Last few days in Delhi

So, we left McLeod Gange up in the Himalyas and headed down to Delhi on our overnight train, sadly our last train journey in India. We arrived in Delhi very early in the morning, things in the Paharganj area of Delhi hadn't quite got started yet. The streets smelled of the rotting garbage that was strewn about, the odd cow strolled around searching for breakfast in the rubbish while we started looking for a hotel to check into and freshen up our sticky, dusty bodies that had been traveling for almost 20 hours. We found a nice little gem of a hotel complete with 'desert cooler' (for those of you who don't know what it is, it is basically a fan in a box that has walls of straw. Water circulates around the box and keeps the straw wet. As the fan draws the air through the wet straw the air is cooled a few degrees. These are much more economical than an air conditioner and seem to work very well.), this made the 42 degree temperatures a little more bearable.

Our five days in Delhi went by quickly. We sorted out our visas for China and spent a lot of time in the nicer parts of the city. Delhi is actually a very nice city, but since most travelers stick around the Paharganj area they probably think that is what Delhi is all about. The reality is that the Paharganj area is near the main train station and is in an older part of Delhi and grungy and dirty compared to the rest of New Delhi. The draw is that it is a very interesting area due to the narrow, bustling streets full of characters selling there good, plus lots of travellers so it has the best deals on places to stay.

Also in Delhi we miraculously managed to pull off a photo-shoot. Attempting to organize this in Delhi was painful and difficult and it really didn't seem like it was going to happen. I had an idea for a shot that i wanted to create which i needed a model for, plus i wanted to create a series of photos for stock library use. Anyhow, after running into road block after road block and literally going all over the city trying to get things happening, it did all come together and the shoot happened (after two days of delays) on the morning we flew out of Delhi, pretty hectic. But it is done, it worked out exactly as i wanted in the end and the shots are in the bag. The model was great and handled the spectators very well. Indians love to hang about and stare at whatever it is you are doing, they seem very fascinated in the littlest things about us white folk, so you can only image their interest during the photo-shoot. There were several times when we had to move spectators out of the background of the shot. Overall it was a great experience.