Day 52

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Trip Start Jun 19, 2008 Previous
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  Delhi, India
Tuesday, August 12, 2008

The last couple days have been spent settling into life here in Delhi.  Saturday was spent shopping in Old Delhi.  I bought an outfit to wear to the Taj Mahal in two weekends.  I can't tell you about it now; it's going to be a surprise!  Shopping in Old Delhi (specifically Chandi Chowk) was an experience. It is one of the oldest parts of town, bordering the Red Fort, which was built in 1650 C.E., so you can imagine that people have been shopping in this market since then.   We went into a Café Coffee Day to get a break from the heat.   Café Coffee Day is one of the very Western coffee shop chains that across all of India (think Starbucks).   But instead of an ultra modern coffee shop we stepped into what seemed to be an old house renovated into a coffee shop.   When we walked in (a group of 10 Americans) instead of sitting at a table, we were ushered into a back room, up the stairs and through a three foot door way into a small, dark room lined with pillows.   We all sat around in the air-conditioned dark and ordered cold coffees and sat on cushions.   We joked that we were sipping coffee in what used to be an opium den

Cafe Coffee Day in Chandi Chowk

.   It was pretty unexpected.  Shopping was an experience of winding down small side streets while trying to dodge cyclists, cows, and men peeing on walls.   We stumbled on one small brass figurines shop.  Curious, the four of us went in to explore.   We were with our friend Nauman, who knows about Hindu iconography and he could explain to us what the idols meant.   The place was packed full of idols, from floor to ceiling on shelves, and then overflowing in piles on the floor.   Then the worker told us to go upstairs.  While dodging more idols, we went up the shaky stairs to another floor of brass figurines, and then he suggested we go up to the next floor as well.   It was three full floors of dusty crowded mounds of brass.   It was fun to go through it.  I think later I will go back to buy Christmas presents for everyone.
On Sunday we ended up going to Akshardham temple (website here: http://www.akshardham.com/).  We went with a couple of friends who wanted to go, but I had no idea what it was.  I was quite surprised when we got there.  First, the temple is huge, it probably takes up more than one square mile.  Secondly, the resemblance to Disneyland is uncanny.  First you have to check in all of you baggage (including purses, cell phones, and cameras... so sorry, no pictures).  Then you wait in this long line through a maze of bars.  You are then patted down, and let in.  Technically it doesn't cost any money to get into the temple, but they have lots of mini attractions inside that you do have to pay money for

1-Cafe Coffee Day in Chandi Chowk

.  The first attraction is a series of rooms with videos and animatronics that tell the story of the life of Bhagwan Swaminarayan, a guru.  It was pretty interesting, because I do not know the story, but it was also air-conditioned which was nice.   Next there was a water and light show; it was like being at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, except with traditional India music instead of opera.  It was a water show with lights and mist, just as the sign was setting behind the temple.  It was pretty beautiful, although cheesy.  Next there was the boat ride.  This was by far the most ridiculous part.  It was like Pirate of Caribbean where you get into a plastic boat and there are little speakers in front of you that guide you through an animatronics world.  The boat ride claimed to take you through 10,000 years of Indian history in 10 minutes.  Throughout the ride the animatronics claimed that India invented everything from democracy, hospitals, veterinary schools, and plastic surgery, all before the Common Era.  Pretty ridiculous, but it was entertaining.  In the end they topped it all off with an "It's a Small World" impersonation except with the Indian national anthem.  After that we went inside the temple to look around.  Although it was beautiful, the fact that the temple is really only about 10 years old, and that the entire thing was made from modern day machinery somehow demystified it.  Check out the website, it has a lot more pictures, and since I can't post any, you might as well check out theirs..

Old Building in Chandi Chowk

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Yesterday was my first day of class.  I had Sociology of India, Andrew had Politics of India.  Both classes went well, Andrew's professor was an hour late.  It seems like a pretty stereotypical Sociology class like it would be at home, I'm not too worried.  Although the professor does have a heavy accent, there are 7 other UC students in the class with me to try and decipher what he is saying.  After class I went to the Post Office (Nana should be getting a Birthday card real soon, if it might be a little late, at least let her know I did send one!), which was an adventure.  It took about an hour walking around in circles in different directions that everybody kept pointing me until I finally found it (I asked a guy walking out of a McDonalds who finally pointed me in the right direction).  After that I bought some books recommended by my professor, and a English-Hindi Dictionary to help with Hindi class.  At five o'clock Andrew and I each had Hindi class, which went well.  Here our Hindi classes are much bigger (about 15 people each), which makes it a little more difficult to learn.  Also the teacher is very soft spoken and has a very high pitched voice so it is hard to understand her.  But she is focusing more on travel words (like how to haggle with the rickshaw drivers) instead of academic vocabulary, so I appreciate that.  After Hindi we went out to dinner with some friends, at a new restaurant in their neighborhood which was good. 
Andrew and I have been feeling slightly under the weather lately, and I don't know if it was the different restaurant last night or just the heat but today both of us decided it was time to spend a whole day in bed to try to recuperate.  We ate a light lunch of rice and have been pretty much sleeping all day.  Already I feel better.  Tomorrow we have our first class at the National Museum for Art History.  So we have to have energy to make it through two classes tomorrow. 

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Far Away View of Akshardham

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