Delhi day 2

Red Fort, Sikh Temple, Train to Jailsamur

"You want fake beard?" (hes trying to sell me a fake beard)

We started out the day taking a tuk-tuk car thing to the red fort, and got our first look at Indian streets during the daytime, which are even more hectic than they are at night. Arrived at the red fort, which is an incredible sight because of its size. The outer wall runs over 1 k and varies in height from 12m to 33m. Construction started in 1638 and was finished in less than ten years, the original idea being to move the capital to this new fort. However, before this could happen, X was imprisoned by his son who usurped the throne.

The interior of the fort are Hammams, living quarters, audience rooms, and strangely enough, barracks contributed by the British, which look very out of place in the surroundings. We spent only about an hour or so looking around the fort since we were on a tight time schedule, which would continue throughout the trip, but that was enough time for at least 20 people to accost Gardiner and I wanting to take pictures.

Cool stonework in one of the fountains

Benny Lava Pose, about to do jetpack operation

More classic Indian posing

All the Indian tourists were much more interested in taking pictures with Gardiner and I than with the actual fort

After perusing the Red Fort we felt a need for food so we went over to a nearby VEGETARIAN RESTAURANT (WOOOT) and got some grub, which was again very good. The food put us in the mood for some religious enlightenment, so we crossed the street to the nearby Sikh temple to take a look. There was an information center and a man working there gave us a rundown on the history, theory, and happenings in the temple. The believes that one must overcome the conflict in the world that arises from he need to be right, and from fighting between religious groups. They believe in only one god, which is the same god for all religious groups and in freedom of worship. Someone should not try and impose their beliefs on another, but instead try and understand from all points of view without altering. The temple we were at honored one of the main gurus who was executed for preaching freedom of religion. Members of any faith or no faith can come to the temple and take part in the rituals ad well as be fed from the auminity kitchen. Overall it sounds like a very good, tolerant religion, one that I would like.

Ritual washing at the enterance to the temple

Man making Chipati at the restauraunt we went to

Once we had gotten our cultural fix for the day we go in another rickshaw and drove to the parliament building and or India gate which is a monument to the solders killed in WWI, The parliament building was HUGE, one of the most massive I have seen, and again, we saw monkeys!!
Parliment behind a cool gate

Steffen being an uber-tourist and searching the book for Kobe Biff

On the way back to the hotel our rickshaw driver let each of us drive, WOO, Steffen and I each drove just for a few minutes, but Gardiner was pretty decent at it and actually drove the entire way home, which was both scary and funny as all hell. Everyone around us thought it was either really funny, or in the case of this guy, had a very dim view of letting tourists drive on the streets of Delhi. Our driver kept control of the brakes, so I guess we weren’t totally going to die, but there were a few very dicey moments.

Gardiner driving, Steffen running along ahead taking pictures and me riding on the side sticking my leg out - the driver loved us!!

Very dubious about foreighners driving rickshaws...

Mid-scoop

Delhi, Day 1 of the trip

I had the best plane food I’ve ever had on the way over here – if you are flying to India take Jet Airways, it’s the best. I had a REAL wine glass, and a REAL napkin, the dinner was veggie, and there was really good Raita, Curry, and Chapatti, it was AMAZING. It goes up there with the other two awesome meals I’ve had on planes, one of which was in first class, and one when I was 9, so it’s a lofty category.

Arrived in Incredible India with Steffen and Liz waiting for me at the airport, and we got a little cab car to our hotel.

I thought Asia was hectic, but it is NOTHING compared to India. While in Asia there are usually only motorcycles, cars, buses, etc in the road, in India there are all of the above as wells as all manner of livestock, monkeys, people and of course cows running back and forth in fast moving traffic.
People on a political march walking down the middle of the road

On the way to the hotel we passed a truck which had ‘Anytime is egg time’ written as the slogan, which is a great slogan, because it is true, anytime really IS egg time. After checking in I received my Xmas present, which was a blow-up sumo wrestler suit; we are going to all wear them when Rahul picks us up in the airport in Bangalore.

Funny anecdote: They tried to find batteries for them so that they could pick me up in the suits as well, but met with blank stares after asking for batteries, later Steffen started pronouncing batteries with an Indian accent and then suddenly everyone knew what he was talking about.

SO far my absolute favorite thing about India are the amount of vegetarian restaurants. I’ve always been so envious of people who can just go into a restaurant where the menu isn’t in English and just point - now I can do that!!! We ordered four dishes at random and then potato Nan. I have never had such good food in my life. Each dish was incredible and we just stuck them in the middle and then all shared. I got Aloo Gobi, which is potato and cauliflower curry, and the other dishes we got were mutter masala, mutter something else, and then Dahl something because there was one lentil dish. We were the only foreigners in the restaurant, and everyone stared at us with great curiosity. Funny thing is that people think I’m Hindi. The waiter at the restaurant asked me if I was and the next day our tuk tuk driver went off in a random stream of Hindi at me; I think I must be dark enough that I could almost pass.

Delicious meal the first night; we had four curries and three orders of naan and the bill was 150 rupees: 3 dollars US. It was the best food I have ever had

Happy food consumers