First Day In India

Today we landed in New Delhi at 1:30 am in the morning after a 8 hour flight from Frankfurt. I am with a group of 32 people with half being Math/Science and the other half humanities. Luckily we were greeted by flowers and an air conditioned bus at the airport. The New Delhi airport is not for the average traveler. There is one carousel and we waited 45 minutes for our bags. Once you leave the carousel you have to exit out into this room with about 200 cab drivers all trying to grab your bags from you. Luckily we had a local bus service take care of us. We arrived at the hotel at 3:00 were they had a red carpet treatment for us with a dot of red paint on the forehead for all. I got to bed around 4:30 am and was back up at 6:30. Two of us walked to the presidential palace (2 miles) the whole time being harassed by rickshaw drivers. We eventually went shopping (haggling over every item) via a motorized rickshaw, went to a Hindu temple, (a kid about 9 pulled a cobra out of a box about 1 foot from me and wanted me to give him money for a picture), saw some really good jay walking monkeys that had crossing the street down without getting hit better than I did and finished with a swim in a nice swimming pool with 100 degree water all before 11:00 am. India is beautiful but it is not without its issues.