First Day in Delhi

After about 25 hours of flying, I finally got to my hostel at 3:15 in the morning, and the first thing I could think was, “oh, this is why people don’t travel alone.” I would be lying if I said that this morning I woke up rested and ready to adventure around New Dehli. First, I did not wake up, because I never really fell asleep and, secondly, the overly anxious person took over. I had those intense waves of homesickness that I had my first couple of months in Africa, where I literally felt like each hour of each day stretched on forever. I had to keep telling myself, you are only here for 3 full days and nights, then you head to Varanasi, and in just 11 days, Kelsey will meet you in Agra. So don’t freak out, don’t stress out. Of course my sleep-deprived self was like YOU STILL HAVE THREE DAYS IN DELHI, LET’S NOT EVEN TALK ABOUT VARANASI.

My hotel here is rough. I’m not sure if the sheets have ever been cleaned, and so I feel like I’m sitting in dirt all the time. Last night, I wondered if I was going to get bed bugs again (I got them in Rwanda), and now I’m listening to all of my new bug friends hover around the light. I love white noise, but I think the fan might come out of the ceiling if I turned it on, and I got reacquainted with the bucket shower technique this morning. THANK GOD, THERE WAS HOT WATER.

So bottom line is, I’m having a bit of a rough time right now. It’ll pass soon, but still. I just need to get out and distract myself. I spent most of last night looking up more hotels in my guidebook in search of clean sheets, but I decided not to actually switch. It’s all part of the experience, right? I also spent a good portion of the time convincing myself not to get on a plane home. I know this will all be worth it, but right now I am just being a BIG OL’ BABY.

So today, I drank four cups of chai by 10 am. I was brought into two separate tourist offices that wanted to plan out my trip, and one guy I actually liked a lot and might stay in his hotel that is cheaper and a lot nicer than mine. Then I went to the Lotus Temple, which meant figuring out the metro here and doing three transfers!! Yessss! But once I got there I had kind of a big issue. I took a wrong turn and started walking into this park. Suddenly, it was just me and this guy who then pulled his pants down and started masturbating right in front of me. I FREAKED out. I've never been scared of being sexually assaulted or molested before. But there was no one else there. I turned and walked as fast and as calmly as I could away from him. I'm still pretty shaken, shed a few tears on my ride back. I don't know. I started noticing all these guys watching me and I just got soooo frustrated. So I rode the women's only metro cars for the whole trip back and was quite rude to several guys who stopped me on the street.

Needless to say, I am feeling super vulnerable, scared, and alone. So what do I do? I immediately go out to buy a phone and then one of those usp plug-ins that can give you internet anywhere. It was expensive, but I need it for my sanity, especially after today.