Cradled in the Afterglow of a hot Delhi Day

All good so far and according to plan. Flight good, picked up at airport and taken to the hotel. Its in an area called Parhan Baj - a kind of bazaar/backpacker area.

Spent the evening wandering round the streets nearby. It is everything that you imagine and can be hoped and dreaded for in an Indian/tourist Street Market - a bustle of walkers, bicycles, tuktuks, motorcylces, cars, rickshaws, hand carts and the occasional cart pulled by a cow. Emporiums selling stuff to tourists; fabrics, trinkets, clothes, books, sarongs. Cheap travel agents. Small hole in the wall and seedy looking cafes. Shops selling medicines, phone cards. Vegetables and fruits set up on tables. Wallahs selling fruit juice and snacks. Cheap hotels.

It is the smell that sets it all apart though; fried food mixed with incense, sweat and in places where the sewers are exposed, a strong stale urine and sewage smell. Exotic fruit and small charcoal fires. All wrapped up in the exhaust of countless vehicles and cradled in the dusky afterglow of a hot Delhi day.