Delhi

I've arrived in Delhi. There was a bit of a hassle with my flight have two stopovers in China, and me not having a visa to enter that country. After a lot of handwaving and totally ineffectual explanations of the difference between Dalian and Delhi I did finally get in. I think my favorite moment was when I asked the baggage department whether my bags had be deshipped for Beijing "Your bags are in Delhi sir, please proceed to the Delhi airport and collect them." Anyway, I got here, spent a not-so awful night in the modernized Indira Gandhi airport and finally met back up with Sharada, and her friend Peter who will be acting as a sort of guide given he's been in country for 3 months already.
Yesterday we realized that Republic Day, when the full might of the Indian armed forces is marched through the streets is on the 26th, the upshot of which is that almost all of the tourist attractions are closed until then. So we'll be pushing on to Jaipur early tomorrow.
Delhi is not quite total chaos and the smog is not too much worse than Beijing before the games. The traffic is absolutely insane, it pulses rather than flows as rickshaws, bicycles, pedestrians, dogs, cows, oxcarts, busses and cars all fight for the same two lanes of roadspace. The beggars and touts are not as bad as I had expected from Slumdog Millionaire and are probably fewer and better dressed than in Tangier. Not that I'm about to move here, but I'm having the same, "I have to get away from these people reaction." Actually they are very friendly and keep asking me my name. They are disappointed when it's not as cool as Sharada, which is reckoned a very good name here. After that the shared vocabulary falters, but the intention is there. We may be reworking the itinerary for the rest of the trip today, or we may not, we'll see.