Landing in Delhi the first thing I noticed looking out the airplane window while landing was the dust that filled the air. Landing at 3:30am you would think that the city would be sleeping… not here! People were all over the place in the airport, here was a line at the currency exchange desk and as we headed to the hotel we experienced the traffic. Not just a traffic jam of cars.. there’s bicycles, bicycles pulling carts, camels, mopeds, electric rickshaws, roaming dogs, cars, buses, cows… and everyone is headed in different directions & it doesn’t matter what side of the road you’re on! People constantly beeping and honking for no reason. It just adds to the chaos.
We stayed at a hotel in Central Delhi which I later was told was the busiest part of the capital city. There’s no concept of time in this country. You look out your hotel window and with a country population of about 1.2 billion there’s always someone out… walking somewhere, trying to sell something, doing something. You think New York City never sleeps, come to India! My sleeping was an average of 4 hours a night and there you don’t feel tired from the lack of sleep. It’s just normal everyday life here. I looked out my hotel window one morning around 4:30am & saw a family (mother, father and 2 children) sitting in front of a building like it was the middle of the day. I looked in the other direction and saw an electric rickshaw parked with the driver’s feet hanging over the back seat catching a quick nap. There is no concept of a schedule.
I was definitely in a culture shock for the first couple of days.
