Delhi

For our last night in India we stayed in a really fancy hotel to make up for all the cheap crappy ones along the way. We were both beyond exhausted and ready to go back to China. The last day we went to Humayan's Tomb, another World Heritage Site. It was amazing but we were both hitting the too tired to enjoy it point. We also went to India Gate, which isn't really terribly impressive.

In the evening we met a friend of Danny’s who works in Beijing that was in Delhi visiting his family for Chinese New Year. They cooked an amazing traditional Indian meal for us. I always think it is fun to talk to someone who actually lives in the places we visit and get their insights into the trip. They pointed out the two days we spent in Delhi were the worst air quality the city had seen in 10 years. I thought it was quite a relief because it made us really question how people could survive if it was that bad every day.

Overall, I'm glad we went and we learned a lot but that trip really kicked our butts and left us not wanting to travel again for quite a while. I never went anywhere so filthy and impoverished. We were constantly hassled for money or scammed out of it (not that it was enough money to make much difference.) Even at legit places like world heritage sights the guys at ticket booths tried to short change us. We are reasonably good travelers and rarely get taken in by scams but there were times when it wasn't even worth arguing and we overpaid by a dollar or two just to get out of unpleasant situations. I was sort of prepared for it but things were worse than I imagined. I also felt really stupid for not knowing beforehand that almost everything historic we saw was a Muslim sight and there were very few Hindu sights to see. My favorite part of the trip was definitely the food, which I love and was wonderful as a vegetarian. Unfortunately, the food didn't love me back and I kept getting really bad heartburn and ended the trip with a minor stomach bug. People there were also really surprised and confused that a foreigner would only want vegetarian foods but at least it was available. I think we may finally be traveled out.