Delhi!

Friday 4/27 - We (co-worker Steve and I) left Hyderabad in the afternoon and after a 4 hour plane ride, next to a very stinky man, arrived in Delhi around 10pm. The flight is usually only 2 hours, but we flew on the Indian version of Southwest (Air Deccan) and they made a stop in the middle. Our hotel was a very nice - supposedly one of the oldest hotels in Delhi. And we were SO excited to actually find Amstel beer on the menu! (You can see my excitement in the photo.) Most restaurants here only have a choice of Kingfisher and Fosters. Kingfisher is a cheap light beer that gives you an instant headache and Fosters is everywhere because there is a brewery in India.

Another co-worker, Alex, arrived in Delhi late Friday night and caught a few hours of sleep before our busy day touring around Delhi.

Saturday 4/28 - Alex, Steve and I were picked up at 9:00am from our hotel by Shakti, our tour guide for the day, and Manoj, our driver for the weekend. We started with Old Delhi - the older part of town that is more crowded with older buildings and infrastructure, and narrower, busy streets. Our first stop was Jama Masjid - the largest mosque in Delhi (because it holds about 25,000 people...I think). I knew when I got dressed that morning it was possible that I may have some issues because I wore a sleeveless shirt and long shorts. NO ONE (at least not any Indians) wears sleeless shirts and shorts. But, I knew it was going to be extremely hot and I didn't really care....I could deal with the stares! So, at the Jama Masjid we were asked to remove our shoes and they dressed me in a nice long robe. Since it is a mosque (a place of prayer for muslims) that is still used today, they take the dress code very seriously. Here I am in my beautiful attire - Alex on the left, Steve on the right.

Shakti told us about the history (most of which I've forgotten) of this mosque and explained the strict "mosque guidelines" that are followed. For example, in order for a place to be a mosque, it must face west and have the tall towers in which to make the calls to worship (and they worship A LOT - at least 3-4 times per day) and be able to hold a lot of muslims at once - where we are standing in the picture above is where most people will kneel to pray.
In the picture below is where the VIPs pray. One person for each of the squares.

After Jama Masjid, Shakti took us to Mahatma Ghandi's memorial. The first thing Steve and I noticed was GREEN! Green grass and trees.....oh how we have missed them in Hyderabad! Hyderabad has a very rocky landscape and there is really no open spaces with grass. Ghandi's memorial is inside a large park area on the eastern side of Delhi, near the Yamuna River. It is named Raj Ghat and marks the spot of Ghandi's cremation on Jan 31, 1948. The black marble platform is a sign of his simple way of life -- he lived without any frills. He never slept in a bed, always on the floor and did not have any servants like most leaders would have. Sounds like a very interesting guy - I hope to read up on him more in the future.

The next stop was Birla temple (the official name is Laxmi Narayan Mandir). Built in honor of the hindu goddess of wealth, Laxmi. This was the most interesting part of the tour for me. We heard a lot of neat stories and explanations of the different religious beliefs. The unique characteristic of this "temple" is that it represents all 4 branches of Indian-originated religions - Hinduism, Sihkism, Buddhism and Jainism (? I'm not sure about the last one). I was only able to snap this quick photo from the car because they don't allow cameras (or shoes or bare shoulders) inside. The greatest characteristic of Delhi that our guide, Shakti (a native Delhian), drove into our heads that day was that it is a city of many religions and that it can exist that way without tension. The Birla temple is one example. There are many elaborate statues and pictures of the different Gods that are worshiped - there are about 250 different ones. Everyone picks a God to worship. Among Indians, you will see figurines, pictures, even cell phone backgrounds of the god that each person picks to worship. It's neat to ask people which God/Goddess they worship because they all represent something different. The most popular is Ganesh - the elephant god. He has a man's body and an elephant head. The story of how he came about is very interesting, but I don't want to write that much....so, go google it if you want to know.

The next couple of stops were the Indian equivalent of the White House and the India Gate. India Gate is a war memorial and the area surrounding is popular among the locals to picnic.

After a lunch stop we visited the oldest mosque in India, called Qutab Minar. It does not currently serve as a mosque, since it was mostly demolished by succeeding rulers. After that, we continued on to Lotus Temple - a relatively new temple built in the 1980s in the shape of India's flower, the lotus.

Shakti had to leave us at 4:00pm and so we decided to explore the popular new mall. The main reason was because Steve was craving Korean food and he had done some research before we arrived in Delhi. Steve and Alex are both Korean (as well as Hyun who met up with us that evening) and they REALLY wanted to get their fix! So, after walking around the mall for a while (really, it wasn't much different than any US mall...just a little smaller and tighter spaces) we ate at Restaurant del Seoul.
We were hoping to catch the final match of the World Cup Cricket at a bar in the mall, but found out that it was delayed due to rain. So, we went back to the hotel and got a good night's rest before our adventure to the Taj Mahal on Sunday.

This is the first thing we saw the next morning, walking down the street in front of our hotel. Only in India!

(Taj Mahal to come.....sorry, I want to get at least a few hours of sleep!)