Friday, May 28, 2010

Arrival in Delhi


New Delhi, India
May 10, 2010

I arrived at the New Delhi International Airport via Singapore around 10pm on May 10, 2010. I got my baggage and went straight out where I waited for Ashutosh from AIESEC Delhi, his sister, and friend, Dhruv who were to pick me up. Yi Ni was with them already when we met. She had arrived at the domestic airport from Malaysia via Kalkutta only a few minutes before I did. 

New lone traveler mistake: I forgot to change my dollars at the airport!
I had no rupees on me. Just US dollars and Philippine pesos. Especially in India where it is very difficult to find money changers, it was a big, BIG mistake. I found one eventually at the Central Market 2 days later.

In the car, I saw the busy streets of New Delhi which reminded me a (little) of Manila... however, the drivers were much, much more crazy, and the traffic rules were much less visible. 

We stayed in one of the 2 intern houses in Lajpat Nagar, found south of New Delhi. Daan from Holland was already there, as well as Tamara from Ukraine. The others I met were Ala (Nigeria), Ubrine (Cameroon), Jean (Canada) and Rino (Germany). Niha (a student from Delhi) also slept over that night. Khar Khee (Malaysia) and Pasha (Slovakia) followed in the coming days, and America (Mexico) stayed in the other intern house found a few minutes walking distance from ours.



Our street on A-blok Dayanand Colony

Our house (flat) was okay. Well, not really. What only made it okay was the company of different interns in it and around the area. There was only moderate security, and it was filthy. Most interns I talked to assigned there originally moved out and found themselves better (and cheaper!) apartments. I had no complaints though. I was staying for free, and for a short 5 days anyway. It was tolerable.



My room shared with Ala and Yi Ni.
(that ventilation thing by the way made so much noise and emitted so much dust that we opted for the lesser evil - i.e. the evening summer heat!)




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