Well I have had a whirlwind of eye opening experiences so far today.But, before I get into the details of the day so far, I must comment on the deplorable poverty and conditions in New Dehli.Its hard to even put into words. Everywhere I looked, there were disheveled people living in squalor,in conditions I can't even imagine,except now I have seen it. The streets are total chaos with cars,animals pulling carts,pedestrians,buses with passengers hanging out the doors,motorcycles and scooters,bicycles and rickshaws all moving together without regard for rules,speed or each other.There are no sidewalks to speak of ,just a lot of crumbled rocks and sand.The view from the bus and walking down the street is that of filth,crumbled buildings with people inhabiting them,makeshift straw huts, mostly falling down, where the ox and horses stay.walking is dangerous, everything is torn up and there are so many people I had a hard time keeping my group in sight. You can't cross the street and the roads are lined with parked cars 5-7 cars thick. I have no idea how this city of 16 million people function as a society , but I suppose they do. There are beggars every few steps...emaciated children begging not for themselves but for others.The beggars touch you and follow you endlessly. I was prepared for poverty from what I heard, but this supersedes any level of poverty I could think up. It was so shocking, I was numb...it felt surreal. Another strange thing, many of the Indians around the red fort would stop in their tracks and stare at us for 10 or 15 minutes.They would stare us up and down like they never saw a Caucasian or blond hair before. Kelly told me it was because staring is not considered rude in India and in fact many of these people were from outlying villages and may in fact had never seen people who looked like us. Some even wanted our pictures taken with them! More on the complex but fascinating Indian culture in future blogs.
Our day started with a 7am ,90 minute yoga class on the rooftop of the hotel.( now that is real hot yoga) even that early the heat is oppressive . But the yoga was great, a vinyasa flow type class that covered a lot of poses.Fran is our Yoga instructor on the trip. She is from Seattle , but trained in India. I went to the rooftop a little early and to my amazement,I saw people awakening on all the neighboring rooftops. I even saw one man shaving with a mirror attached to chicken wire....on a roof! Turns out a lot of people sleep on the roofs because it's cooler than any other place,if they have a place to go.The yoga was to the sounds and smells of India , which probably doesn't sound too good after reading the above, but it was grounding, organic and quite authentic , especially as I heard praying in the distance.





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Fran , our yoga teacher...Kelly one of the guides is next to her.


The rooftop next to me. One guy is still sleeping.


The street around the corner from the Hotel...we were heading for our bus



View on side of street.



Another view

After breakfast and a hot shower we visited The Red Fort where we met with a real monsoon.The rain was actually blowing sideways.It was a terrific show of mother nature here.We also visited a massive mosque where I had to adorn this pink dress and bare feet ( hey Linda G. - thanks for the tip about bringing socks, I e- mailed it to the others before we left and some took your advice too! It saved my feet from the hot stones!) After all the tourist stuff we had a great Indian lunch of dal,curried veggies,raita( a yogurt based sauce to cut the spice and naan( indian flatbread right from the ovens...)..now a 6 hour train ride to our next stop Amritsar....home of the famous golden temple. Weird train ride....they served us food constantly including a 4 course dinner. it was good too! Well, off to bed...it's almost 1am here and I have yoga in the garden at 7am. Namaste....


Fran
and I at the Red Fort


Monsoon....it was really awesome..it was sunny 5 minutes later. Rain was really blowing sideways with winds at least. 80-90 mph


Sanjita...a little 9 year old who followed me everywhere..she took my hand over the rocky spots in the road. She was selling those fans.






Can you believe this... It gets better...


They found their ride.



weary and tired...me , Julia (grey shirt) and Carla wait to board train. Julia is going to medical school in the fall. guess where? My Alma Mater....Mount Sinai in New York City!