Holy cow.

First thing's first, I got a cell phone - actually, borrowed it from a Tibetan friend for a few weeks. So to call me, you can use my calling card. Here's the information:
The tollfree access number is 1-866-3-Reliance, primary registered phone is 13024385776, pin is 4498. Once you put in that information,when it prompts you, dial 91-99712-50432 (country code for India is 91, my phone number is 99712-50432).

I've been in India for about three days, and already it's been ridiculous. I got in around midnight on Tuesday night, planning to spend a day in Delhi alone before meeting up with Sarah and Adriana on Thursday morning. I've been in Delhi alone before, but have always just gone straight to the Tibetan settlement here, where it's a bit quieter but much farther from the city. This time, I decided to challenge myself a little and stay in Connaught Place, a busy area in the middle of Delhi. In general, it's a good idea to get out of my comfort zone, but this time I think I went a little too far, being that it was my first night in India and I'm a woman traveling alone.

I got a free upgrade to first class on my flight from Helsinki to Delhi, which turned out to be my saving grace because I at least arrived here well-rested. (Btw, business class is amazing. Though I felt sort of like a toothless country girl in a classy new york lounge... but the bottle of wine I drank on the plane helped.) As soon as I got off the plane, the hot Delhi smog smacked me in the face. It was 90 degrees in the middle of the night, and smells like smog and burning trash - a smell that brought back a lot of memories, and in some weird way felt comforting. So I get my bags, change some money, and get in a cab, all fairly seamlessly. I'm thinking "damn, I'm good at this", knowing just where to go, having picked my hotel and navigated the infamous Delhi airport chaos. I tell my driver what hotel to bring me to, and exactly where it is. He seems not to know where it is - a pretty notorious phenomenon - so he pulls over to ask someone directions (which he accomplishes by cutting off an autorickshaw on the highway and yelling at him). We keep going. I'm not sure why he's confused, because I've explained exactly what block it's on, and everyone knows Connaught place. Nevertheless, he stops somewhere else - a tourist office - and tells me to go inside and call the hotel. I'm annoyed, but I have no other options so I go ahead in. There's a guy in the office whose job it is to sit there all night and help tourists find hotels (all of this is a tourist scam, of course, but not having my own car I was at the mercy of my driver). So I sit down with the man, call my hotel, and (of course) they tell me they have no rooms. I try about 5 others. Same story. The guy tells me there's some festival going on, and that's why there are no hotel rooms (which is bullshit. there's no festival going on). He makes a few calls himself, and says he's found a hotel with a room tonight. The driver meanwhile gets tired of waiting and says he wants to leave, and the guy at the tourist office says "it's okay, i have a car, I'll take you over there". By this time it's about 3 AM and I'm just eager to get to a bed, no matter how dirty it is. so i get in this guy's car and we drive over to a hotel in Karol Bagh, a shithole of a neighborhood about 10 minutes from Connaught place. I get into my room, clean up a little, and go to bed. So I've been scammed a little - it's not so bad.

I wake up to a call from the man at the front desk, telling me the tourist office guy is coming to pick me up. Why? He'll bring me to his office and give me a map. I'm frustrated to be in the middle of a scam, but so far no one's tried to charge me any money (except for the room, which was fairly cheap) so I think, as long as I refuse to pay for anything I'll be fine. Plus, I have no idea where I am and it's fucking hot outside so at least the map will help me out a little. I go back to the tourist office with the guy, get my map, and get directions to Connaught, where I intend to spend the day shopping and maybe see a movie. I leave the office with the directions "go that way and then turn left" (indians give notoriously bad directions), and I set off. On my way to connaught, some random man starts to talk to me, which often happens here, and after a few minutes of conversation he tells me i shouldn't be wearing what I'm wearing (a white t-shirt and gaucho pants) because people will stare at me. So now, a bit embarrassed, I get into connaught and start to look for a clothing store. It's really hot out, insanely crowded everywhere, and totally filthy. I'm wandering around the neighborhood when another man approaches to make small talk (where are you from? what are you doing here? why are you alone?). By this point I'm angry and annoyed by the way this place makes me feel so helpless, being a woman alone. I tell him i'm from canada (my standard line -it gets you better treatment than america) and i'm just going to cafe to get a drink. he brings me to a cafe and sits down with me. he's dressed like a georgetown frat boy and clearly thinks he's god's gift to women. I have a quick drink with him, while he tells me where to go in delhi - he named a few of the wealthier neighrborhoods in south delhi, where i'd never been but had heard about from friends in DC. He says "I'll take you over there." I tell him i want to go to fab india (a clothing store around the corner from the cafe) and i'll meet him after - with all intentions to ditch him. I go into the store and find myself a cheap shirt to cover myself with, and immediately feel more comfortable without the paranoia that i'm dressed inappropriately AND a woman traveling alone. I'm feeling pretty beat down by this point, not to mention exhausted and really hot. When I come out of the story, the guy is there (his name is Ali) and he brings me to get a rickshaw. While he bartered for a rickshaw price to go across town, I found myself starting to feel comforted - it's so much easier to do anything with company, especially a man, especially a local man. As much as i was eager to prove I could do all this alone, I started to enjoy being able to surrender some of the stress of navigating delhi.

Ali brought me to a cheezy indoor mall, with mostly western brand name stores, where I was obviously unimpressed. We sat at an english pub and had a drink. then we went to GK, another upscale outdoor market, walked around, had a drink (there's a pattern here). Ali works for a travel agency (as does just about everyone here - at least anyone who'd talk to a white person on the street. We are, after all, walking money.) I don't trust him at all, but I'm also enjoying having his company... after spending the day together, he took me to his family's house, hooked me up with a homestay apartment in a nice neighborhood (which was half the price of my shitty room, for an apartment with a servant), and took me for dinner at a very chic lounge in connaught place. he dropped me at my hotel around 1 AM, then picked me up the next morning at 6:15 to go to the airport and meet my friends. We picked them up and went back to the apartment he'd found me. he left us there after a while. We hung out for a few hours, took a little nap (I hadn't been able to sleep at all the night before), and then left to go to the tibetan settlement, called majnu ka tilla, where sarah and adriana knew a tibetan travel agent who'd hooked them up with everything last summer.

so now we're in majnu ka tilla, where i feel oddly at home, hanging out with Dhondup, a wealthy 29-year-old tibetan who went to college in west virginia and manages a hotel/restaurant/travel agency here. he took us out for a fancy dinner in delhi last night, lent us his mobile phone, and is managing most of our trip for amazingly cheap. as much as it would be braver to try to arrrange all these things myself, india is a bit impossible for a single woman, and it's nice to have friends with money and connections who give you everything for free.

we tried to get tickets to go to nepal with dhondup today, but we couldn't, so instead we're headed off to jaiselmeer (in rajasthan) tonight, on a 19-hour train ride. jaiselmeer should be amazing - it's kind of like fairy tale india, in the desert, with camel safaris and a big palace. from there we'll go to a strange little town called pushkar, then back to delhi and up to dharamsala.