Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Delhi

 

As we arrived in Delhi, we noticed three distinct differences from the south of India: 1) Delhi had a “city feel” and reminded us a little of NYC - people dressed differently, there is a subway, and the streets seemed a little cleaner and much wider than in the south.  2) The food had more taste. 3) It was much colder than we had anticipated!  We were told by multiple news sources and our travel books that the average temperature was 70 degrees …

Nope! We were lucky if the high reached 50 degrees! On one day it was barely 36 degrees….

So we each put on two pairs of pants, every t-shirt we own, and one sweat shirt/fleece per person and tried to enjoy a few sights in Delhi. 

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At one point, Anita had 8-10 layers on and in her opinion she looked like a “stuffed chicken.” We only ended up seeing two sights because the cold was really unbearable.  We saw the Ashkardam temple, which was unique experience in Indian culture… We were not allowed to take our cameras into the temple area, but here are a few bad pictures from the outside…

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We also saw the Gandhi Smirtri, which was Gandhi’s home in New Delhi and where he spent the last 120 days of his life.  It is also the place where he was shot to death by a Hindu extremist in 1948. The memorial was quite poignant and we are reading his autobiography, which made the visit even better. 

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Gandhi’s last steps… and the place he was shot is under the little pavilion…
And yes we are very much in love, but hugging this tightly was also one of the only ways to keep warm on one of the coldest days in Delhi this year.

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I asked a lady to take my picture in front of the above place where Gandhi spent his last hours and I got the following picture of just me…

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Love it when that happens!

It seemed that the whole city was under construction as Delhi is preparing for the Commonwealth games in about 6 months. 

On to Agra and Rajasthan!

2 comments:

  1. So fun to see you guys all huddled up there! Wish we could have seen that Ghandi place. Guess we'll have to go back too! You've got to go back someday for a bicycle ride through Old Delhi! Maybe you did that! We're getting more excited by the day to see you!

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  2. So much for global warming, eh?

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