Delhi

I am going on holiday to India to escape the Vietnamese Tet holiday, it,s a bit like Xmas but without the snow.  Most people leave to avoid the near total shutdown and I have chosen India.  I've never really been there apart from a short trip to Delhi for a recruitment fair so this is a big adventure for me.
I'm flying with Air Asia, the local budget carrier and so far it,s been good.  The food and wine was fine and the aircrew were lovely so this is not the easy jet of the east.  The airline even have their own terminal at Kuala Lumpur airport for budget travellers where the beer at nearly£4 a glass is nowhere near budget but hey, I'm on holiday.
I've booked a hotel near the central train station for three nights and then a train ticket to Jaipur on Sunday morning.  You can do it all online, no wonder Thomas Cook went bust, who needs them now.

I'm planning to spend three weeks in Rajasthan travelling by train, bus and hopefully camel and visiting palaces, forts and deserts.

I'm going to blog about my experiences on my boring old blog that I have neglected for the last four months and I can do that using my lovely new iPad that I have brought along for the ride.

My hotel is in a dusty lane full of other backpacker type hotels and my room is a bit cell like but it does have a flat screen tv and a shower.  After a long day on planes it was nice to savour the atmosphere of the city. Dogs barking, fires burning and people wandering about wrapped in thin blankets against the cold evening air.  The air is a shock to my system. Anything below 30 degrees seems cold to me now.  I need to look in my guide book and plan tomorrow's sightseeing.  The red fort sounds colourful so that could be on the agenda and there are plenty of other attractions.  The underground system should take me to most of the places I need to go as long as I can work out where places are.

  The people out in the street have been cooking bread over charcoal tonight so that's going to be breakfast but now for sleep after a slurp of dutyfree whiskey.