First impressions - Delhi in the Dark

I wish I had been able to photograph the moment that I walked out of customs - a neat line of Indian taxi drivers leaning on a barrier holding placards with travellers' names. I think the barriers are their purely for that purpose - leaning that is, not for channelling wayward passengers to the exit. Families and relatives held back discreetly for the welcoming committee of taxi-wallahs.

The night air had a misty haze that seemed to permeate the airport, so it was misty inside as wellk, which I think is quite a feat.

In the dark empty roads, (it was about 4am by the time we landed, had been checked for swine flu and got our bags),our taxi driver gave us a whistle-stop tour of Delhi sites from the Rajpath - Indira Gandhi's house, which was poinganat as I've never knowingly been that close to where a world leader was assassinated (I don't think Strawberry Fields counts.) We then saw Sonia Gandhi's house and the India Gate, camoflagued in the mist, looming orange at the end of the boulevard.

We pulled in at our hotel the Lalit. http://www.thelalit.com/the-lalit-new-delhi/overview A Tuesday night disco was pumping out San Antonio euro-trash, while we waited for a German tour group, marigolds (flowers not rubber gloves) strung round their necks, to check in.

Finally in my room, no idea what time we had to be up or where we had to be by when, I got in to bed, closed my weary eyes, only for the 5am commuter train to honk it's horn signalling arrival in Delhi... excellent.