Delhi & a visit to Akshadham

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December 26, 2010: AKSHARDHAM

Sam Wrote:

We decided to sleep in. We had asked the car to meet us at noon. It was well after noon that we met our driver for the day: Ram Kishan. A very nice person.

He drove us to the Swaminarayan Temple: Akshardham.

Akshardham is a massive temple complex built in 2005 by the BAPS organization. It has a number of exhibits but because it was so crowded and the fact that we were still tired from yesterday’s train journey, we opted just to worship at the temple and call it a day.

On the way back to the hotel, our driver drove us past few of the other attractions including India Gate, the Parliament Buildings and Connaught Maket.

I can’t get over the fact how pretty New Delhi is. In addition to its role as the Capitol of India, it is the central location for the Armed Forces. We drove past some major Army & Air Force bases. The residences for the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Senior Judiciary could easily pass for palatial mansions. Very impressive!

We returned back to the hotel after 6pm and since Tejas was complaining of not feeling good I decided to call for a Doctor. Dr. Khanna looked and acted more like a businessman than a doctor. A quick examination, he left us with a prescription that was delivered to our hotel room short time later. It appears that Tejas has a tummy viral infection.

For dinner we decided to try the Asian restaurant: “Wok Tok” @ the hotel. The meal was simply delightful. I was glad to see Tejas eat some food. He did make me promise to bring him back to the restaurant before we leave India.




Yamini Wrote:

Our train arrived only 2 hours late into Delhi! Our Sita Rep and driver met us at the station. I have never seen fog like this in my life. You could not even see anything in front of you, even with the lights on! I have no idea how the driver actually got us to our hotel. Thank you so much to this driver for getting us to our hotel safe and sound at 4am. Once we get to the hotel, I was very surprised to see the lobby jam packed with guests whose flights were all cancelled due to weather trying to book a room. (We later found out that many trains into Delhi were also cancelled….luckily ours wasn’t - I truly believe someone up there is looking out for us) Thank goodness we had a reservation and a Sita Rep who got us checked in right away as we were all so tired. The kids were happy to see they had their own adjoining room next to us. We all had such a great sleep.

We leisurely awoke, had breakfast and met our driver, Ram Kishan and headed first the Akshardam Temple. Akshardam is a huge extravagant Swaminarayan temple built of pink sandstone and white marble in 2005. This landmark took 5 years to complete, costs approx. $50 million dollars and 11,000 artisans. We spent some time in the beautiful temple with thousands of carved deities and a 11 foot gold plated version of Swaminarayan. We would have like to visit the exhibition but were really too tired to wait in the long line up to go in and we heard there was even a longer wait once we got in. We had lunch of masala kichdi, chaat, pav bhaji, and a thali! Shivani had Dhokla…she says it was yummy! We then headed to the souvenir shop and headed back to meet our driver. We will definitely come back to take in the exhibition water fountain show if we have the opportunity again.

Our driver then drove us through Delhi before heading back to our hotel. At the hotel Tejas was not well so we decided to call a doctor. Dr. Khanna came and checked him out and sure enough, he has a virus. He then sends to our room his medication that seems to help him. We head down for a nice asian meal at “Wok Tok” and then call it a night.





Shivani Wrote:

Once we got to Delhi, I almost wanted to go back to Amritsar. The fog was so creepy that you couldn’t see anything. I just kept holding on to moms hand because I was so creeped out. Our driver and a Sita representative met us at the train station. Our driver was awesome. Thanks to him and God we made it to the hotel safe and sound. Once we got to the lobby, we saw that it was pact. Tejas felt sick so mom had to take him to the bathroom. Dad asked someone why there were so many people there, and she said that the flights and trains were cancelled. When it was finally Dads turn to check in it zoomed by really fast thanks to our rep. When dad came back he had 2 keys. I asked him why he had 2 keys, because I thought we were getting 1 room. He said that he had booked 2 rooms, without telling Mom! I had to keep a secret. Once we got to the room(s) Mom saw dad go to 1 room and I go to another, she then figured out that dad had booked a suite. Tejas and I were in 1 room and Mom and Dad were in another. Since Tejas and I each had a double bed, which was cool cause we would jump across them. I kept falling through the crack, and kept hurting myself…Shhh don’t tell mom. Tejas and I finally got some ZzZzZz’s for the night- good ones to.

Today we are going to the Akshardam! I am so excited, because when we were in Agra we met some people in the lobby of our hotel, and they said that the Akshardam was amazing. Anyways, the Akshardam was amazing, and we had a great time. First we visited the mandir, and then we walked around a bit. We saw that there were photographers taking peoples picture. Dad decided that we should get our picture taken, so we did. Afterwards, we went to the food court. We got Pav Bhaji, Bhel Puri, Rajasthani Thali, and I got Dhokla (It was very yummy, but I have had better). Afterward we went to the gift shop. Dad got this book on all of the Indian celebrations, and we also got a Shankar Bhagwan murti. After we finished at the Gift Shop, we left. We went straight to our hotel. We just rested at our hotel, and went to the mall afterwards.


Tejas Dictated:

Ahhhhhh the fog was very heavy I couldn’t see a head of me. Finally we got to the hotel safe and sound. Thanks to our driver. It’s amazing how he could find our way back to the hotel. The hotel was packed with people, because all the flights were canceled because of the fog. I felt sick so my mommy took me to the bathroom but I did not get sick. Somehow we got ahead of all these people. Good thing because I was really tired. Dad surprised us and we got our own room (it was connected to my parents). Good night

The Akshardam was fun. We had to wait in a long line up to get in. I wasn’t feeling too well so my parents decided to skip the exhibition because it would take too long, so we went back to the hotel.

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