Last night we watched Scooby Doo in Hindi, trying to figure out the short girl’s name. (It’s Thelma. We think.)

And we are in Delhi, good Lord I feel like I’ve been gone for years. We got in Sunday night (have no plausible idea when that is US time), checked into the hotel our favorite Indian friend, Salmon, found for us. Then next morning we met a British bloke who’s backpacking for 10 months. He was able to navigate the Delhi metro and end us up downtown where we wanted to be. As I’ve been known to get lost on BART, in a place I’ve lived my whole life and everything’s written in English, I have a profound respect for this young man. We found an amazing well-priced hostel in on Main Bazaar (quite possible the funnest streen I’ve ever walked down, it’s nuts) with functioning locks on the doors and a cafe on the roof (great food, hilariously slow service. “why don’t you order coffee for both of us while I take a shower, it’ll probably be ready by the time I come up.”) There are tons of travellers everywhere, the tourist season just started.

Delhi is polluted and crowded, but there’s so much to see. I wish I had 3 sets of eyes. It’ll be a good preface to Calcutta, said to be the most crowded and overwhelming city EVER. Last night we had dinner at another rooftop restaurant and there were fireworks going off above our heads. I think there’s a festival, but no suprise, there seems to be a pooja (Hindi word for worship) maybe three times a week. They do fun thing like decorate their cars, dance in the street, throw red powder on eachother, smash pumpkins.

The cheif annoyance here is that because it’s tourist season, everyone is constantly trying to rip you off. All the rickshaws want to take you to the tourist office (they get commission), no matter how much you tell them We Know Where We’re Going. So we walk a lot. Way to work off all that roti and palak paneer, kids.