Delhi

Delhi is. Delhi is hot. Delhi is humid. Delhi is noisy, crowded and polluted. Delhi is signs in Hebrew advertising shakshuka in the Main Bazaar. Delhi is stepping one block of the beaten tourist path and discovering that you are the only white man for miles. Delhi is small kids with really strong arms. Delhi is one block of Shuk with 100 different smells (not half of which are pleasant). Delhi is a six lane road with 9 cars, 5 auto-rickshaws and 8 bicycle-rickshaws waiting for the light to change in parallel. Delhi is NOT waiting for the light to change. Delhi is laughing when the owner of the guest house promises hot water in the shower. Delhi is paying one tenth of the original price, for everything. Delhi is endless. Delhi is upper class palaces and lower class hovels. Delhi is realising that "Hellowhatsyournamewhereyoufromohisraelnicecountryshalomsababawouldyouliketobuyflute" is not a word in Hindi. Delhi is meeting people you've met on the other side of the world at the corner of the street. Delhi is not air-conditioned. Delhi is hundreds of travel agencies who are working night as day to get you as far away from Delhi as possible. Delhi is full of history, covered by a fine layer of cheaply-produced commercialism. Delhi is eating with your hands. Delhi is checking that your bottled water is actually bottled three times before drinking. Delhi is nights which are just as hot, noisy and active as the days. Delhi is trekkers on their way to Nepal, acid heads on their way to Goa, monks on their way to Daramsalla and Israelis trying to find their way. Delhi is middle aged American women who have found faith in Hinduism (for a while). Delhi is never ending construction. Delhi is people digging in garbage piles on the street. Delhi is no public trash cans anywhere. Delhi is scammers. Delhi is bargains. Delhi is in a central place, yet so far away from everything. Delhi is McDonalds, Pizza Hut and Subway. Delhi is insane. Delhi is realising that you've just haggled five minutes for 20 cents. Delhi is petty extortions. Delhi is Chai vendors in the streets. Delhi is EVERYTHING vendors in the streets. Delhi is waking up in the middle of the night to take a shower. Delhi is more showers a day than you thought you would ever need. Delhi is unlike anything else, sometimes for the best, and sometimes, not so much. Delhi is dime bookstores. Delhi is fortune tellers and hash traffickers exchanging tips. Delhi is realizing that the dog on the leash is actually a monkey. Delhi is European girls in Saris. Delhi is making sure your wallet is still on you five hundred times a day. Delhi is allot more than I could possibly have seen. Delhi IS.