A new Day in Delhi

I'm here at my hotel on a computer that has a password of abc123.

Today after decompressing for a few hours I ventured out into the city of Delhi via taxi to a govt. Tourist beauro. Usually I just wing travel and fly by the seat of my pants and by some standards, Waiting till I get to delhi to make further travel arrangements still qualifies as winging it. This feels more like flying by the seat of someone elses pants because in less than a half an hour I booked travel and places to stay until I leave India on the 21st. I have some pretty exciting sights to see in the coming days which include but certaintly arently limited to

The capitol city of Rajistan, Jaipur. An Indian historical and cultural gem which is home to An Amber fort, The City Palace and the remarkable Pink City..

The World renown city of Agra which has it's own spectacular fort appropriately named the Agra fort and the Taj ma hall. Word!

The Holy City of Vernasi where I'll submerge myself in hindu culture and ritual

and perhaps the best place in the world to see a Tiger in the wild Bandhavgarh national park.

From there it's a slow way made back to delhi via train and hired car through vernasi one more time to rest before my last half day in Delhi.

What's Delhi like?? Dusty.. Pretty damn Dusty! There's a lot of construction going on here since they have gained so many of the worlds jobs.. Indians (had to get that off my chest)

Really though Thsi city does have some amazing history and culture. Today I just tried to get a little understanding of what India will mean to me.. Here are my impressions-

Did you know that many people here still live in the caste system.. I'm still trying to figure that one out but I'm learning from Shiri the guy who's driving me around delhi Jaipur and Agra (I'm flying by the seat of his pants)

India was ofcourse ruled by the British until 1947 but before that there was a Moghul Dynasty of sorts which had control over much of the surrounding land. The moghuls were muslim though Indias population remains 75 nearly percent Hindu. They also believed in huge monuments to mark the death of the ones they loved..The Taj Ma Hall is one of them Sorta. I'll tell you the love story it symbolises after I get there. But I did visit the first of such monuments today here in Delhi called the Himayu Tombs (I suck at spelling these things) These tombs were a precursur to the Taj and are quite spectacular. It sure gives me appreciation for what a good ruler king can get people to do if he has all the food and controlls all the jobs.. Hurry up Obama we need some cooler monuments in the USA!

I've given in to the food here already aswell. I initially thought that I'd be surviving on crackers and bottled water.. I just couldn't resist the chicken curry and garlic nan.. Ohh the nan. Suprisingly though, many resturaunts don't serve beer or any alchohol in Delhi.. Many.. But not all (wink) Shiri says that Alchohol is a fourth class thing..I told him that I'd be having a fourth class night out before too long then if he knew what I meant! Anyway, the food here is delicious and tempting.. I saw mutton brain on the menu today and nearly ordered it.. Nearly. Easy Yank!

So, That's it. Jaipur tomorrow and a ton of pictures that I'll eventually upload.