Old Delhi Tour

This past weekend, Daniela and I finished the second half of the tour that was mentioned in this previous post. We did change it up a little bit by booking with a different company called "When In India". They were quite a bit more expensive, but as it turned out, worth every penny.

We began our tour meeting outside of the Red Fort at 5:30pm. Thankfully the rickshaws were easy to spot because this intersection was a nightmare.

We met our tour guide who thankfully spoke english very well. We then loaded up into the rickshaws and prepared for this three and a half hour adventure.

The tour began at a huge Muslim mosque called Jama Masjid. We were supposed to be able to go inside and have a look around, but as it turned out, the head master muslim priest of all muslims in India was in town, so they had to follow all the rules at the mosque. That meant that no non muslims were allowed inside. Oh well, I don't think I missed much, it seemed to just be a huge walled in area with a podium at the front.

After the disappointment at the mosque we made our way down some of the narrowest and most crowded passageways I have ever seen. Our first stop was at this corner restaurant shop.

And they served these miniature elephant ear looking things. They are very good and considered a desert here. They were super gooey and sticky but crazy delicious. As it turned out, they were also my first "street food" experience in India. Worry you not, even after many more street food vendors in Old Delhi, I can happily report that I have not experienced "Delhi Belly".

We continued down the streets to our next street food experience but were quickly slowed by a huge traffic jam... and by traffic jam, I mean no one was moving and everyone was honking. I feel as though their governing transportation body is run by children who all think they should be first in line. It is terribly aggravating and time consuming.

Once we made our way though the traffic jam we visited a jewelry market, spice market, and wedding market. Sadly, I did not get any pictures of these areas, but Daniela did, so once I get the pictures from her I will update this post. I got some great spice mixes at the spice market, found some nice bangles for Mari at the jewelry market, and thankfully bought nothing at the wedding market. 

Our second to last stop was at this chain restaurant that serves some delicious food. I have no idea what I ate, but I do know that it was all delicious.

And for desert we had something called stic kulfi. I believe it was frozen milk curd with saffron and other spices in it. Again, it was delicious regardless of what was in it.

To finish off the tour, we headed back to the Red Fort to watch the Light & Sound show. Which as it turned out, was more of a Sound & Story show. The lights were unimpressive, but the story associated with the show was extremely informative. It told the story of the throne located at the Red Fort. I will give you the short version with just the highlights.

The Red Fort was built by the same guy who built the Taj Mahal. He also built two other forts and a couple other places, he is known as the Architect of India. When he was older, he got super sick and his three sons started killing each other in an attempt to claim the throne. The son that won imprisoned his father and basically ran the kingdom into the ground. After he destroyed the kingdom, there were a couple uneventful leaders that came after him, until finally the British came in and dethroned a drunk leader and claimed India as their own.

Fun fact about the throne (known as the Peacock Throne), it once held the largest diamond on earth. Originally the diamond was 186 1/16th carats and valued at over $128 million in todays money, but it has since been cut to 105.6 carats to increase its brilliance. The throne was looted in 1739 and the diamond then ended up in the hands of the British and ultimately the Queen of England's crown, which is where it now resides. Below is a drawing of the throne in it heyday.

Sorry for the lengthy post, but I hope the massive number of pictures makes up for it! Enjoy, I will update again soon.

Day Trip to Delhi

Last Sunday I was invited to Delhi by Daniela (the other intern). She is working at the Lodhi campus in Delhi and she thought I would enjoy coming to Delhi and do a little sight seeing. Obviously I was excited, so I caught a cab to Delhi (a 45 minute drive). Believe it or not, it only cost me about $6 for the cab.

Any ways, back to the important stuff. Daniela had booked this day long trip for us. It was on this air conditioned bus that was meant to go to all these different forts and temples and other Delhi tourist staples. On paper, it was going to be a fantastic day of sight seeing with plenty of pictures. In all honesty it began that way. We made our way to the first location, the Laxmi Narayan Temple. It was stunningly beautiful. There was gold plating everywhere, statues, white marble, and red sand stone. It was a sight to behold. Sadly I was only able to take pictures outside since no cameras, cell phones, or shoes were allowed inside. So this is the best I can do to show you the beauty of this place.

After this beautiful building is when things went south. As it turned out, Sunday was the hottest day in Delhi in the past couple weeks. We saw peeks of over 112 degrees and there was plenty of wind to blow the sand and dust that covers every surface in this country. Alas, we continued on. The next location was the Qutub Minar. Built at the end of the 12th century, it stands 238 feet tall and is surrounded by ruins. Again, it was a great place to visit and witness (even though they charge non-indian customers 5x as much as natives). At this point in time Daniela was not feeling well and had to sit down. It turned out that she was very very dehydrated. I then had to RUN out of this "park" area to a street vendor to get cold, sealed, bottled water. I return sweating worse than a fat kid trying to save his team from being eliminated in dodgeball. Thankfully Daniela felt better after a liter of water (as did I) and we caught up with the tour group.

Upon getting back on the bus I realized something... this bus was not airconditioned. They had vents above all the seats, but it was just blowing out air that was slightly cooler than steam. I proceeded to hold my water bottle to my neck in the hopes of bringing my internal temperature below boiling. I was mildly successful as we continued the bus tour. We drove past the Indian Parlament House and most of the Embassies. I would have gotten a picture of the US embassy, but I was unable to because our tour guide was speaking some sort of Hindi/English gibberish though a muffled microphone.

The next location was my favorite. It is called the Bahai Temple, or more commonly known as, "The Lotus Temple". Again, it was staggeringly beautiful. It was constructed in the late 80s and is made from a whole bunch of white marble slabs. It is a temple meant for all religions, and is more of a place for silent prayer. You have to walk to it barefoot, and as you can imagine in 112 degree weather, the ground was scalding hot. Once we got up the stairs and entered the temple, I realized that when you go in, it is almost completely silent. Close to 200 people inside this thing and all you can hear is people's feet shuffling around. Truly unreal.

After the Lotus Temple, we went to another location that was not on the schedule. It was a really cool place, with a cool story. The guy who built it had 200 wives and countless kids. He built it as a place for he and his family to be buried. Well after he died, one of his sons was supposed to take his position as ruler or something. Well one of them went around and killed all of his brothers! He was a sneaky and conniving a**hole.

The last place Daniela and I visited before we decided we had sweated enough was the place of Gandhi's murder. It was at this old hotel that he always stayed at when he came to Delhi. They had raised concrete where his last footsteps were, and kept his room just as he had it, and had a whole tour going though the grounds. It really was a cool thing to see and listen to the story behind what happened. But at this point in time Daniela and I were so tired that Gandhi himself could have come back from the dead and told us to be better people, and we would have just told him to piss off unless he had cold water and air conditioning. It really was a cool exhibit though, and it had so much information in it. I wish I was not so uncomfortable and the tour guide was not so rushed, because I would have like to read all the posters and documents about the location. But I guess I will have to save it for another day.

After we told our tour guide we were physically unable to continue, we made our way to a local market and indulged in some fine American cuisine... Subway. It was the first non-vegetarian meal I had in the country and it tasted so good. I bought a couple shirts and called it a day in Delhi. Later that night I caught a cab back to my flat and happily crawled into bed under my blasting air conditioner.

Daniela and I plan to finish that tour one day, and when we do, I will be sure to tell you all about it. For now though, that is all.