Arrival in Delhi

Shannon had already landed a few minutes ahead of me; he was waiting for me outside of customs - hanging out by the perfume section. We talked about all the backpackers that were sleeping in the hall that connected to the immigration... and the fact that there were 2 soldiers with an AK-47 and another machine gun with a perforated barrel complete with side clip ready to mow these bums down.

The first thing you do when you arrive in a foreign country: exchange money and buy water. We met some guy who offered us a taxi. He got in the taxi with us and took us on a mind opening taxi ride.
Someone could write a book about how to survival guide on driving through India. Statistically, it has the highest amount of vehicular deaths in the world. I don't understand why they bothered to paint lines on the roads or even make licenses... the horn is the universal tool; used for turning, passing, and telling people to get the f outta the way. The driver was right when he said its just like a Playstation game.

Surprisingly, we didn't see any accidents as tuk-tuks (autorickshaws) and bikes weaved in and out of traffic. Though, we did see the remains of a car that went straight into a tree. As we got into the city, around 1 am., we saw people and stray dogs wondering around. A stray dog made desperate lunge for one of Shannon's arms dangling out of the window. Windows up and hands inside!

We requested to go to Parahganj, the backpackers paradise... but as we soon arrived it was obvious we weren't near that place. The lack of hotels and closed streets gave it away. Perhaps the most surprising part was that literally, everything was shut down. Road blockades, closed shops, nothing was open. The driver didn't stop as we went by multiple hotels and took us to an Indian tourism center. The driver waited as we consulted the tour guy.

This guy was a freakin scheister. According to him, the cheapest hotel we would find would be between 200-300 USD... pfft! After, telling him we just need something cheap he didnt budge. Its because of the goodwill games... yea, but they dont stay in cheap hotels. We tried explaining this to him. Next, he tried to arrange a travel package for a mere $1200 a person! dude, this is India - 1200 dollars here would buy us 500 goats. Then he lowered the price to 500... but we finally just got the shits of it and left to walk around and find a hotel.

However, we had to deal with the taxi driver... god damn, trying to screw us again. After going back and forth for about 10 min we got that monkey off our backs. He tried charging us per person and won. Now, to negotiate our hotel... which was situated right next to the travel agency (supposedly there were no hotels nearby). Overpaid for the hotel but had a place to lay our heads.

Traveling Lesson - Always negotiate your prices beforehand.