In India

Finally made it to India. Certainly a little of a shock going from
the most organized place in the world to one of the least. But
overall, things are pretty good.

We stayed in the Pharanj area of Delhi which is near the New Delhi
train station. It was an area with a kind of busy bazaar that was
hectic as is the norm in India, but in a pleasant kind of way. I was
interested in how a hotel was going to be in the 30 dollar a night
area (only other trip was with Big D paying the bills) and was
pleasantly surprised by it being perfectly fine. Certainly was not
the ritz, but had decent A/C, 40 channels of TV and a fridge.
Bathroom was nothing special but was fine.

Mostly dealt with getting plane tickets and cell phones in Delhi.
Really only had one bad experience which was going to Old Delhi. That
place was pretty much everything that is bad about India, with
annoying people selling stuff and just a overwhelming crush of people.
Smells and sights there were pretty gross as well, and I am someone
who likes India. Needless to say we were there for about 15 minutes
before we grabbed the first auto rickshaw and high tailed it out of
there.

Did have fun later however at this strange bar that was basically a
restaurant where they just put as many people at the tables that walk
in the door. Had some interesting conversations with a Nigerian
businessman and Indian merchant marine sailor that were drinking beer
at our table. Also watched the end of an England-India cricket match.

The one issue with this is that at 5:40 in the morning our plane left
for Leh, which is at 3500m (around 12,000 feet) high in the mountains
near Tibet. I was certainly regretting my 3 giant beers early this
morning and in the thin air. It is really something else, you kind of
just feel like you are floating, it is kind of like a day long
hangover actually. Hopefully things will be a little better
tomorrow.

Leh is really cool so far, it kind of reminds me of the planet that
Luke is from in Star Wars. There are a fair number of western
tourists here, but the town is still quite pleasant and very low
stress, for India.