Delhi Lama! Or where the hell is that guide book

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Finally got a chance to do this! Only because I woke at 3:15 am and couldn't get back to sleep. So, am currently in Delhi, at my mom's aunt and uncle's place. They live in a beautiful place, in a neighborhood tucked away, away from the streets. It is a little piece of heaven amidst the bustle and the hustle. We leave tomorrow for Goa.

I arrived on a Friday night, and woke Saturday to meet my friends who had all trickled in from all over the States (well two from SF, one from OAKLAND and one from the ATL) and one fellow from Israel. These are the most ridiculous people I know, and I am proud to call them friends. The authorities may eventually call them felons, but today we are young and free and deleriously jet lagged.

First day we went around a bit. I managed to sleep until late, and met them out in the middle of the India Gate. (Which is what, India's welcoming structure, I don't know. I could google it and let you people know what is what. But why should you know more than us? We are doing all of this with only a Lonely Planet and a driver who speaks broken English that my friends' friends hired for us and my hilarious Hindi. Tami is pregnant and the Lonely Planet Rainman and spouts off facts like no one's business.) Also, we saw a giant temple, Akshardam, which was just built recently and as 20,000 statues of dieties. Our man from Israel was impressed only after we told him they were hand carved.

The next day we went to the Taj Mahal, which was awesome. This is the third time I have seen it, and it still takes my breath away, as does the smog/fog. Agra is approx 4 hour away from Delhi, which we took in a van. Upon arrival we were immediately surrounded by street hawkers of all shapes and sizes, with keychains, pens, monkeys, the usual. They glommed onto us because of the white people with us were giant suckers. It was amusing. At one point in the trip, Frankie asks: "Why don't these people come up to you and Vidhya? Eric and I each have a woman and baby following us." I laughed for 5 minutes after that. Because we don't have sucker written on our forehead. And possibly because they can sense my evil. I haven't any idea.

It was supercrowded and we indians pretended we were Indian Indian so we could get the Rs. 20 entrance fee. While the white devils had to pay Rs. 750. Score! The lines at the east gate were at least four hours long, so we wandered around and latched discreetly on to another group who had a tour guide, following them to the South gate where we stood and got hustled for 45 minutes. Double score!

After the Taj, we had drinks at the Overoi Amarvilas, because my suggestion for drinks at the Sheraton was voted down as too fancy. This is funny because this Oberoi (www.oberoiamarvilas.com) is where Bill Clinton stayed, when he visited the Agra. At $650 a night. Upon arrival, they let us in despite Frankie and Eric - it was a tiny haven in the middle of chaos. Kingfishers around, and wine for me and the lady with a baby with a Taj view. It was the most stunning hotel any of us had been in.

Delhi last day was shopping, with a quick runthrough at the Parliament and other official buildings which put our Indian political junkie Vivek in heaven. We ate like kings that night.

All right, now it is time to go pack for Goa. This should be great! Or we'll end up in jail. Only time will tell. Here's to improvement in my Hindi.

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Photos

Lovely.
You can almost see through the smog this beautiful sunset.

Snapshots of felons
Vivek's caption: "So we were on our honeymoon getting our picture made in front of the Taj Mahal when these two bald dudes rolled in..."

Comments

[Jacqueline]

Indian Indian
I think Frank coulda passed for Indian Indian too.