The end of week 1

Well, it has been one week since we boarded the plane in Sydney, and what a week it has been. So much to take in and so many new experiences. We have settled into a bit of a routine now that our body clocks have adjusted. We wake at 7.30am when the maid arrives (I hate referring to her as "the maid" ...as soon as I work out some simple conversation skills I will enquire about her name), we check our emails, turn the hot water on, have breakfast and then a shower. We tend to spend much of the early part of the day at home researching, reading or studying. The kids keep themselves entertained with games, piano, reading, writing a journal and tallying the number of blackouts we have (there were about 6 yesterday). In the afternoon we head out to a shopping centre to eat and buy any supplies we need. The other night we made the mistake of heading out to dinner at about 6pm to the business district to go to a nice restaurant for dinner... never drive into the business district during rush hour... It took us over an hour to get there (should have been less than 10 minutes). As I have mentioned earlier the traffic is chaos at the best of times. What astounded me most is that there is no such thing as a clearway during peak times, cars were parked anywhere they like. We eventually made it to the restaurant named Punjabi by Nature. Great food and ambiance but very expensive by Indian standards. Hunter is still having problems with finding foods to eat simply because everything is so spicy, but she is starting to get used to a little bit of heat.

  One problem that I forgot to mention earlier is mosquitoes, because it is winter and a bit cool I didn't think they would be a problem, but in the evenings they are out in force. The kids have been bitten quite a few times despite wearing long pants and sleeves to bed and dousing them in repellent. We have ordered some mosquito nets, hopefully they arrive today.

  We have discovered that India has the most amazing bookstores, we have found two in particular that rival Borders. The books here are so cheap as well - a paperback novel is about $6. Last night I spent about as hour in the health section with naturopathy books starting from about $2, I could have bought so many but I restrained myself and started with just two. Its not just the price that is amazing it is the variety of books under each topic. We have started more than a small library at home (I will add a photo soon), which could pose an excess baggage problem when we come home. We had to make a rule last night that no more bookshops until we have read everything we have bought already.

 Last night we ate in a food hall style restaurant in the bottom of a shopping complex ,that was recommended in a guide book. We can feed all four of us including drinks for under $10, so we have decided to work our way through the menu. Last night I picked something random that I have never heard of and it was great...you cant go wrong with Indian food it all tastes so good. I plan to work my way through the sweets menu too.

  Tomorrow Ray has a meeting lined up in  Delhi so we will probably make a day of it. 

Until next time... namaste