Let the fleecing begin...

After nearly 30 hours of transit, I was feeling scattered (to say the least) when I arrived at midnight in Delhi, hence I was in no mood to batter / haggle / get generally ripped off. So it was lucky that i had a pre-arranged hotel pickup.

The next morning, after meeting up with James, Wookie, Nicki and Chris, we head out into the maelstrom which is Delhi. The scene which greeted me was as hectic and crazy as I had expected and was hoping for. Delhi is a crazy city, the shear mass of people here is overwhelming and it is a pretty unique experience.

And unfortunately, everyone here seems to want something from you, especially at the Hotel Ajunta (our current abode). I'm sort of used to being hassled by touts and I don't mind haggling over prices, but the lengths the guys at the hotel will go to is ridiculous. Every single price is inflated by at least 3 and it's impossible to ask about anything without being queried about your future travels plans and whether you would like to meet there friend who runs a very cheap travel agency.

But I guess this is just all part of Delhi and apparently the rest of India is slightly better on this score. We've spent the last two days wandering the city and, for me anyway, adjusting to the general pace of life in India.

Tomorrow morning (1:30am!) we are off to Agra to see the sunrise over the Taj Mahal before returning to Delhi to get an overnight sleeper to Varanasi.

One final thing: I don't know if this is normal, but yesteday we were indundated with people wanting to take a picture with/of us. This may have been because i had a cricket bat sticking out the back of back pack, but who knows.