You only need around five minutes to feel it. The smells of roses, trash, incense and pee will wake you up. The noise of cars, tuk tuks, bikes and people trying to organize the chaos will chase you. The unattended cows and dogs on the road searching desperately for food will shock you. Even if you have read or heard this before, no matter how much you have prepared yourself for it, as soon as you get out of the airport the reality sinks in. Welcome to India.
I landed in New Delhi at around 4:00 am, on a Saturday. I took the metro as soon it was open into the city center; the random people laying down in the floor of the metro should have told me what was coming, but I was too sleepy yet, so when I arrived to my New Delhi Station, there it was for me, the chaos was waiting with its arms open, so I could wake up, like the best morning coffee I have ever had.
Probably around six or seven people tried to "help" me at the station. It seems that they have superpowers and they know how to detect any person that is new in the city. Or maybe it was my poker face what called their attention. After reading many blogs about taxi scams I decided to try to avoid any transportation. I was strong until the station station security guard saw me and decided to help with directions. How nice of him! After explaining where I wanted to go by foot, he recommended to get a tuk-tuk because the roads weren't safe, so I decided to trust him (oh man how innocent I was back then) and go with the tuk-tuk driver he suggested.