Dirty Delhi

I never thought I'd say this about anywhere I would visit but I have to say Delhi is the worst place on earth. I think I'm in hell. I can't wait to leave.

They say that Delhi is an assult on all your senses - this actually a phrase which immediately makes me roll my eyes and urges me to contain a snort of distgust as, having read it in the LP guide, virtually every traveller I've met to date has tried to pass it off as their own opinon of the city.

Delhi doesn't just assult you though, it attacks you. It violates you. If Dehli were a man it would be the type of guy women run from. They kind of guy who uses the same underpants for a week, expects his mum to do his washing even though he's lived alone for a number of years, gobs on the floor and expects you to buy him a drink for the pleasure of experiencing all his disgusting ways. In a nutshell it's a filthy, dirty shit hole. Never ever come here. It's vile. The pollution is out of control, something I've never experienced before. As you head towards the city you can see the smog sitting virtually above the buildings. You can barely see the sky. The atmosphere is thick with dirt and yellow smog. You instantly start coughing when you arrive and your eyes sting too.

I'm really struggling to find anything positive to say about this place. Even walking up the road is a hassle. If you try and go anywhere via a tuk tuk it's stressful. First the driver pretends to know where he's going, then when he realises you don't want to go to an emporium shopping he ups the previously agreed price. Then you have to go through the whole negotiation again pulled up on the side of a busy main road, horns beeping, dirty gushing in your face. Failing that, you have the pleasure of being driven around in the dirty smog for at least an hour while the driver pretends to know where he's going. It's vile. Normally these little 'challenges' don't both me but when it's stifling hot and your eyes are stinging....let's just say I've been very close to screaming a number of times.

Travelling to Old Dehli train station in the back of a tuk tuk was yet another gloryfing experience - I actually tried to take a photo of the market we drove through but the polution is so bad the picture was specaled. VILE.

I was already feeling pretty emotinal having just said goodbye to Brooke and Kylie who I'd been travelling with for the past two months. I was gutted saying good bye to them both and had to hold back the tears. Unbeknown to me I would shortly have a perfect situation to unleash my emotions.

I nearly lost it at the tuk tuk driver when we pulled up at New Dehli train station rather than OLD Dehli train station and was told it was going to cost us double what we'd been previously told to get there. I was seriously seething about it though, in fact raging would be a better way to describe my reaction. Chris - guy I meet on the way to Agra who decided for some unknown reason that he'd like to travel around north India with me...a decision I suspect he's now regretting - bore an expression of fear as I ranted about how we were being ripped off, how I hate tuk tuk drivers and I couldn't wait to leave Delhi. Thankfully he calmed me down and therefore ensured us and our luggage being thrown out on to the street. I had to have yet another word with myself because at the end of the day we needed the driver more than he needed us and frankly for the pricely additional cost if a pound it really didn't matter. This added to the fact the tuk tuk driver has a crap job and has to endure the polutin and general madness on a daily basis. I could leave, he couldn't. So basically shut up neen!

There's light at the end of the tunnel though - I leave tonight on a train heading for Dharamsala, home of the Daili Lama. I intend to meditate, maybe go on a 10 day meditation/yoga retreat, make friends with the DL's secretary (already developed an email friendship - in my mind anyway!) and hopefully get to meet his Holiness too. Rock and roll.