Days 1 and 2: Chasing the sun around the planet

On Monday afternoon we left Vancouver and flew to Hong Kong for fourteen hours slash an eternity – without seeing nighttime. We arrived late evening at our hotel, a quaint(ish) hotel on a beach far out of the city. It’s probably a happening place in the summer, but not so much in the off season.
For the first time in as long as I can remember, I willingly woke up at 6:30am. We ate breakfast (noodles and oatmeal), took a train to the city, ran around as if we were in The Amazing Race and saw as much as we could in a span of 4 hours. At 12:15pm we headed back to the airport to get on our flight to Bangkok. I mean, Delhi.
Unbeknownst to us, we had a short layover in Bangkok. I was so tempted to get off the plane; however, I resisted and we arrived in Delhi. Not before we were thoroughly disinfected however…
Apparently before you land in Delhi, the law states that the plane interior needs to be sprayed down with disinfectant… enough disinfectant to leave a thick haze on the plane and a glossy sheen in your hair. We were hopeful that this courtesy of disinfecting our plane/ourselves would be reciprocated by our destination city in anticipation of our arrival.
We were mildly, but not surprisingly, disappointed

All jests aside, 3 hours in Delhi so far and I love it already; colourful, cheerful, noisy, and hectic. Coming out of the airport, Meaghan and I were wide-eyed and grinning. Our hotel sent a driver for us who we instantly took a liking to. He kindly made fun of me when I went around to the driver’s side of the cab. I explained to him that in Canada the steering wheel is on the other side. He said, laughing “you’re not in Canada, you’re in India!” We think we may hire him to take us to Agra tomorrow.
Driving to our hotel it was dark and our first impressions are that bombs have gone off all over the city. The streets are strewn with rubble and dirt and it looks like they are in the middle of a big construction project on every block. And of course people drive as if, as Meaghan describes it, they are playing tetris. On the way to our hotel we saw two wedding processions – amazing! They looked like movie sets with bright colours and big spotlights. One procession had a man with a horse and carriage on the way to pick up his bride.
We arrived at our hotel situated in a skinny alley. Across the street is a building that I am pretty sure is falling down. In stark contrast our hotel has a sparkling clean giant window in front with marble floors and red leather couches, teak tables and blown glass light fixtures.
Tomorrow we meet up with Chelsea and Michel and we are on our way to see the Taj Mahal in Agra.
Coming up next: the Taj Mahal