Day 1 in Delhi: Part II

The owner of Sai Villa needed to use the computer last night to see if I could have a late check out so I had to sign off...As far as the rest of the happenings yesterday, when I arrived back at Sai Villa I ordered take out Chinese food (okay so this counts as something new because I would never do this at home). When it arrived it was enough food for three people! In the meantime, another guest at Sai Villa who is a make-up artist for L'Oreal came in and shared dinner with me. He has lived in the US, but was born in India and is currently training make-up artists in Delhi. He told me this was a real uphill battle because the women who are make-up artists get paid such a small salary they cannot imagine buying a luxury item such as make-up and therefore have no concept of how to sell it to their customers. As in many developing nations, their is a wide divide between the rich and the poor which can be seen in many aspects of society. It is interesting, though, that one of these places is at the make-up counter! We spoke about traveling and he told me of a recent visit two of his American friends made to India and how they were so shocked to see cows walking the streets and the lack of traffic laws.

Driving in India is definitely an experience! It is a lot like Bali in that there are no real lane "dividers" it is more like everyone for themselves trying to get somewhere as quickly as possible. People are on bikes, walking, rickshaws, motorcycles, cars, trucks and buses and they all merge together. Signals are rarely used, instead honking is used to alert other drivers that you are approaching, going to pass them, upset with them, basically most of the time they are honking. It is quite the experience.

This morning I ate more of an India breakfast with a wholewheat pancake with vegetables. It was very good. My plan is to relax today and then head off to the airport hotel to meet up with the rest of the people on my trip. Then we depart for Dehradun.