Delhilicous!

Hi all,

Today was another great today!!

After a VERY NICE breakfast at our hotel's dining room we headed out later today (around 10am) to our first sight, Jantar Mantar. This was a series of ancient sundials built by King Jai Singh back in the 1700s. We had a random tour guide approach us, and show us around, while he told us he worked for the government and asked for money at the end (a little sketchy), he was useful to have because we were able to learn a lot about the sun dials. There were four. One displayed the local time, one displayed world times and there were two calenders (one solar, one lunar). To think one person built this, when there was no standard time or electricity was incredible!

Next we went to the Ghandi Smriti, This was the place where Ghandi lived his last years of his life and was assassinated. Frankly the museum was strange. Once you have seen one Ghandi museum, you have seen them all. They all contain the same posters and minute sculptures of his life. He has a martyr status here so they have showed his last steps and have a memorial where he was shot (very similar to Yitzhak Rabin). The creepy part was seeing other tourists stop to smile in front of the spot where he was killed. The highlight here was the World Gong of Peace in the gardens.

After this we went to the Safdarjung Tomb. This was a memorial to the "weak ruler" of the Mughal movement. It is incredibly beautiful but has kind of fallen into disrepair. Avantika and I were the only two visitors to this massive garden and tomb. The entrance is very busy as there is a large mosque next door and dozens of aggressive beggars in the parking lot. Overall, this was worth it because it was so peaceful.

After this, we went to the Gurudwara, which is a Sikh Temple. We were greeted by a very nice man who took us into the "International Visitor's Office", meaning the "non-sikh" office where we were politely briefed on the protocols of the temple and given schmatas to cover our head. We walked thru the temple, which was beautiful. The alter, which was in the center, was gold and covered in flowers. The building was made from white marble and people sat around the center, as one is not supposed to turn their back to the alter. After, we walked out and down to a large fountain that is apart of the temple. On return, we briefly talked with the Sikh man, returned our head coverings and retrieved our shoes.

Lunch is what inspired the title. We went back to the Kahn market where we had lunch at a chocolate cafe. Needless to say, it was delicious!

Our last stop for the day was has the Hauz Khas village, which is a village that is becoming an artist colony. We went into a bunch of different galleries where some people were really nice. In one gallery, we spoke with the owner for about 30 minutes. her daughter made beautiful jackets, but considering the price of the one I wanted $350 (IR 16,000), I had to decline. We explored and got lost in the village and I feel that I got to see the real India by having a 30 minute excursion thru the residential areas here.

We are off to dinner in Delhi soon and off to Agra tomorrow to see the Taj Mahal.