Day 2 - Delhi Day Tour

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Buffet breakfast was interesting. A lot of Indian style items we'd never heard of before. We went around and tried small portions of everything. Daisy had a dosa made which she really liked.

Tour started at 8.30am and we met our guide Arjun and driver, Arjay. Surprisingly, there was still just the six of us for this entire tour. Certainly wasn't expecting a small group tour. Robyn and Anne however didn't opt for the Varanasi extension.

First stop was a visit to Old Delhi. We were taken to the Jama Masjid Mosque (the largest mosque in India), which has three great gateways, four angle towers and two minarets constructed ofalternating vertical strips of red sandstone and white marble. First we had a rickshaw tour through Chandni Chowk, a colourful shopping bazaar in OldDelhi. Then a tour through the mosque which was surprising because there wasn't actually any interior. The square that we walked into was the mosque. The dome and minarets were situated on one side of the square.

Next stop in old Delhi was the Red Fort (built by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan). Again, not what we expected. The Fort is surrounded by gigantic Red walls and when you enter you go through a large archway and the first building is a bazaar. Arjun told us not to buy anything here and put the blinkers on because everything comes from Jaipur so it's better to buy there.

After the bazaar there are beautiful gardens with smaller marble Palace buildings with intricate frescoes and carvings.

We then had a longish drive back to New Delhi for lunch at the Lazeez Affire restaurant. Arjun said that they only take us to hygienic restaurants vetted by the tour company, "Curries are mild for tourists and if you want spicier, you have to tell them and no chance of Delhi belly", he said. The restaurant was very good. We had lamb biryani, chicken korma and garlic naan, similar to the Indian food back home. Servings were generous and we couldn't finish it. Cost was less than $AU50.

After lunch we travelled to Laxminarayan Temple, a site dedicated to Lakshmi, the goddess of prosperity and good fortune. Quite an extensive Hindi Temple with shrines to many gods. Unfortunately, photos were not allowed but it was quite interesting. Some of the inscriptions were in English as well as the other Indian languages.

Next stop was the beautiful Lotus Temple, also known as the Bahai Temple. Arjun said it was inspired by the Sydney Opera House and it did look like the Opera House with the sails closed up. The Bahai religion is very interesting as they believe in just one universal God and there are no representations to pray to. As there was a long line, Arjun asked us if we wanted to line up but we were all pretty tired already so voted to abstain. He said there wasn't much to see inside.

Final stop for the day was Raj Ghat, where Mahatma Gandhi was cremated. There was then a long one hour drive back to the hotel and we passed sights like the India Gate, a 42m high war memorial to soldiers killed in World War 1 and Rashtrapati Bhawan, the palace-like building home to the President of India.

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