Riding through the traffic in Delhi is not as bad as one would suspect. It is indeed a medley of cows, 3 wheelers, cars, slow moving lorries, fast moving buses, carts, rickshaws, barrows and pedestrians but if you keep your wits about you and your senses alert you are able to weave your way through. I dare say though that it is not for the faint hearted. The first time that I rode my bike out of Karol Bagh I felt nervous, everybody in the street watched us it seemed (that is a lot of people). We draw more attention to ourselves not only because of our skin colour but also the fact that we are two women. When I got going though then oh what joy I found! Firstly, I like to overcome my fears, riding in the traffic in Delhi concerned me, riding at night was not recommended and here I was, riding my motorbike with strange gear controls for the first time in the least accomodating conditions. What an achievement, to actually do it and to enjoy it as well makes me a very happy person. For those of you who are familiar with the term, it is like a critical mass, one moment the pedestrians almost rule the road because of their high number, motorbikes also have some clout, if you can keep the buses and cars moving slowly then the smaller vehicle manages to gain control of the road however as soon as you let the larger vehicles gain speed then you had better move out of their way, this is when might does have right. The hardest part is navigation, it is lucky that I bought my KSCNav with me ;-) I lack a good sense of direction at the best of times and when I am overwhelmed and watching traffic (which in itself houses many novelties), knowing my Patel Nagar from my Model Town is quite a challenge. It has been pleasant to see that although everybody is out to make progress on the road there are moments of compassion :-) Today we saw children finishing school (the school uniforms are not too dissimilar from our own) as they stepped towards the main road the traffic slowed and let them all cross together, don't get me wrong, it was not a smooth controlled exchange it was more of a momentary merge.

I have been speaking to people to gain information while K was being practical (thank goodness one of us is) with the motorbikes - looking over them and amalgamating toolkits - I engaged in a conversation with a Tibetan neighbour. He was impressed with our endeavour and also liked our bikes, he was however concerned. He warned me that we should be wary of U.P. State and that there were problems with bandits, he was travelling in a bus once which was bombarded with rocks and had all the windows smashed because the driver would not open the doors to let the "police" in. Also there are aggressive beggars, people will grab our bikes and want to touch us, he said that it will not be too friendly, that they also know where travellers keep their passports and that we should think about storing them elsewhere. We are taking heed of his advice and as a result have decided to stick to main roads and towns for now until we understand India better and are less vulnerable.

I like it that we are riding in our Fox motorbike jackets and wearing full face lids and gloves, it helps to hide our identity a little and makes me feel more comfortable. We still get stared at though, particularly when the traffic halts. I also asked Bablu today (sales merchant at Sunny where I bought my bike) about the dangers ahead, he suggested that we did not travel at night and that the morning was the best time, we will also take this good advice.

We are prepared to adapt our plans in order to avoid exposing ourselves to unnessecary risks particularly at this early stage of the trip - we are learning something new at almost every moment.

We are still in Delhi due to a delay in the insurance document for my bike, I now have a copy and we are preparing to move on. As a result of this, we have made the most of our day, we went back to Sunnys and bought some spares for the bikes, K had some paperwork to sort and she also bought some flame stickers to go on her bike, these match her helmet perfectly in colour so now she will almost look as good as me with her colour coordination ;-) We also spent some time planning thus resulting in a change of plans and we will now go to Jaipur tomorrow, the highway should be fast and we hope to make it there within five hours.

Here in the quieter area of Majnu-Ka-Tilla this morning when I awoke, I listened to the distant sound of the rest of Delhi, it sounded like a swarm of bees growing louder and quieter, fading in and out as the city buzzed in the potential of a new day. I think of Delhi as a swarm however I have yet to decide who is the queen bee or whether there even is one.

Until next time......