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Published: February 14th 2008
We arrived in Delhi the early hours of the morning and as soon as we stepped off the plane we noticed the climate change and it was freezing!!! Samarth picked us up from the airport and took us to our guesthouse in Janpath / Connaught Place. We checked in and went straight to bed making our arrangements for the day ahead. Samarth picked us up at midday with his friend Vicky and we went for lunch at a street restaurant. We was then taken to see some of Delhi sights including India Gate and Rashrapati Bhavan. They were both beautiful. India Gate is a memerial which pays tribute to around 9000 Indian soldiers who died in World War 1. Samarth then took us to meet his mum Santosh who greeted us with a big smile, hug and a lovely cup of Jasmine Chai. We tried lots of different sweets with our chai and later had a surprise dinner of tomato soup, scramble egg and cucumber and tomato toasted sandwiches. It was really nice and she made us feel so welcome. We then got changed and went clubbing. The club was really good, it played Indian and English music and we danced
the night away.
The next day we moved hostel to Noida so we were closer to Samarth. We stayed with a family friend who cooked us a lovely breakfast each morning. Today we visited Red Fort driving through old Delhi on the way. Old Delhi was crazy, there was so much traffic and so many people. It was manic but so cool. We then visited Gandhi Smriti and buriel gardens. It was very tranquil. We learnt a bit about his life and saw where he spent his last days. That evening we went to Santosh's house for dinner. For starters we had kebab and chicken nuggets, for the main course we had dal, paneer marsala, chilli chicken, vegatables, rotis and chicken drumsticks, for dessert we had butterscotch ice cream. It was so yummy we have not eaten that much food in a long time.
The next day we visited Humyan's Tomb. It was beautiful, the architecture was outstanding and the tombs were elaborately decorated. We then went to Saket and met up with Samarth's friend Manik and to Lucy's delight visited subway. From there we went to Qutab Minar where we met another of Samarth's friend Suraj then
went onto Dilli Haat which was a food and handicraft market with goods from all over India. There was a young boy there dancing in a horse and we tried some fruit beer which was actually really nice. That evening we went to a place called Essex where we played pool and then to a nice restaurant for dinner.
The next day we visited the Lotus Temple which is surrounded by water and shaped like a lotus flower. In the temple there were hundreds of school kids it was a place of worship so we all had to be silent. When it was time to leave all the kids went past us wanting to shake our hands. From here we visited Akshardam Temple which was recently built and so beautifully decorated. It had over 500 elephants carved into it, each one sitting or standing in a different position. Whilst walking around the temple we were approched by a group of school kids asking for our autographs. Samarth was shocked he had never seen anything like it before. We then went to a show about the temple and the history behind it. We learnt how Bhagwan Swaminarayan travelled around India
by foot. That eveing we went for Samosas and Kathi rolls off street stalls, the food was really good. We had Galub Jamons and Kulfi for desert which was delicious.
The next day Samarth took us to the bus station and we caught a bus to Jaipur. It was sad leaving Samarth but you cant get rid of us that easily we will be back to Delhi to celebrate Holi with his family and friends.
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Amy
non-member comment
Yep
... the last comment I made was most definitely a hint. xx