Hi All

Well I'm in Darjeeling with Phil and we found another internet cafe that charges only Rps 30 an hour for surfing and email.

February 6th, arrived in New Delph airport. I can safely say that the airport is the worst I ever set foot in. Baggage was unloaded from the belts and put into a big pile in the corner. It took a bit of work to get my stuff out. Phil had emailed me that it was going to be hassle
leaving the airport, but in the end it wasn't. For a city of over 10 million it was hard to understand how the airport could be such a dump. Terminal 1 in TO is nicer.

The next day I slept in after my flight, got up and did some emailing in a little, teeny weeny shop that had 4 computers crammed into it. That afternoon was spent trying to find a restaurant for supper. We took a motor rickshaw to downtown. Phil didn't want to go downtown after the "Rickshaw incident". As usual the meter was broken, a scam by the taxis to try and get more money from tourists.
We were suppose to go to the Government Tourist office but ended up being taken to some little booth in a back alley. This would be the first of many hassles and mis-communications in Delhi. Well we didn't find the restaurant but I did see lepers, lots of really annoying
touts (street vendors) and people pissing on walls downtown. Not the nicer pictures of India. Later I would find out and realize that Delhi is the worst part of India to visit. I've heard this from a number of tourists we have bumped into, from travel guides and after visiting
two different areas of the country, realizing it myself. The government is attempting to get some things done though. A Metro was being constructed and natural gas pipes were being installed all over the city. They have a replanting project to make the city "Green". I was
surprised at the amount of trees in the city. They are also installing 58 fly overs to help with traffic at the roundabouts and Taxis were being switched to Natural Gas. I've been reading the paper over here.

Also read about a man trying to get himself declared alive again. I guess he went somewhere else to work and while he was gone the government bought out his house (shack) for a project. Well his brothers were able to get the local Mayor or something to right up a death certificate and claimed the money from the government. He only found out months later when he came back. But justice is very, very, very slow over here and it's been months since he's tried to get himself declared alive again.

Anyways we went to a 5 star hotel where Phil had been before. They even let me in with shorts and a T-shirt. Had supper and went back to our hotel and went to bed early since we were leaving early in the morning for Richard Corbette National Park to see if we could spot any Tigers. Indian TV is pretty funny at times.

Martin

PS. Things about Delhi:

- At large round abouts there is a LED timer beside the traffic light to indicate the time between light changes. Most people turn their car motors off at large intersections.
- On some of the Red Traffic lights the word "RELAX" has been stenciled onto the light
- The car horn is used all the time. It is used to say move over but is mostly used as a warning that you will be passing them in a second and not to move over to the right because you are being overtaken. It gets used alot.