously we climbed these steps through the market buildings up 4 stories to the roof where they were actively moving bags of these peppers and we were all coughing and sneezing the whole way up.
This place is a total sensory overload and yet there is something so magical almost peaceful about the way the chaos seems to just flow.

We are a spectacle. If we stop or stand still for a few minutes we are the focus of everyone. People would literally stop and just stare-like 2feet from you face stare. It’s easy to understand, some of the people have never seen a pack of blonde ,tall (ya we’re pretty tall apparently) white people. We took a lot of pictures today, we were in about 20xs as many. We stopped and let some nice Indian man who’s smile we couldn’t say no to take a picture of all of us and then next thing we knew we were like Mickey Mouse at Disneyland, there was literally a line of people waiting to take our picture.  Some people trying to be a little more discrete and doing what I called a fly by selfie including us.
 We eventually tired or our new found celebrity status and moved on. 

We then saw Gandhi’s  memorial where his ashes rest. It was a beautiful park and had bathrooms. Sierra sparked protest at the fact that the bathroom -which I had to tell her was as good as it was going to get that day-had not toilet paper(they never have toilet paper)...good thing all the flying and water phobia has left us all dehydrated. 

We then went to lunch. We had a guide who took us to a restaurant over a Lexus dealership across from a 4Star hotel. While Todd and I were disappointed that we were not eating in some authentic hole in the wall the kids who honestly have been absolute rockstars where glad to get pizza and 7Up. They had Indian food and naan so Todd and I were happy as well. 

Everyone was fading fast as it was approaching 1AM at home so we went to one more place the largest Hindu temple in the world which was beautiful though sadly you cannot take any pictures, blessing from that was none were taken of us there. 

We got back to the hotel and literally passed out. At 6pm. It’s now 1am....:/

The pollution here is bad. The sun never really seems to come out but honestly other than the air being classified as “Hazardous” to breath we’ve been little affected by it. The kids really have been great. Jackson has probably surprised me the most. He’s not complained once and seems to delight in the chaos(this is a kid who organizes my drawers because it annoys him when they are not, and prefers silence on car rides rather than music.). Austin also though the air is affecting his ability to breathe clearly has been fantastic. The girls were overwhelmed by the pepper market smells(it really did take your breathe away) and just frankly tired so they needed a little more pulling along but also did great. 

So far India is amazing.