India: Arrival in Delhi

Breakfast on the rooftop.

After hours of travel (flight to N.J., layover, 14-hour flight to Delhi), I arrived in Delhi. As I was looking for Adam at the airport, I passed an airport newsstand where I saw: The Economist. (The paper I work for is owned by the Economist Group.) So that felt pretty familiar. Eventually, I found Adam and then the rest of our crew arrived from St Louis (Reagan, Greg and Emily).

At the Delhi airport.

Adam and Ishani brought us gulab jamun as a welcoming treat. (It's basically fried dough with cardamom in the middle, all soaked in a sugar syrup and rosewater.) We took taxis to our hotel and got our first glimpses of India. The streets were crammed and the driving was crazy. When we got out of the taxi to walk down a street to our hotel, we were hounded by auto rickshaw drivers offering us rides. I quickly learned that I would learn how to say "no" very well.

Our hotel was on the budget side but not bad. I started getting used to the warm weather (nice!) and hotels with no a/c.

The next morning, we ate breakfast on the hotel's rooftop and headed almost straight to the train station for Agra.

At the train station, full families get on the train to say farewell to relatives, so even though we were in the 2nd class a/c car (more spacious than the cheap cars where people are literally crammed in), it was really crowded while we were in the station with people coming on and off the train the whole time until we pulled out of the station. On the train ride, we got a glimpse of plenty of shanties, children and animals sorting through trash, and women working in the fields.