Back to Delhi
Trip Start
Jan 05, 2008
1
40
61
Trip End
Jun 20, 2008
Delhi,
India
Friday, March 28, 2008
We arrived in Delhi about 5:30 am. The bus ride wasnt as bad as we again had two seat each so we got some sleep. From the bus station, we got a taxi and arrived home after sunrise. I went straight to bed, but Jarrett, Rini and Ashish decided to stay up and went for a walk around the neighborhood. Later in the day we got ready and went out for more sightseing in Delhi. This time we went first to Qutb Minar, which is "the tallest brick minaret in the world, and an important example of Indo-Islamic Architecture." The place, for me (Alane), was the best place we have visited so far in India. It has so many ruins to see and walk thru... just very impressive. We were there until it closed and from there we went to the India Gate, a war memorial in New Delhi commemorating the Indian dead of the First World War.
From there we went to another bus station to try to get tickets to go to Rishikesh and do some white water rafting, but our plans didnt work out for some reasons. We will probably end up spending the rest of the days in Delhi.
03/29/08
The day we planned to go Rishikesh, never happened
Qutub Minar
. Alane was sick through the night with another stomach bug and spent the day in bed, and even the crew never made it out of bed until late. Either way with Alane being sick it wouldnt have been wise to drive the 5 hours to go rafting. We hung around the house till afternoon hoping Alane would feel better, but that never happened so Jarrett, Aruna (American friend of our hosts), Rini, and Ashish went to the Humayun Tomb and to the Bahai Temple. The Humayun Tomb is a precursor to the Taj Mahal, meaning it was a tomb built for the grandfather of the guy who built the Taj Mahal. Alane missed out on this one as it seemed to be the best so far. The tomb was built of all pink sandstone and marble, but what made it more impressive were the grounds that the tomb was located on. The grounds seem to have much better features than the Taj Mahal, such as fountains, walk ways, and other monuments.
The Bahai Temple, is a big tourist attraction, for both foreingers and locals, because it's free and also because of the design of the temple. It is meant to be shaped like the lotus flower, not that we know what that looks like, but to me it was a copy of the Sydney Opera House. It was a quick stop but again we were trying to fill the day and not make a waste of it since we were not able to go rafting.
3/30/08
Since I was feeling better, we all went to the Swaminarayan Akshardham temple (Jarrett and I are still trainning the pronounciation of this name), which construction took place from 2000-2005, and it was inaugurated in 2005, pretty much only symbolizing the life of Bhagwan Swaminarayan (1781-1830), a prophet who "reached out far and wide to address the spiritual, moral and social challenges and issues we face in our world." We spent the entire day at this place
Qutub Minar
. At the beginning we had also to abide to several rules, such as no cameras at all, no cell phones, no shorts or skirts above knee length, so Jarrett had to cover his legs with lungi, as he was wearing shorts. Lungi is like a sheet that once is on looks like a long skirt and they gave Jarrett a bright orange one. Because of that he was the joke of the day, not only for us, but for the entire complex, as every person we passed would look and stare at him. At some point a group of Indian people went far beyond staring and they all started singing a song from an Indian movie that portrayed an American man, who moved to India and wore lungis.This temple is really impressive. Again it was more of a shrine or amusement park built to symbolize the work of Bhagwan Swaminarayan, who at the age of 11 hiked seven years across India to become a complete Yogi. There were short movies telling the story of his life and even boat rides that told the history of India, we came to find out the India supposedly discovered Pie, the laws of gravity, created chess, and also Democaracy, which we all were taught that others had created. We will have to do some research into these claims. The complex is set on 100 acres, all the walls have carved work, the temple itself is huge and it is all made of white marble and sandstone, and every little corner is carved with sculputures. The outside of the temple is surrounded by hundreds of feet of elephant sculptures, people, and other animals. The website of this place is http://www.akshardham.com in case anyone wants to check it out. We dont have any pics of this place but we suggest you take a look in the website because it is worth it.
