The Land of Festivals

---

Day Two

Did you know India was once known as "The Golden Bird"? Is that because of how rich the country once was or could it be because of its culture. Perhaps because the festive atmosphere of the land makes it so rich in beauty. New Delhi is just a small part of India but there is so much to experience, so much to encounter, and so much to observe. Unfortunately, our time was limited. We couldn't possibly do everything in a day! So Donna and I decided to hire a tour guide, Raj. We thought that it was best to take Raj with us because through his help we were easily able to overcome the language barrier among mostly Hindi speaking citizens and be able to do many things like renting a car and picking the destinations that we were going to visit.

We decided to start our journey at a doll museum that Donna had wanted to visit for a while. It took us quite a while to get there because the streets were packed with traffic and the noise pollution caused by it wasn't easy to ignore either. Once we got there we saw that Shankar's International Doll Museum held a collection of dolls from all over the world. There were three different sections to the museum, one had a variety of dolls from all over Asia, the second one had dolls collected from countries such as The UK, USA, Australia, New Zealand, and many others, and finally the main section of the museum had a bunch of handmade dolls from India. These dolls were carefully detailed and each one of them was unique in its own way. I was actually quite impressed by the selection.

Our next stop was the well known Red Fort. We followed Raj through the fort and were surrounded by walls made of red cement. This was one of the oldest monuments of Delhi. We saw many kids were out on a field trip, some couples wandering around, but the area was mostly occupied by tourists it seemed. As we walked among the red cemented walls of the Red Fort, Raj explained to us the historical significance and details of the place. There was a bunch of impressive art work carved into the walls and a variety of little shops along the sides of the walkway. We heard the crowd around the shops bargaining and finally made our way out of the pack.

Our last destination of the day was Delhi Haat. This was probably one of my favourite places in Delhi. Even though it was extremely hot, we felt tired, and the place was crowded like every other place in Delhi, we were able to enjoy a traditional Indian meal called a Thali. The plate had some rice, naan bread, and about three different types of curries. After we finished eating, we made our way to the main part of Delhi Haat. This is where all the festivals and stalls were. The chatter of the crowd directed us towards a cultural dance festival where a crowd surrounded a few dancers wearing heavy traditional clothing and dancing to Hindi songs. It was great! We spent a while at the festival before surveying plenty of temporary stalls set up by people selling handmade knickknacks.

This concluded our day and we made our way back to the hotel. I must say, it was quite a colorful and festive day altogether and I really wish I could stay longer to be able to experience it all.

---