Delhi and its stripey squirrels

Courtesy of Jet Air we find ourselves stranded in Delhi for 24 hours - done by text message, we felt some sympathy for the poor teenager dumped in similar fashion! We recommend that if this does happen, you pick somewhere where help is at hand... Chris and Wendy, long time Marriott family friends live here, and answered our call for help! We can't thank them enough for easing us into India, and taking the time to show us around.Arrival at Delhi airport prepares you in no way for the Indian onslaught. A whiff of the half-fragrant half noxious pong as we were lead by Wendy to car and driver, Sanjeev, reminded us that we had arrived. But really, it wasn't until later this afternoon, after visiting the charming Qutb complex with its magnificent Qutb Minar, as we wove through the traffic of downtown Delhi that the reality of the Indian condition confirmed our fate for the next 3 months. All credit to Sanjeev, who managed to negotiate the total lack of anticipation by the drivers of tuk-tuks and buses alike, whilst explaining the Indian driving regime with the classic horizontal wiggle of the head. We must practice that! I think that the only way to describe the movement of traffic would be to allow a 3 year old boy to plait a girls hair... Transpires that Sanjeev grew up and still has family in Darjeeling, so we had to ask forgiveness at the end of today for asking so many questions... Now more excited, and we think, less nervous about what lies ahead in the North East. Let's just hope that the reported mudslide on the road between Bagdogra and Kalimpong doesn't derail our plans to start teaching on Monday.

Editors note: just to reassure you all that the pong most definitely wasn't Wendy, and the squirrels here are small and stripey!