Delhi day 2, Red Fort (Lal Qila)

On day 2, we headed over to the old city center and this had a distinctly different feeling from day 1. The hustle and bustle here was intense and we were approached by floods of people selling everything imaginable. At the red fort, we also got our first

Delhi day 1 -- Qtab Minar

Our final stop of the day was Qtab Minar. This dates from the onset of Islamic rule in India is an example of Afghan architecture. The minar dates from 1193 and is 73 meters tall. The pictures don't do adequate justice to the color of the red sandstone and detail of the carvings.

There was also another minar, Alai Minar that was started but never finished.

We saw our first real example of intricate carvings. My eyes are closed here, but it gives you an idea of the scale and scope of some of the work.

India Delhi Day 1-- Bahai (Lotus) Temple and our first Sikh temple

Our driver took us to the Bahai (Lotus Template). As you can tell it gets it's name from it's Lotus shape. The Bahai religion has built temples around the world and in each location, tries to pick a theme that is appropriate to the location.

Up close, it bears similarities to the Sydney opera house. It's spectacular inside, but no pictures allowed.




We also visited our first Sikh temple. One of the things that I hadn't been prepared for was that most of the temples and mosques required shoes to be off and in many cases for socks to be off and heads to be covered. You'll see us with some loaner headscarves and we also had to walk through a mystery pool of water to cleanse our feet. I always felt a little nervous and uncomfortable in these situations, first from a general hygiene perspective and secondly worried that someone would run off with our shoes.

One of the common themes of the Sikh temples was community service. Many of the temples had kitchen facilities on the backsides of the building in which they fed any guests or needy several times a day.

Delhi day 1 -- Humayun and Isa Khan's tombs

We slept in late to give me a chance to acclimate to the time change. I woke up feeling pretty good, and we ate breakfast at what I think is the only American style dinner in Delhi.

We met up with our driver and we were off to Humayun's tomb and the octogonal tomb of Isa Khan. You'll notice many similarities between the structure of Humayun's tomb and the Taj Mahal. Most of the Northern part of India has been significantly influenced by the Mogul's which started invading the country roughly in the 1500s and the architecture and religious diversity was heavily influenced by this. This was one of the reasons that drove us to visit the north.

Isa Khan's tomb
Humayun's Tomb

There are beautiful stone wall grounds around both of the tomb's. You can walk around the grounds via the tops of the walls.

We also saw our first example of jalis. The stone is carved out to act as windows in that it let's some of the light in and the air flow through. We also saw these used later to allow women to practice purdah which is the practice of women maintaining modesty by not allowing men's eyes to fall upon them. With the jalis, you can see you but not in.

India

Tom had the opportunity to go back to India for work, so we took this as an opportunity to extend his trip and make it into a vacation for us. We didn't want to miss the opportunity to go again partially on someone else's dime. We spent 18 days traveling through the northern part of the country frequently referred to as the Golden Triangle. Our itinerary as broken out as follows:

• 3 nights Delhi
• 2 nights Agra
• 1 night Ranthambore
• 1 night Bundi
• 2 nights Udaipur
• 1 night Ranakpur
• 2 nights Jodhpur
• 1 night Pushkar
• 2 nights Jaipur
• 1 night Delhi

Since Tom had left 2 weeks earlier for the work portion of his trip, I was flying solo. The Portland to Newark flight was smooth minus the cabbie needing directions to the airport, but my Newark to Delhi flight was delayed 5 hours. This made the 12 1/2 flight to Delhi seem extremely long. However, I made it in around 2:30 and Tom picked me up with our driver as planned.

I was so thankful to make it to the hotel, get a shower, and a good night's sleep.

Many pictures to come over the next few weeks as I wade through the 800 pictures we took, so keep checking back!