Day One of Delhi, India

I arrived late Friday night to Delhi and am staying at the ITC Maurya Hotel in New Delhi. The hotel is out of this world and they upgraded us to the "all-ladies floor," which reminds me of being back in college dorms, except way nicer! No men are allowed on this floor and it has tightened security.

Wild monkey on the loose!

The hilarious part of the hotel is that they had to hire a "black monkey" to keep the wild monkeys from swarming the property. There are wild monkeys everywhere in Delhi...Check out this video from when President Obama came to visit....It's quite hilarious! At any rate, the hotel hired the "black monkey" and pays him in bananas and the owner cash to keep the wild monkeys away! Everything about the hotel is absolutely amazing and we're very lucky the hotel is within our travel budget for work!

These flower arrangements are throughout the hotel

The ceiling in the hotel lobby is a story about the world. It's absolutely gorgeous!

More flowers and candles

Sarah and Sam (my colleagues) arrived Saturday morning and spent the morning hanging out at the hotel: I managed to make it to the gym and had a hour long massage, which was heavenly. The shower in the massage room was absolutely gorgeous...I just had to take a few pictures so I wouldn't forget the design!

After our massages, we grabbed a quick bite to eat at the hotel and then ventured to a local, underground market called CP. CP has three large circles underground of little booths that sell electronics, clothing, trinkets, and jewelry. We found a little shop that sold these gorgeous scarves and managed to each buy 6!

Blurry picture of the market, but you get the idea!

After our quick trip to the market, we headed to Old Delhi to meet with a potential partner for our volunteer program and tour the orphanage they do programming in. Our drive turned into a bit of a fiascale as our driver missed the turn and we got stuck in this tiny alley way.

It actually got a little scary as tons of people surrounded the car and were getting mad that our car was blocking traffic. We eventually managed to turn the car around and get out of the alley. Touring the orphanage was really cool and we enjoyed learning about the organization's work. After our tour, we headed back to the hotel and grabbed an early dinner at Bukara, which is one of the top restaurants in Delhi. President Obama dined here when he stayed at the hotel. The food was absolutely fantastic!