Today began bright and early. I was very rested and woke up on my own at 5:00 am local time. We had it arranged to meet our driver at the front door at 6:00 am. We arrived on time and they had our breakfast ready, cucumbers and cheese sandwiches with fruit, juice and water. The sandwiches were surprisingly good. We hopped in the car, which was very nice, and began the first leg of our journey, which only last about 5 minutes. We left the hotel with intentions to drive to the Taj Mahal, which is about 3 hours drive away. Our driver Soben received a call from the front desk saying that the Taj was closed because it was Friday. We returned back to the hotel to wait till 8:30 because nothing opened until 9 for us to see.
Our second try was successful. We left the hotel and headed to see the sights of New Delhi. The roads/traffic were crazy. We almost got hit several times. Our first stop was the Lotus Temple. You have to take off your shoes before entering the temple so you put them into a gunny sack and hand it to someone who gives you a wood chip with a number on it to return your shoes. We were the only white people there and we really didn’t know what was going on. We went in, sat on the pews, watched people, then everyone got up and left. It didn’t even look like people were praying.
After the Lotus Temple Ryan and I took a tour of Old Delhi. We hopped on a bicycle taxi and headed down the narrow streets. I was very excited about the tour, we were headed into a cool area. We went to a big market area, which was divided into sections by categories; food, peanuts, chili, flowers, clothing, books etc. They were kind of like districts in New York or other big cities in the U.S. He rode us down narrow streets and by little shops. I don’t know how many people we almost hit. I could reach out my hand and take something from a shop or tap someone on the shoulder. We were SO close to people. We got off the bike and went on foot for probably 30 minutes. He took us in some back alley’s and by some food places. We passed through the ‘chili district’, our eyes started to water and the sent was very strong. We arrived at a back market area, which was hidden from the main street. There were several levels, people lived on the two upper levels. I asked him if he could take us up to the top, he did. We climbed some very scary, dark stairs but eventually reached the top. We were walking on the rooftop of several buildings and could see a very long way. It was AWESOME. We noticed that there were no tourist that looked like us around. He took us to places that he actually went to where he buys goods for him and his family. He drove us on the main roads to get to the Red Fort and I thought we were going to get hit by a car. I barley had to reach out and I could touch passing cars.
We then toured the Red Fort after Ryan got ripped off by a man selling little toys and books. We bought tickets and entered the fort. We didn’t realize how big the fort really was. We walked around forever and then everything started to look the same so we left. I was looking for a man who was selling beards out front of the Fort. They were fake and he was wearing one, it was hilarious to see. I wanted one.
Soben picked us up from the Fort and we headed to the India Gate. It was a cool monument for the fallen soldiers in WW2. Some children came up to me and wanted to take a picture.
The exchange rate is like 46 rupees to 1 American Dollars.
We ate lunch at McDonalds. All they had were chicken items on the menu. We invited Soben to eat with us and he was very surprised we asked. We were parked in a maze of cars and it took several minutes for us to get out. After lunch we headed back to the hotel. I fell asleep and Ryan worked on rescheduling plane tickets and finding a cheaper car to take us to the Taj Mahal tomorrow morning. We now will leave New Delhi Sunday morning.
We wanted to eat at the Hard Rock Café in the mall that is connected to our hotel but there was a DJ performing there that night. The cover charge was 1500 rupees. We then decided on TGI Friday’s. I ordered the chicken strips thinking that they were going to the normal chicken tenders, they weren’t. The dish I received was not the dish I saw on the menu. It was good though. After dinner we returned to our room and hopped on the computer, then lights out.
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