Greetings From Delhi

In Delhi for less than 12 hours and the pizza count is already at 1. Did you expect anything else? This is Finicky Ford when it comes to food after all. And I resisted the urge to stop at any pizza joints in Ireland or England, holding that in reserve for India. So of course our first lunch had to be at a Pizza Hut just down the road from our hotel.
Seriously we arrived in Delhi early this morning India time and all has been going well on the trip thus far. Our biggest problem has been the Heathrow Express turning into what we’ve called the Heathrow Crawl. A signaling issue caused a 15 minute train trip to take just under two hours.
The British penchant for politeness was on display with multiple apologies. I always wonder about such because what can they really do. A fellow on the train from New York summed it it up best after about apology number 10 which came just as the scheduled departure time for his flight by saying, “Oh well at least I got an apology. If this was New York they’d have told me to be happy I arrived in the first place.”
Delhi exploration has been limited thus far to a walk outside near our hotel. That said I have now experienced a living definition of the word Cacophony. Friends and coworkers from India warned about crowding but words do not do the experience justice.
One step off the hotel grounds and we had offers for cab rides coming from all directions and that’s literally what was happening. You’d no more than dismiss the person on your left then someone else was starting a pitch from your right.
Walking down the street was like moving through a maze of people. Chess boards, Backgammon, postcards, tours, rickshaw rides and more being offered from every direction. I’ve been in big cities before but can honestly say I’ve never experienced anything like what I did on the streets of Delhi. Under pinning all of this are a constant din of car horns and air where you can taste the smog. the initial impression is a bit overwhelming.
This is not to say it is bad. Far from it. It is a new experience and one that is proving interesting.