Pleasant Surprises

Honestly, I don't know much about India. Two weeks before I left, I did my best to read about it, but on the plane, I realized that whatever I read about India was not enough to prepare me for the trip so I just prepared myself for lots of surprises.

At 11:30pm, the cab commissioned to fetch me from the Terminal 3 of the Indira Gandhi International Airport was racing with other vehicles to reach downtown Delhi. Surprisingly, the time didn't slow down the traffic on the road. Delhi was still bustling despite the time and cool breeze of winter. Thanks to the Delhiites who drive unusually fast as if driving F1 racing cars. I almost tell the driver to slow down but when I saw many cars overtaken our car I realized that is the way they maneuver cars in Delhi.

By the time I reached my hotel, the sleepiness I had felt was gone, instead, the energy I saw earlier flowed into my body, enough to sustain me as I unload my luggage of clothes, books, and things from home.

At exactly 9:30 am, the cars which would become our service for a month arrived for the first time at Hotel Cosy Grand. Sixteen delegates representing Australia, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam went inside the car and excitedly looked at what Delhi offers this time of the day. Here are some of my observations.

1. The roads in Delhi are wider ( and clean ) than the roads in Manila.

2. If the King of the Philippine Road is the jeepneys, in India it is no doubt the "tuk-tuk" or the auto rickshaws rule the road.

3. Delhi is a green city with many trees beautifully lined up on the sidewalks. Since Delhi has lots of trees, monkeys on the street are not an unusual sight.

4. Delhi is not as polluted as Manila. One probable reason is not all vehicles use gasoline. The tuk-tuks which dominate the roads run on compressed natural gas ( CNG ).

5. Among car users , it is a norm to " blow your horn " always.

6. The traffic is tolerable unlike in Bangkok and Beijing.

7. The capital doesn't have a penchant for tall buildings.

These observations are just confined to the street scenes of Delhi. As a whole India has so many things to offer to the world like it did several hundred years ago.