Delhi

Well here we are in India and still can't quite believe it because we are too busy trying to register all that is going on in this busy, bustling yet ordered chaos! We got here very early morning on Saturday which also happened to be the day after the opening Friday of the Diwali festival - the festival of lights which is celebrated by all Indians regardless of their religion and which features candles, fairy lights and all kinds of fireworks - the louder the better!

So our trip was off with a bang! We met some other Intrepid travellers at our hotel - Mike, Sarah and their leader Karni - and had dinner with them the first two nights and got in the Diwali spirit by lighting some sparklers. On Sunday we took the brand new Delhi metro into the town centre and checked out the national museum, the Rajpath and Connaught Place.

Yesterday we met our leader Ruby who will be our guide for the next two weeks. It turns out that there's just the two of us on this trip but that's probably good for Ruby as it's her first time guiding (although she has done an understudy trip before so knows the places we are going to). It's great getting an insight from a local and we keep bugging her with questions.

Today, via rikshaw bike, we explored the largest mosque in Delhi and then the big Sikh temple which also runs a 24/7 soup kitchen feeding thousands daily. The Jain temple was closed but we had a snoop around the grounds.

Our hotel is in Karol Bagh which is south west of the town centre and a air-conditioned haven which presents a parallel universe to the street reality outside.

Tomorrow it's an early start catching a train and seeing the mighty Taj Mahal which we are really looking forward to.

Not sure what else to report, there are not enough words to describe the many impressions we've had in just three days!