A real life rickshaw and a plastic penguin

This was our second trip to Dehli…we had to get a connecting train otherwise we would’ve avoided it like the proverbial plague. Mr. Penguin didn’t get an airing the last time though we were close to losing him had all the ‘friendly’ men around the train station got their way.
When we first arrived we- on Ema’s advice got a prepaid taxi from the airport into the city centre, we had -unusually for me- booked a place to stay and so were not too anxious about arriving, not having the usual accommodation associated stress. My legs were the size of tree trunks or at least more so than usual, i don’t think drinking on the flight helped though when you are used to flying Ryanair and suddenly there is someone offering you Baileys for free its hard to refuse a second one! We met a German girl who was returning to India for 6 months to Rishikesh, to surprise someone, the excitement on her face was palpable as she inhaled the stale Dehli air and smiled at the chaos that was quickly enveloping us. We shared a taxi into the centre, struck immediately by the mayhem and pandamonium that was to become a backdrop and a feature of everyday life for us before long. Dehli, or what we saw of it is sensory overload in the extreme, you need and use everyone of your senses to guide you through the crowded streets, at times though you wish you could tune out the hawking calls of ‘hello madam’ and the smell that reaches even a nose covered by a tightly wrapped scarf.