Last Day in Delhi

Today we prowled the Pahar Ganj some more, and I've several observations.

Essential to survival:
You must master the art of looking arrogant. Basically, the only way to get the street people to leave you alone is to project confidence, wave them away, and dismiss them completely as human beings. Otherwise they'll totally smother you. It gets really hard when it turns out to be an old woman holding a baby begging for food or a kid saying he's an orphan (actually I'm just saying that, it makes everyone else uncomfortable with pity, but I just wish they would shove off and leave me alone).

2nd thing is always looking like you know where you're going, even when you're lost. If someone approaches you, lie like a dog, or better yet wave them off.

"Hello sir, where are you from?"
"Canada."
"How long have you been in India?"
"Three weeks."

One weird thing about here is the shitload of Europeans. They're all over the place, mostly Germans I think, although so far I've met New Zealanders, Russians, a Romanian, and a Pole. Weird that you have to come to India to meet Europeans for a conversation, but in this environment Westerners really chum up fast.

The two girls from NZ were really cute, we shopped together for a couple hours before they got on a plane to Kuala Lumpur(sp?) in Malayasia, too bad. The Russians were eating breakfast on top of our hotel while we were sitting around talking, and then one of them threw an entire watermelon int0 the street. It seems like a stereotype, but are they all assholes? The Romanian was very fat and had ridiculous theories about U.S. politics. The Polish girl went with us to see a bunch of the temples and residential areas this morning, and I think she's coming to Amritsar with us tomorrow.

So yeah, tomorrow we leave Delhi and head on a six hour train to Punjab province, then jeep ride to the Sihk Golden Temple in Amritsar, spend the night and then on to our main destination for the trip, Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh.