We drive into Delhi, a circus of human chaos. We don’t know exactly where our hotel is, so Lucinda gets out to search for it. A police man has to stop the traffic, a miracle in itself, for the truck to be able to pull over to a reasonable place to stop while we wait. Delhi is supposed to be hosting the Commonwealth Games next year, but the only evidence we see of this is ‘Delhi, host of Commonwealth Games 2010’ spray painted on a brick wall.
After Lu has been gone for over an hour, I decide to go look for the hotel myself, as I get testy sitting in the hot truck waiting. I get lost myself, but eventually find it with the help of some street hawkers and after bumping some of our crew, but not before the truck has pitched up in a parking space amongst the back alleys. The hotel is hidden in a narrow alley off the main Bazaar (Pahar Ganj). As usual, the bazaar shares its space with pedestrians, mopeds, rickshaws and the occasional cow but I have never been anywhere so continuously crowded and it is difficult to avoid being run over. It’s also difficult to get away from immediately friendly people who eventually reveal that they have something to sell.
At the hotel, I meet the new ‘couple’ who are joining the group for the journey. The extra seats required for them in the truck has meant that we had to lose one of the tables in the back of the truck, which has caused some complaints. There were a lot rumours about who this couple were, including that they were a 50 year old millionaire American and his 24 year old French girlfriend. This turns out to be marginally amiss of the truth. Brian, the American is only my age, although I have to say I don’t look as old as he does. His clothes testify that he is no millionaire (and why would he be on this trip if he was...). The girl is Laurie, who is French and only 24, but sounds American having spend much of the past few years there studying. But more of her later.
At the hotel, I try to console an upset Barbara, who has been told by the man at the hotel reception that she can’t check in without her passport (which is somewhere on the truck), even though her husband Stephen does have his. Barbara doesn’t know where the truck is, and I say I will get it, but get confused amongst the twisting of the alleys and can’t find it myself, even though I had been escorted to it earlier. Anyway, I guess it was sorted out later.
I spend much of the afternoon in a bar, and then sink whiskeys into the night with John, Tracy, Brian and Laurie. It emerges that Laurie and Brian are not a couple. In fact they couldn’t be more different, with Brian being very dry, while Laurie is more, um, overloaded with brashness. They met on a bus tour of the western US a year previously, and had a mutual interest in travelling and decided to do some exploring of south India together before going on to join this trip. A few more people join us on the roof, though I don’t have a strong recollection of events. I do remember paying a boy to fetch another bottle for our roof party. It didn’t even occur to me at the time that a boy of no more than 10 years old might not be able to get hold of whiskey, just that he might not come back with the money (a few pounds worth of rupees). He does though, having successfully secured the bounty.
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