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Published: November 15th 2006
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Lotus Palace
Arnie & I outside the beautifully designed Lotus Palace, surely one of the most peaceful places in Delhi!! Hi Everyone
We've used Delhi as a base whilst touring Rajesthan and northern India, so we thought we ought to spend a couple of days sampling the delights of Delhi!!!
Luckily our host Rajiv,at the Blue Sapphire where we were staying took us on day tour of the main sights and he proved to be a wonderful guide, even if the trishaw men were too much for him to handle!!( If a local Delhian can't manage them, what hope do we poor foreigners stand!) First to Old Delhi to the Jama Mastjid Mosque, it is a huge austere building, but the alternating stips of red sand stone and white marble make it never the less striking. It also has wonderful views of the Red Fort, and it's a rip off for charging 200r just to take a camera in!! Rajiv kindly stayed outside and held our camera and that of Francios, a French lad also staying at the hostel and sharing the cost of the day's tour.
Next we had to take a rickshaw tour of Chandni Chowk, the market place of Old Delhi which has mainly wholesale shops. Some of the streets are extremely narrow, so there's no cars, but
Chaos on the streets of Delhi
Rajiv "enjoying" his tricshaw ride around Chandni Chowk that doesn't mean that it's any safer through these streets. However where the streets are wide enough for cars, the traffic is appalling, for which you need nerves of steel, to face all the obstacles in the trishaws path, either that or just don't look!!. (And that's not mentioning the air and noise pollution)
The visit to the Red Fort is ok, it's not the best fort in the country, but we'd seen it on TV during India Independence Day, so we wanted to see where all the children dressed in the colours of the national flag, had sat and where the Prime Minister had spoken from.
But without a doubt, the highlight of this Delhi Tour was the visit to the Ghandi Museum, where he spent his last 100 days and was the site of his assination. As well as his "bed" there are many artefacts belonging to Ghandi, plus his life story and many excerpts & quotes from his speeches. Raised footprints follow the steps of his last walk to the site of his assination and this is comemorated with a monument. A very well done and moving tribute to honour a great man.
Next on the list
Cattle cart
Just another day on the chaotic streets of Delhi was the stunningly designed Bahai Lotus Temple, (shaped like a lotus flower) this is a very peaceful place, and very light inside as it it utilises the natural light that filters in through the unique design shape.
India Gate was the place to finish our tour of Delhi, surrounded by lawns and gardens it's a favourite place for the Indian people to promonade and picnic in the very pleasant temperature of the evening sun.
That was some of the sights of Delhi and there's no time to sight see any more as we are going to Agra tomorrow to see the highlight of any trip to Northern India, the Taj Mahal.
Rajiv we our guide again, it's a 4 hour trip by car from Delhi, with us were Francois and a lovely Japanese girl who spoke hardly any English, ( she was on a whistle-stop tour of India 7 days!!)
. At 750 rupees it’s not cheap to visit the Taj Mahal, plus having to put up with the immense badgering of the souvenir sellers just outside the site, who attack like blowflies on a fresh piece of meat!!! (They really are that bad!) However in real life the Taj
Red Fort Delhi
From the Jama Mastjid Mosque there's a wonderful view of the Red Fort is more spectacular as any photograph, the perfect lines and symmetry of the building just holds ones eye. Just to stand and behold this magnificent building before us just made our trip to India. Inside it’s a bit of a let down, but the carvings and the inlay work on the walls around the tombs are very well done, no photos allowed sadly! Next the fort at Agra which is a much better example that the Red Fort at Delhi and really is well worth seeing. We stayed the night at Agra, I wanted to catch the early morning sunrise on the Taj Mahal, but sadly the sun couldn’t shine through the pollution haze on the horizon. Back to Delhi by train, which took much longer than the car due to delays on the line, so staying to see the Taj at sunrise wasn’t a particularly successful exercise. But at least we tried and now it’s time to get blogging and pack ready for Nepal See you soon byee Maggie & Arnie
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