The Start of My Massive Adventure

I have just set foot on Indian soil! Saying goodbye to my friends and family before I left was difficult and...surreal. When will I be seeing them again? I was truly on my own now for a very long time - the feeling was daunting to say the least. Despite these feelings a massive smile spread across my face as I walked through the boarding tunnel because suddenly all the stress from the many months I've spent organising this trip disappeared and I was overwhelmed with excitement! After eight hours on the plane, meeting my very first travel buddy in the seat next to me, being sprayed with disinfectant like cattle before we got off and listening to the Indian passengers in front of me argue with the air hostesses I have arrived in Delhi! It's true what they say about the toilets - even at the airport they only had holes in the floor (granted they were porcelain holes and they flushed but, nonetheless, still a hole!). As soon as I got out of the airport I was suffocated by the heat and couldn't find the man from my hotel with my name on a sign for fifteen long, sweaty minutes. I begged myself not to give in to the wave of panic that was threatening to wash over me - stranded alone at Delhi airport?? When I finally found the polite Indian boy he drove me in a van to a nearby hotel I'd booked for the day so I could wait for my domestic flight up to the far north of India to properly begin my travels. I am writing my first 'somethingaboutmonkeys' post from my hotel room in the capital of India at the start of my massive adventure! My hotel is near a dilapidated bridge underneath which hundreds of people, including children with big bloated stomachs, are living amongst the piles of rubbish, mud, flies and rats whilst making a few rupees selling snacks from dirt-encrusted food carts. When I arrived at the reception I was met with bewilderment, "You travel alone, miss??", and a glass of water on a silver tray that I only pretended to drink as I was unsure whether it had come from a tap!

Goodbye England!

Casually riding side saddle on a busy motorway.