Delhi

Delhi is a crazy, big city with lots of different aspects and experiences to explore.  With that said, we were ready to leave after 4ish days.  The sheer number of people is a lot to handle and the chaos can be maddening.  There is  Old Delhi (obviously the older part of Delhi, but more chaotic, busy, and markety side of town), Central/New Delhi (more political buildings here, newer museums and monuments),  Paharganj (the tourist/backbacker hub), and Connaught Place (ritsy shops with a nice park). 

Central Delhi in pictures:

If you ever end up in Delhi, I’d highly suggest the Gandhi Smriti Museum.  It is where Gandhi took his last steps and lived for the end of his life.   The upstairs had a very impressive, interactive section that was just spectacular.  It was sweet to see a great monument to India’s peacemaker and who is a hero everywhere we go. 

 

One of my favorite experiences in Delhi was riding a camel.  We were walking to see the political buildings and I smiled and waved at a group of military officers and their camels.  One of them waved me through a fence and wanted a picture with me and for me to try out his camel.  I called back the rest of the group and I tried my hand at camel riding!   They have such weird shaped bodies and it was quite the jolt getting from ground level up to (what I thought at the time) very high.  The next day we saw a whole herd of camels in a Republic Day trial run parade.  A whole batch of officers and their camels paraded through the streets.  Quite the scene. 

 

In the same area as the camels we saw all of the government buildings: 1. Secretarial (1st and 2nd pictures) 2. Rashtrapati Bhavan 3.  the well manicured lawn in front of Rashtrapati Bhavan

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We stopped by a random mosque that caught our eye, but we were allowed no closer. 

 

Annie and I decided Delhi would be a great place to check out henna.  The women were convincing so before we knew it we were stopped in the middle of a market getting henna.  Before Mike knew it the woman took his hand and made a design on his (much bigger than he expected or wanted) hand.  It turns out it takes a while for the stuff to dry before you can scrap it off.  We were all useless without any of our hands and Andrew/Anne had to do everything for us.  It only last a couple days for me but Annie’s stayed dark for at least a week. 

 

Pictures of Old Delhi:

There are spice markets, sweet markets, veggie markets, anything and you can get it.  It’s often entertaining and crazy to walk through them, and we walked through many in Old Delhi. 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Red Fort (aka Lal Qila) is a major attraction of Old Delhi and is 2 km with a height of 18-33 m high.  It has been built since 1648.  It was pretty impressive and had mosques, royal baths, and extravagant buildings in its interior.  Emperor Shah Jahan lived in style whenever he stayed here. 

The Lotus Temple (Bahai House of Worship) is a sight to be seen.  It was modeled after a lotus flower and has pools all around it so it will reflect and look like it is emerging from water.  We were able to meet my friend Heather (she’s working at a school in Delhi) here and a couple of other times in Delhi. 

Chadni Chowk is one of the craziest streets I’ve been on.  Anything you can think of is on the road (animals, people, auto ricksaws, cycles, cycle ricksaws, motorcycles, carts…the list goes on).  I’m just not sure how cars ever get where they want to go.  The traffic is beyond chaotic.  Imagine driving through this:

 

The Jama Masjid is the largest mosque in India and took 14 years to build.  It was phenomenal.  We were given these ridiculous outfits, and Heather and I decided it was merely because we were foreigners (no one else had them, even if they weren’t covered up as much as we were).  

  There were a bunch of random buildings or mosques in Old Delhi that were so interesting or cool.  There are randomly these doors of bright colors or arches with fantastic design.  It sticks out from the otherwise mundane colors of Old Delhi.  Here is such an example: 

We did a lot in Delhi but this post is already long.  Other things that you can later ask us about if interested: Craft Museum, Supreme Court Museum, Delhi’s metro, Nehru’s Museum and Planetarium (he was the first prime minister), delicious food on rooftops, interesting sweets on the road, throwing up a bad samosa in the metro station, and being so cold in the morning we could see our breath (that’s cold here).  One last picture.  India Gate and War Monument.