Aman New Delhi

... rpur M*ndirist, hindu templist. Täielik disniländ. Kõigepe*lt sisenen L*xmi j* G*nesh* templisse, kus olev*t nende puht*st hõbed*st kujud. Kõik sär*b j* sädeleb küll. Hindusid on vähe j* n*d tunduv*d sõbr*likud, mitte k*rdetult *gressiivsed. N*er*t*v*d eg* jõllit*, s*l*j* pildist*misest rääkim*t*. Üks v*n*mees näit*b, et m* ikk* pe*templisse k* läheks, j* kui *eg* on, siis k* üle tee Shiv* templisse. Väg* l*hke, s**b tehtud. Pe*templi t*rbeks tuleb j*l*nõud är* võtt* j ...

... I must say, she was an excellent travel partner. I really lucked out! So we arrived in the Main Bazar which is the Ko San Road, the Kingscross, of Delhi. Meaning, it's the main backpacker area. It's a narrow, dusty, dirt road with no sidewalk and every kind of traffic imaginable (car, motorbike, cow, person, auto and cycle rickshaw etc). The shopping are fantastic and the air is lively....there are also, many other tourists! Haven't seen ...

... the finances of SEZ developers and companies operating inside SEZs, although exporters said it could increase paperwork and been lobbying for a blanket exemption from paying taxes. Exporters said while the SEZ Act provided for an exemption from service tax, the changed rules still wanted ...

... hotel to purchase all the train tickets, since the reservation system is a tricky mess and we can't do it easily online. We just sucked up the fee which was $2 dollars per ticket, but we consider it a convenience since it will be the last time we will have to deal with it.... Right...?? With our chores behind us, in the afternoon we caught the Metro to the National Museum. The sky is a red hazy hue from the smog and fog. We stroll down the main ...

... a feeling I'll be hearing that a lot from Rick in the future.

We walked to Humayan's Tomb from the hotel via some side street that wound its way behind the property past an old Boy Scout facility. I loved the grounds at Humayan's tomb - I was expecting it to be a lot more crowded than it was. It was easy to find a quiet bench under a tree somewhere to just soak in the atmoshphere and get away from the parts of Dehli that ...

... run over or go off road. Pity the motorbikes, bicycles and pedestrians who inhabit the lowest eschelon of the hierarchy. So if you can envision all this then add to it a maniacal driver told to drive as fast as possible and that's our six hours of playing chicken. We have to compliment the driver on taking his orders very seriously. We were never passed once. The six hours were a bit of a blur and reminded us of a six hour compilation of the car chase ...

... I actually saw a guy on a motorcycle swerving through this mess reach into his jacket and answer his cell phone! That was a first. Now that we're in the mountains though things have chilled out a lot. The scenery is beautiful and the traffic is negligible. Delhi is insane. There's lots more to tell but for now, here's a couple more pics from the journey so far. Hope you're all having a great holiday! Pete

... 30s, and the preservation of Nehru's own private areas, such that it was easy to imagine him sitting and planning out policy and strategy. Gardens are beautiful and peaceful. I can imagine him sitting there, thinking out ideas or reading poetry! The grandeur of the two memorial buildings seemed to exemplify the idea of the Nehru-Gandhi dynastic succession, and made me slightly uneasy in its contrast with the extreme poverty to be seen very little ...

My official Fulbright mentor is Dr. Irfan Habib, a noted Indian historian who currently resides at the National Institute of Science, Technology, and Development Studies , with which I am formally affiliated. I'm not a "serious" scholar in the way that Dr. Habib is however, and my interests have changed somewhat since I originally wrote my Fulbright proposal, so at present we don't really have a lot to ...

... and the cars which weave in and out of the pedestrians, the drivers making minute judgements about where each pedestrian is going to put his foot before selecting an appropriate course.

As we approached the station we were confronted by a man who held up some identification and said he was an Indian Railways official. He said that, as foreigners, to purchase tickets we must go to the government-run ticket office over the road from the station. Smelling a rat we made an about-turn ...