Delhi is a very interesting city, blending the colonial with the ultra modern with the destitute. Our first day we decided to check out an aspect of its heritage. We visited Humayun’s Tomb, which is a complex of many mausoleums set inside a 30 acre garden. The tombs were beautiful, and it was very relaxing to walk around the peaceful and quiet grounds. The main tomb for which the site is named appears to be a replica of the Taj Mahal, however it was constructed before the Taj and is made from red sandstone. This tomb was almost more enjoyable than the Taj Mahal since we were the only people visiting it! We spent a couple hours wandering the rest of the grounds before we set out for the national zoo.
Humayun's Tomb (Looks very similar to the Taj Mahal)
We decided to go to the zoo because we had really wanted to see some tigers while in India. It apparently wasn’t the season to go to any of the national parks as they were all closed. We read that this zoo, the national zoo of India, had white tigers, so we were very excited to see them. The zoo was interesting in that it seemed more like a large natural space with certain areas fenced off, versus our zoos with pens built on cement. The zoo has one main path that takes you through all the animals, one by one, and has the tigers at the end of the tour. We saw some gibbons and some chimps, lots of birds, various kinds of deer, and tons of peacocks (which run wild on the grounds). When we came to the paddocks of the best attractions, however, the animals were nowhere to be found: Indian rhino, lions, Himalayan black bear, and sloth bear. Huge disappointment! Even worse, though, was that we arrived at the tiger paddock too late. Zoo staff said that they close the tiger pen several hours before (?) they close the rest of the zoo. Only God knows why they do that, but we were super upset considering they were the whole reason we went to the zoo in the first place.
Liz looking at a wild monkey at the zoo
We also saw the Gandhi Memorial which is on the property where he spent his last 80 days. It had cool dioramas showing important scenes from his life, and the walls were coated in photos and quotes coined by him. The upstairs of the residence had a very oddly modern yet pointless museum. We visited his living quarters, which showcased his only material possessions, including his glasses and a spinning wheel, among other things. The memorial traces his last steps, leading from his bedroom to his prayer meeting, where he was shot. We unfortunately needed a lot more time to thoroughly go through the museum, but we were happy to have seen what we did.
Ghandi's final footsteps
Ghandi's memorial
We ate at a very swanky restaurant, Q Ba, in Connaught Place (downtown Delhi) which was no doubt one of the top restaurants. We had to wait quite a while to be seated because we had no reservation and we wanted to eat outside on their terrace. We ordered a fantastic Beijing duck dish for two, which came in three courses of soup, crispy duck rolls, and the insanely succulent, tangy meat. Ugh, so yummy! And of course, the whole meal was like $25.
Our last day, we ventured to the outskirts of the city (on their new A/C metro!) to a ridiculously large and beautiful Hindu temple complex, Akshardham. As we entered the complex gates, it felt like we were lining up to get into Disneyland. There were gobs of people, and we had to check all bags, cell phones, and cameras (sorry, no photos). We had heard that there was a fountain show in the evening which we wanted to see, so they sent us straight away to the ticket office, where we also bought tickets for an animatronics show, boat ride, and IMAX movie. We didn’t really know what everything was or entailed, but we figured we might as well. The animatronics show told the story of Swami Narayan, a Jesus-like figure of Hinduism. The show was rather impressive. At the end, however, it felt a bit like they were trying to convert us or something. They emphasized why one should be vegetarian, and they showed all of the do-good projects this particular sect funds (hospitals, schools, temples all over the world). The boat ride was very similar to Pirates of the Caribbean, but told about all of the accomplishments in science, medicine, math, literature, farming, etc. in the last 10,000 years in India. The IMAX movie reiterated the animatronics show. The musical fountain show was very cool, with music and lights. Only after all these activities, about 10 minutes before the complex closed, did we have time to finally see the temple. It was stunning! The entire building is intricately carved with deities, elephants, peacocks, people, and other designs. The inside has several altars, with the main altar in the center. I don’t know if it was covered in real gemstones, but the whole thing sparkled like crazy, and was dripping with gold. And the gold was real, because we asked a security guard, haha. I wish we could have taken pictures of the temple to show everyone! It was so beautiful. A must-see in Delhi!
The following day we hopped on a plane to take us to Bangkok, to begin the next chapter of our trip!
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