Delhi

Delhi is alright. Dirty and crowded at first, but more modern than elsewhere, with a good metro, huge monument mall, presidential palace, Red Fort, and curved white colonial buildings circling Connaught Place (with only a dozen children beggars, and only half of the pillars are smattered with red paan spit stains).

I found a rooftop cafe in the backpacker district, Pajar Ganj (near New Delhi train station) with an awesome view of crazy auto and bike rickshaw traffic, mixed with wheelbarrows, scooters, food carts, water buffalo-drawn carts, wandering cows, pedestrians, cars, and the occasional stray dog. I spent quite a long time watching the street from the balcony, absolutely delighted. I caught some of it on video, which I will upload to Facebook next time I'm at a real computer (FB can't take it from my smart phone).

Strange men come up to me, way too often either trying to sell something or simply to interrupt my day. It seems like each sleeze bag needs 5 no's, 2 go away's and 2 stop following me's before buzzing off. I even hear whistles and smooching noises directed at me, frumpy brown haired plain me. The smooch noisemakers get yelled at, I have no tollerance for that sh*t. Men try hard to bump into me, and brush against me a dozen times a day. They stare at my legs in my shorts that are quite long for American standards. I saw 3 women in all of Delhi wearing shorts just barely higher than the knees. Every platform and every metro train has a women-only section, which I find both outdated and safe. That's where I go.

6am train tomorrow for Agra (Taj Mahal)!