Delhi, India – Day 2
Wednesday, February 20th, 2008Our time in Delhi has come to an end and once again we’re sad to say goodbye to a place. Before taking this trip, we heard a lot of bad things about Delhi and how we should only stay here in order to see the Taj Mahal and cities like Jaipur. Shelly and I actually found Delhi to be very fun and we could have spent several more days here. Oh well, we’ll just have to add this to our list of “places we need to return to”.
We spent most of yesterday touring the city’s historical sites and continuing our Delhi shopping experience. Our day started with a stop at Qtub Minar, which is the main signature site in Delhi. Qtub Minar is to Delhi what the Space Needle is to Seattle and most postcards have it pictured somewhere on them. Qtub Minar also confirmed what we had briefly learned the day before while touring the Red Fort— Shelly and I are like animals in a zoo in India… at least for kids. Everywhere we go, kids on school fieldtrips want to say “hi”, shake our hands, and take pictures with us. It got to the point where we had to make a quick exit to the gate because we couldn’t take two steps without someone wanting to talk to us. According to the hotel staff, it’s because many of the children are from rural areas and rarely see anyone from the West. Below are a few pictures of our Qtub Minar experience.
Shelly being questioned (and examined) by a group of school girls
A picture of us with some teenage boys… love the pose with those blue pants
And finally, the site we came to see
After Qtub Minar, we drove over to the Lotus Temple, which is very similar to the Sydney Opera House. We walked around it for a bit and then did a little shopping at a local market. After 1.5 months of traveling, we finally bought some large items for our house—two Indian silk woven rugs. They cost a quarter of what we could get them for in the U.S. and included free shipping so we figured why not. Anyway, below is a picture of the Lotus Temple.
Last night, we ventured out of our hotel and had dinner at one of the nicest restaurants in Delhi called Veda. It’s traditional Indian food in a modern, upscale setting. The staff there were amazing, always smiling, and having a great time, save one… the cashier. This was like an open invitiation for Shelly to talk to him and within a minute, she had a picture with him.
Shelly with Veda’s cashier and his picture perfect smile
By the end of the night, the restaurant manager was over at our table talking to us and telling us about their recent critic reviews, expansion plans, etc. They also moved us over to their nightclub section and put me in the “captain’s chair” to kick back and relax. Overall, it was a great experience and if anyone’s in Delhi, we would recommend eating there. They also had the cleanest and nicest bathrooms we’d seen in over a month, another positive.
O.k. I have to run and grab breakfast before we depart for Agra to see the Taj Mahal at sunset. One last thing, yesterday we also finalized our plans in India since we had none when we arrived. Today we’re going to see the Taj Mahal and spend the night in Agra. Tomorrow we depart for Jaipur and spend 2 days touring the city. After that, we fly down to Cochin and stay for 3 days before taking a private 2 day backwater cruise on a rice boat. We’ll then fly up to Mumbai for a few days before catching our flight to Bangkok. Bye for now…
nkurtz