The great Delhi Adventure part 2

Morning 6 - 8 am

I woke up to my dad fiddling with the light switches and trying to get the AC to start working. It turns out I slept through a huge thunderstorm complete with intense rain which had taken the power out. The fridge was leaking and the fan was on... The funny thing is the emergency generator only powered basic lights as well as the fan. The fridge was not deemed an emergency service.

7 am
The power has come back on, but of course the internet is dead again. I'll go fix it after I workout and eat.

8 am
The internet never did come back on. This next part is probably only for electrical engineers as they'd be the only ones who find it funny. I went with the helpers down to their Circuit room which was just at the foot of the stairs. This guy had had opened up one of the Motor Control Centres to see the live busses. He had a tiny screwdriver with no insualtion whatsoever that he was touching every phase with. He turned to me and explained that one of the phases was not working. I couldn't help but laugh as he touched the next busbar which happened to be a live phase and quickly recoiled. I just said ok, and went on back to the room. The low voltage here is 440V before it's stepped down further for residential use.

Anyhow, we ended up grabbing breakfast which the workers had prepared. We had aloo parathas, muli parathas, and bread omlettes complete with freshly squeezed orange juice. Parathas are like naan but thinner that are stuffed with vegetable mash. Aloo is potato and Muli is raddish. I like the raddish ones a lot better as they were nice and light. You dip the parathas in the supplied curd (yogurt). After we ate the travel agent and the driver came to pick us up to start our big Delhi tour. After a quick stop at their office to discuss the rest of our North India Tour, we started our sightseeing.

The weather was icky, but I've been told this is what it is mostly until the winter months. Heavy cloud cover with intense baking heat and sweaty humidity. It was about 32 degrees here. It's a good thing we had hired a driver or else we probably would have been only able to see two or three places because of the intense heat.

Parliamentary Gate

Our first stop was at the PTI building. This was where my dad had worked 20 years ago. We took a couple of snaps here but were harassed by the machine gun wielding security guard who rudely informed us that we were not allowed to be here. There's a security guard at the entrance of every building here in Delhi. Some have guns, some don't. There have been too many terrorist attacks on the capital and as a result security is at an all time high. After finding our driver we headed up to parliament street to see the parliamentary buildings. Nothing too great to see here. They were massive buildings but once again because of the intense security we were ushered off.

India Gate From the Back


India Gate Inscription

H2G0, India Gate Thirst

The next stop was India Gate. We got out and walked around the India gate which is a big sandstone arch with engravings of India. There was a fence all around the arch with security guards once again and as a result we were not allowed to walk into the arch. Yet another quick stop. We then headed over to the Delhi Red Fort. The red fort was constructed by Shah Jahaan for the obvious reason of protecting Delhi. This fort isn't to be confused with the Agra Red Fort. We grabbed our tickets from the ticket counter. The interesting thing here to note is that there are huge lineups, but any lady can cut the line and grab tickets for the whole family. Weird eh? So after my mom grabbed us our tickets we walked to the entrance of the red fort. We had to go through a scanner and had our bags checked again.

Delhi Red Fort Shopping Bazaar/Grand Entrance


Delhi Red Fort - First building you see once you go through massive White Arches

We walked through massive white arches, through the gift centre, and into the main courtyard area. The red color comes from the red sandstone used. It's hard to describe the area. The main courtyard is a huge garden with walkways left and right that first lead to the King's throne. The throne is in an open area and not enclosed. I guess he would make all his speeches and decisions from here. THere were tiny windows to the left and right of his throne in the back wall. This is where women from his harem would overlook the courtyard area.

Entrance to the Bath Houses - Delhi Red Fort


Close up of Marble at Bath houses - Delhi Red Fort

Masala Lemon Juice outside Delhi Red Fort

We headed towards each of his bathouses and then to the mosques.But other than that there wasn't too much to see. On the way out I checked out the war museum, which wa intersting but unsatisfying, probably because I've seen better in and around Hyderbad. The only other interesting thing I can say about the Delhi red fort is that the prime minister of India holds a national address every year on August 15 behind Bulletproof glass and intense security. As we waited for our driver, my dad made me try lime juice with masala spices. I was incredibly thirsty and I downed two of them... Every blog I've read so far advises against this, but I didn't have any problems.

Flower Seller at Rajghat Memorial Park- You buy flowers from this lady so that you can show your respects by placing the flowers on Gandhi's Black Slab


Gandhi's Memorial at Rajghat Memorial Park

Elephant outside Rajghat Memorial

Our next stop was the Rajghat Memorial, which is a memorial to Gandhi. Gandhi's ashes are enclosed in a huge black marble slab which you get to walk around. As a sign of respect, you can even put flower petals in front of his slab. One again the security is heavy. On our way out we ran into two kids offering elephant rides up and down the street. We weren't interested.

Lotus Temple - Delhi

Next stop, was Lotus Temple, which is an impressive modern day building in which the hindus go and pray in. We took one look at the line and decided that it wasn't worth the wait. So next stop was what I was looking forward to all day, qutb Minar.

Qutb Minar - Delhi



Qutb Minar Inscriptions - Delhi

In and around the Qutb Minar - Delhi

The Qutb Minar area is essentially a memorial area with tombs of various moghuls and the asoka stone. Qutb Minar itself is an impressive 28 m stone tower with crazy architecture and inscriptions all the way up the tower. It was constructed in the twelth century and is the tallest stone tower in India. The tower is made up of alternating cylindrical and triangular columns with a story engraved in a cylindrical fashion all the way up the tower.

Intricate Carving in and around Qutb Minar - Delhi

Aside from that, the other interesting thing is the Asoka Stone. Legend has it if you can wrap your arms around the Asoka stone behind you, then you are incredibly lucky and wise. However, it of course was fenced off. The Asoka Stone is an iron pillar with an inscription of some sort of rise to power that Asoka underwent. I took a pic of the inscription but it's in old english so I don't really understand what it is trying to say.

Tomb of Illtutmish at Qutb Minar - Delhi

We finished up fairly quickly after that and decided it was high time we ate, so we headed to Pindi Restaurant which was what would be considered a middle class restaurant. Food was good, but I ended up stuffing my face way too much and with non veg no less. I've decided to only stick to veggies until I deem it absolutely safe to eat otherwise.

And so with dinner done at the restaurant, we headed back to the B&B and called it a night. The power was back on but I was way too beat. I sweated a lot today and my shirt is full of sweat stains. Now I know better... sheesh. Tomorrow morning is an early departure for Srinigar, Kashmir.