I'm not quite sure where to start when it comes to Delhi. I'm so in love with this city, yet there is times I really dislike it.
It's a strange feeling to say because last time, I never experienced the intensity I have this time.
In two days I went from 5 star luxury costing me around 150 pound for the two nights to the life of a traveler - costing me around 7 pound a night.
I've met all kinds of people, young, old, alone, traveling with people, people who like to chill out and people who can't sit still. Backpackers, business people, people arriving and people leaving.
I'm not sure which category I fall into just yet. All I know is that I'm a lone traveler who to an extent doesn't like to sit still but I know that I need the security of a home-base.
When arriving in Delhi, you forget everything you know, everything you've been taught and everything anybody has told you. Delhi has it's own rules and you make them.
I seem to have built this facade in the last couple of weeks - I started by telling everybody all truths about myself "I'm 21, I'm single, I've been in Delhi X amount of time and it's my second time." I soon got bored of questions, touts and people wanting to follow me to talk. I felt like this made me an easy target. Now if a random person asks me "I'm an expat, I've lived in South Delhi for 2 years now and I'm married." Once I built this facade I immediately felt like I owned Delhi - nobody asks questions and I'm no longer seen as this tourist girl who doesn't fit into the crowd.
Now let me get the dislikes over with - Delhi is crazy intense. I love this so much but sometimes it's too intense. You will get stared at. It's inevitable. Every westerner I've met (and I've met a lot of people) experiences this, more so girls and it doesn't matter how much you cover up or try and fit in, you will get stared at. In-fact it's kind of strange but if you walk down the street with a guy, the staring gets less.
This has become one of these things for me where basically I've gotten used to being stared at but then I have days where I just want to walk around or sit somewhere without feeling the intensity of the staring. Some days everything blends in to the background and some days it doesn't.
I've met people who've thought they would hate Delhi and have fallen in love with it straight off and I've met people who've disliked Delhi so much that they've gotten the first plane to somewhere else in India. In my opinion these people haven't seen enough of Delhi. Delhi can feel somewhat unwelcoming but once you experience the city and know what it's about then it's definitely very much the opposite. I ask these people 'have you been here' or 'have you been there' and most of the time they haven't, although I do understand that the busy city life doesn't cater to everybody's tastes. I've met people who are expats living here and people who've been back numerous times, people ready to go home and people not wanting to leave or people just beginning.
I saw some interesting sides to Delhi this time - we went to a forest and it was so quite and cool right in the capital of the crazy city. I also went to the zoo which I'll go into more detail with...I was so unsure of this being I'm a vegetarian and all for animal rights but it was actually huge, quiet and hard to even find the animals!
The experience is so far amazing, I've met people I never would have met, learned things I didn't know and most of all I've grown up as a person and become more confident and self assured then I could have ever been. I wouldn't change coming here for the world and I'm very much excited to keep learning, meeting people, experiencing and growing.
I'll try and update more too (I've been so busy and the internet is sometimes not so good!) but I've so much to write with time disappearing so insanely fast. In a nutshell, you never know what to expect in Delhi, time feels super-speed and it's such an amazing experience to have!
It's a strange feeling to say because last time, I never experienced the intensity I have this time.
In two days I went from 5 star luxury costing me around 150 pound for the two nights to the life of a traveler - costing me around 7 pound a night.
I've met all kinds of people, young, old, alone, traveling with people, people who like to chill out and people who can't sit still. Backpackers, business people, people arriving and people leaving.
I'm not sure which category I fall into just yet. All I know is that I'm a lone traveler who to an extent doesn't like to sit still but I know that I need the security of a home-base.
When arriving in Delhi, you forget everything you know, everything you've been taught and everything anybody has told you. Delhi has it's own rules and you make them.
I seem to have built this facade in the last couple of weeks - I started by telling everybody all truths about myself "I'm 21, I'm single, I've been in Delhi X amount of time and it's my second time." I soon got bored of questions, touts and people wanting to follow me to talk. I felt like this made me an easy target. Now if a random person asks me "I'm an expat, I've lived in South Delhi for 2 years now and I'm married." Once I built this facade I immediately felt like I owned Delhi - nobody asks questions and I'm no longer seen as this tourist girl who doesn't fit into the crowd.
Now let me get the dislikes over with - Delhi is crazy intense. I love this so much but sometimes it's too intense. You will get stared at. It's inevitable. Every westerner I've met (and I've met a lot of people) experiences this, more so girls and it doesn't matter how much you cover up or try and fit in, you will get stared at. In-fact it's kind of strange but if you walk down the street with a guy, the staring gets less.
This has become one of these things for me where basically I've gotten used to being stared at but then I have days where I just want to walk around or sit somewhere without feeling the intensity of the staring. Some days everything blends in to the background and some days it doesn't.
I've met people who've thought they would hate Delhi and have fallen in love with it straight off and I've met people who've disliked Delhi so much that they've gotten the first plane to somewhere else in India. In my opinion these people haven't seen enough of Delhi. Delhi can feel somewhat unwelcoming but once you experience the city and know what it's about then it's definitely very much the opposite. I ask these people 'have you been here' or 'have you been there' and most of the time they haven't, although I do understand that the busy city life doesn't cater to everybody's tastes. I've met people who are expats living here and people who've been back numerous times, people ready to go home and people not wanting to leave or people just beginning.
I saw some interesting sides to Delhi this time - we went to a forest and it was so quite and cool right in the capital of the crazy city. I also went to the zoo which I'll go into more detail with...I was so unsure of this being I'm a vegetarian and all for animal rights but it was actually huge, quiet and hard to even find the animals!
The experience is so far amazing, I've met people I never would have met, learned things I didn't know and most of all I've grown up as a person and become more confident and self assured then I could have ever been. I wouldn't change coming here for the world and I'm very much excited to keep learning, meeting people, experiencing and growing.
I'll try and update more too (I've been so busy and the internet is sometimes not so good!) but I've so much to write with time disappearing so insanely fast. In a nutshell, you never know what to expect in Delhi, time feels super-speed and it's such an amazing experience to have!
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