Crossplanet

First impressions on the journey... a very sui generis journey in fact, one of the most special till now. I hate early departures but this one night before wasn't as worst as usual, quite nice even if I didn't sleep. I arrived at the airport at 5.30 am, saturday 21st of July and... there it was... in the window of the bookstore, the last Harry Potter book! I managed to resist for at least 15mn and then I surrendered and went to buy it! 8 hours of flight, plus the waiting in Paris, then in Helsinki, plenty of time to get into the story and a good way to destress! So that's my first impression of India, a mix of heat, dust and Harry Potter! And here I am, in New Delhi, with still around 350 pages to read and 1 extra kilo in my luggage!

Today back to reality, it's not Scotland, no snowy Christmas, it's New Delhi, it's hot and wet, it stinks and it's crowdy! And I like it also. Today after some time this morning at the train station to book my ticket for Mathura (where I've experimented the "ladies only" booth), I had quite a "holy" day. I first went to visit the Jami Masjid, the biggest mosque of India, where 25000 people can pray together, quite impressive, with its simple arhitecture.

Then near the Red Fort, I met Deepak, a cycle-rickshaw-wallah, who took me on a trip around the holy places of New and Old Delhi. In 2 hours I have visited: a Jain temple with the bird hospital, a Sikh temple, very interesting with a Sikh taking me around the kitchen, refectory, praying room, then another Jain temple, very old in some dark alley, and then the Gandhi memorial (not so holy but still inspiring).