First Day

This is us on the point of leaving; I wouldn't like to show you a picture of what we looked like immediately on arrival. A long journey and no sleep but a beautiful view of the Afghan/Pakistan mountains:

After a nap we went via a restaurant to Old Delhi to really exhaust ourselves and get our body clock back on track. The autorickshaws we took whirred like dodgems, hurtling into the mass of traffic that came from all directions, managing to swerve at the last moment before they upended a cycle rickshaw or a scooter. We got off and walked. There were no other Westerners to be seen. It was evening and the streets were dimly lit. It's always a time I feel melancholy and romantic, attuned to the possibilities of a place. The old town loomed up around us, a jumble of geometries against the night. In the spice bazaar, porters shouldered heavy sacks across our path, while others sat on the sacks and smoked through cupped hands. When we went in to a little alley of the main street, the air was thick with spice, so thick that I could not only smell it but feel it on my lungs and started coughing. I told myself I was being feeble, but at just that moment a porter next to me rasped out a cough, and I noticed sellers sneezing and coughing as they weighed out quantities of powder.

I'd been told that people would hassle us, pick at our clothes, crowd around us. But although the traffic is as chaotic as predicted, and the streets are thronged, people were mostly just friendly. When I caught someone's eye, they sometimes wanted to say hello, and sometimes to offer their cycle rickshaw or their 'tourist office with free map' (a.k.a. hard sell on expensive camel tours, I imagine). Only once, when I stopped to take this photo, did a crowd form, and that was because I was showing the photo to the 'photees' and others wanted to come and look.