Arrival in New Delhi

Hello Asia,

hello India and hello Delhi. There I stood again in the middle of chaos. I had a very pleasant journey. A nearly 7-hour night flight with 'Air India' brought me here quite comfortably.

It was 9 o'clock in the morning when I left the big Metro building at the 'New Delhi' station. And now I stood there speechless and had to find myself first. Everything was overwhelming. Firstly, there were the honking cars, motorcycles, tuk-tuks, and of course the buses. But I didn't have time to find my way, as the first people were already storming towards me with all the usual questions. Can I help you, where are you going, how are you, where are you from, do you need a tuk-tuk or do you have a hotel, sir?

STOP!, take a breath and just start walking. It was fortunate that I had been there before, so I knew the way to 'Pahar Ganj'. I just had to cross the bridge over the train station, navigate through a new swarm of tuk-tuks, and then I found myself on 'Main Bazar' of 'Pahar Ganj'. And shortly after, I found myself in my typical Indian one-star hotel. It was just sufficient for sleeping, but not comfortable. Instead of a window, it had a dirty backyard with a fly-screened hatch. So I didn't linger for long, went back to the metro station and took it to 'Khan Market', from where it was only a 2 km tuk-tuk ride to reach 'Lodhi Garden'. And for me, that was the perfect place to acclimatize.

The garden is a great oasis of tranquility in the middle of Delhi. A big park where you can also find some amazing old buildings. When I returned to the hotel, I was quite tired after the journey, so I went to sleep until a rumble woke me up. The clock showed 11:59 PM on December 31st, 2018. So I quickly put on my clothes and ran up the stairs to the rooftop terrace on the 4th floor.

Here, I was greeted by Maria from the Czech Republic, who said, 'Happy New Year!' in our later conversation.

The next morning, I went to have a delicious 'Masala Chai' and took a rickshaw (that's what tuk-tuks are called here) to 'Agrasen Ki Baoli', an old water reservoir, and then to the 'Lakshmi Narayan / Birla' Temple. Here, hundreds of believers were once again pushing their way inside to worship and seek blessings from their Hindu gods.

When I returned to 'Pahar Ganj', I packed my things and went to the train station, where my train was already waiting for me. It took me to 'Haridwar' in just under 5 hours.