At first glance Indian streets appear to be in utter chaos. We ventured out today for a wander around the areas surrounding our hostel, and near to Delhi station. Sure, we were nearly run over by tuk tuks, rickshaws and mopeds every few seconds, but somewhere within all that, there appears to be some form of harmony. It looks completely insane, but it somehow seems to work. It must be some sort of magic.

After our breakfast and what we thought was coffee (which turned out to be tea, or chai and tasted of rice pudding) we walked in the direction of Delhi station along the road pictured above. The station itself was pretty close by which was very handy as we will no doubt make use of it in the days to come.

By this time it was nearing lunchtime and we were getting hungry for our first food buying experience in India. We were recommended somewhere near the hostel by the staff, but we decided to be brave and go it alone. We found a few humble places near the station and we decided to go for a vegetarian option. We made our selections by completely hassling the 2 guys at the next table, asking “Which one is that you’re eating?” or “What’s that one called?”. They were very patient people which must come from a lifetime of morning yoga!

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It was all extremely tasty, although Seda thought it rather spicy to her taste. Good luck finding mild options in India. Large bottle of water and/or yoghurt on standby.

As we walked back towards the hostel to complete our first days exploring, we made the following observations;

It’s very hot!

There was no identifiable pavement

What pavements we did see were shared intermittently with tuk tuks, rickshaws and mopeds

It’s very hot

Every third person you encounter wants to sell you sunglasses, watches, tuk tuk rides, or direct you to a tourist information office. We deduced this is some sort of code for a dodgy backstreet commission job.

Traffic is beyond insane

You hear a cars horn beeping roughly every 0.04 seconds

It’s very hot

Cows really do just wander about and lie in the roads

You can smell lovely food everywhere

All the clothes on the market stalls and in shops are very brightly coloured. Think Michael Portillo, but less camp

Did we mention the heat?!

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As the day wore on, we came to the conclusion that cities in India are completely chaotic, but it really does seem to work. The traffic is insane, but we never saw anything even remotely close to a minor bump. So, maybe there is some form of harmony amongst all this chaos after all.