Greetings. I got here last night after an uneventful 20 hours of flight time, and am starting to get my sea legs. It’s interesting how at first your safe zone is the area right around your hotel room. Then you walk up and down the street. Then you walk around the corner. Then, oh dear, you try an alley and get a little lost. That was my “adventure” last night. Last night I was a little leary of the food I was looking at, so this morning I ate the buffet spread at the hotel, which was pretty western-like. Milk curd could pass as cottage cheese, naan is like a fat tortilla, mashed potato and something fritters was familiar looking, as was the mango juice and tea bag tea. I also got myself oriented by taking a half day tour of Old Delhi, a big mosque and a big Hindu temple, a couple of museums, Mahatma Gandhi’s cremation site/park, and had a look-see at the monumental governmant buildings. After a nap I took a two-stroke “autotaxi” to the Connaught Place area of town, which is a fairly nice shopping and nightlife area. I just walked around. The next little step up in adventuring was to buy a spicy ground lamb kabob.
I went into that place because it looked clean and lots of people were getting take-out there, and because I liked the looks of the kabob one guy was eating. Turned out he is a tour operator and spoke english well. Lots of people talk to you on the street here. Usually they want something. But this guy was genuine, and he gave me some good advice about going to Ladakh, a southwestern portion of the Tibetan plateau in India. Little by little I’m getting my sea legs.
The day after tomorrow I’m going to Shimla, north of here, and the first step on the road to Ladakh. For $2 I let the guy at the hotel arrange the train rides. I have to transfer to a narrow guage railway in Kalka, but I’ll get there in one day. From there I’ll go to Manali. From there, it’s 2-3 days thrugh the mountains to Leh, the principle city in Ladakh. I’ll play it by ear from there. By mid-October it should cool down down here.
Best wishes to you all. Feel free to write or comment.