On Saturday I decided to be a tourist and ventured out on my own into Delhi. Actually I signed up for a day long tour which consisted of being driven to each spot. After that I was on my own.
I made it to 8 destinations. Here is what I found out about myself today. In 115 degree heat, I can completely soak a shirt in sweat in about 50 minutes. The air-conditioning in the vehicle can halfway dry out the shirt in 20 minutes. I repeated that all day long. I drank 6 liters of water and still was not able to urinate until long after I returned home and drank another 2 liters with a Gatorade powder mixed in. I also ended up with 5 blisters, 3 on my right foot and 2 on my left.. I was wearing sandals. The bottom of my feet were black by the time I got home. My face has a little sunburn.
I started off at 9am and got back at 7:15. It was a beautiful with a nice bright sun and about 60% humidity. It was hot.
I started off at the Lotus Temple. To enter I had to take my sandals off and walk barefoot about 500 feet into the building. They had burlap covering the red stone to walk in. The building is spectacular on the outside, but in the inside it is just a church with pews. All the other people entering sat down and said a little prayer. I had about 10 people ask me where I am from. I was the only white person there.
As I was trying to find my taxi after exiting I noticed 4 men carrying a body for a funeral. At first I wasn’t sure but then I could make out the shape of the feet and head of the body wrapped in linen. I did not take a pic of this.
Qutb Minar Complex was next. This was by far my favorite site. I will head back there again. Work started on this site around 1202. Basically it is a tower celebrating Muslim dominance in Delhi. The surrounding area has multiple other ruins and unfinished towers in various stages. A few of the other ruins had articulate carvings. A room that had a tomb was the most complete and complex carvings. I am in the picture in that room.
After that I went to a place called Safdarjang Tomb. It was built around 1750. It was not in the best shape. I was the only person viewing the destination. The most interesting part of it were a couple of honey bee nests. One looked like it was about 4 feet long and 3 feet tall.
Nehru Memorial was next. It was the residence of the British commander in chief built around 1930. It was a big mansion with pictures for the museum piece of it. I was in and out in about 15 minutes. A planetarium was right next to it. It cost 2 rupees or 4 cents to get in. For that price I had to check it out. They had a Russian descent module in there. I snuck in one picture showing the CCCP on it. Also right next to that was an old hunting lodge from the 1400s. It wasn’t much of a building but had a few steps to go up to see it. I took more pictures for the flower fans that were around the building than anything else.
The Indira Gahdhi Memorial Museum was next. This was packed. I was the only white person once again. It had many pictures, papers, and newspaper articles in it. There was also a memorial for the spot that she was shot in 1984. For Dave and Soni this was the first time I saw water lilies, but they were not blooming. I took a few pics of the pond.
India Gate was next. It is a massive monument commemorating 90,000 Indian soldiers killed in WW1. I was attacked by peddlers at this site and had to dodge traffic trying to cross the street from where we parked.
The next destination was the zoo. The highlights were I was I less the 3 feet away from most of the animals including a lion, jaguar and puma. I did a lot of walking here. This was the start of the blisters.
I did not have much enery left after the zoo, but the Red Fort was next. First I had to get past the peddlers. Next was trying to find the ticket booth. I had to walk around for about 10 minutes before I came across it. To get inside I was padded down twice and went through a metal detector. There were a couple interesting buildings inside with arched doorways and arched pillars.
I took a lot of pictures once again – about 400. Thank goodness for 8gb memory sticks. I posted them out to Picasa at http://picasaweb.google.com/JasonsBigAdventure
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