After a horrific 28 hour travel "day" (Christchurch to Auckland to Hong Kong to Bangkok), I finally arrived in Delhi. I was immediately conned by the airport transfer guy, who told me the (inflated) "recommended" tips for both him and the driver. Very awkward. The hotel was great: super-clean and modern with a plasma tv and a marble bathroom. The only drawback: blackouts (which I am now getting used to, since we've had them almost every night I've been in India). But hotels aren't everything. There was also a little sightseeing: Gurdwara SisGanj (a Sikh temple), Jama Masjid (large, apparently famous mosque where all the women were forced to put on crazy colored smocks over their clothes in the 80something degree heat), the disappointing and over-crowded spice market, and the park where Gandhi was cremated (and where a flame continues to burn).
Transportation issues: a few terrifying rickshaw rides (one almost resulting in a spill), before getting on a nightmarish overnight train ride to Varanasi. I thought the ride from Hanoi to Hue was the worst ever, but I've changed my mind. The rock hard upper berth with no privacy and the chai wallahs coming through every five minutes beats the relative privacy and comfort of the Vietnamese train hands down. (On the other hand, the Delhi subway was nicer than most of the subways I've ridden in the US, although I did find the pat downs (divided by gender, naturally) a little unsettling.
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