Delhi Day 3 - Progress!

Day 3 of our India journey started with a place I had never wanted to visit, but now that I have I cannot imagine having missed it. We were brought to the place of a mans cremation, set amongst pristine gardens with wildlife abound. The man of course, was Mahatma Ghandi.

Visiting a shrine to such a beloved figure was truly an honour, and one I shall never forget. Another place of peace and tranquility amongst the craziness of Delhi city, this memorial garden houses the place where Ghandi was cremated following his assassination in Delhi. The gardens stretch on as far as the eye can see in places, with families enjoying picnics on the grass and throngs of devoted walking a set path to pay their respects to the man himself. The beauty of this place is so staggering that I cannot begin to put it into words, so I wont. If you ever find yourself lost among a sea of people, tired and scared, make sure you take a few moments of quiet reflection here. You'll thank yourself for it.

Next on the list of sights to be seen was the Red Fort, a huge stone fort built in the mid 17th century. The walls of this gargantuan fort are made of red sandstone and stretch for over 2km around! Given this, and the fact that the walls reach heights of 33m in places, it is amazing to hear that the entire place was built within the years 1638 and 1648. Yes, that was just 10 years!

Ok so 10 years sounds like a long time, but when you set eyes on this magnificent building you realise how big a feat that is. Never mind the fact that there were no JCBs or earthovers to do all the work for you!

There is a distinct feeling about the place that without tourists, these places would be abandoned and left to ruin. Sad as that would be, there is no real threat of it happening as the queue to enter the fort snaked around itself for about 300m! Inside the fort is a long line of shops and stalls, all selling various trinkets and souveniers to those willing to stop long enough to be hustled inside. We kept moving, deciding as we had done before to save our souvenier buying money to the end of the visit. As we went deeper into the fort, we were soon surrounded by stunning green gardens and buildings built from floor to ceiling in gorgeous white marble. The interiors of these buildings were covered with carved designs that look as though they would have taken decades to complete, but we are told these were all completed within the same 10 years that the fort was built (with exceptions for buildings that were added later).

There are some magnificent views from various areas of the gardens, so we followed our own path through, stopping here and there for photos and to admire the handywork of some long gone marble sculptor. We stopped and sat in the gardens for a while, and were soon approached by some curious chipmunks who roam around the area! They were very squirrell-like, but more timid and with a look of mischief about them.We snapped some photos of them, and decided to move on as the stares from passers by were starting to grate. Being stared at by entire families is something that we have both gotten used to, but it is not easy at first. People are curious about everything about us, from Tara's blonde hair to my tattoo and red beard, so we attract a lot of unwanted attention!

As we had no guide, audio or otherwise, we may have missed some important parts of the fort, but I firmly believe that without a means of transport within the fort you would never see it all in one visit. It is just too expansive to walk to every area of interest, all of which are contained within those 33m high, 2km long walls!

After the Red Fort we were brought for lunch at a place called Splash's. This was to be our first taste of the many fine eateries that Neeraj would take us. Upon entering, it was painfully obvious to me that this place was very tourist friendly, as pasty westerners filled every table. The food was nice, and it's the only place I have found so far that had normal salted peanuts! What I wouldn't give for some of them right now!

After lunch we were brought to a place called Qutb Minar (no I can't pronounce it either), which is basically a huge tower in the middle of some ruins. Now this doesn't sound too interesting, but when I say huge, I mean HUGE! The main tower itself is over 70m high, and is only four storeys! There's some mighty high ceilings in there!

It was at the Qutb Minar that we first got papp'd. As this was a main tourist attraction for people all over India, there were school tours and groups from the more rural areas of India here, who are probably not as familiar with westerners as Delhi itself. We were stared at more than usual here, and even asked to be in some photo's with people. In all fairness to them we almost looked like movie stars from Hollywood, Tara with her giant purple sunglasses and me with my tattoo and sunglasses. There was even an entire family who posed with us for a photo, babies and all!

We roamed around the ruins for a bit, reading about their origins and plans for the site which never came to be, and discovered that some of these ruins are apparently older than Stonehenge. Whether or not this is the case, that is a bold statement to make. Either way, the place is filled with beautiful views and interesting old ruins and although it was not my favourite place, it still holds fond memories of a day feeling like a rock star!

As this was a Monday, the next destination on our list was unfortunately closed, but we decided to go anyway to take some photos from afar and admire it's beauty. The place itself is the Bahai House of Worship, or Lotus Temple. This is a Hindu temple (afaik) which has been built to resemble a blossoming lotus flower, a strong symbol of India. The temple itself is surrounded by beautifully symmetrical gardens, which we didn't get to see other than from outside the gates. As we didn't actually enter the temple there isn't much to say about it, other than it is a masterpiece of architecture which has to be seen to be believed. It reminded me somewhat of the Sydney Opera House, a sight which I hope to see in the coming months.

One thing of note about this visit was that we passed (or should I say I passed, Tara was oblivious) a stereotypical Indian snake charmer! He was sat cross legged on the side of the path, and as we passed he opened his round tin and a little cobra popped his head out. I am not sure what happened next as we just kept moving passed him and he bacame lost in the crowd, but I would have liked to see him play a tune to make the cobra rise from the tin as we have all seen on tv.
We returned to the hotel, happy in the knowledge that our driver had not yet killed us or crashed into anything, and slept in the knowledge that we would be out of the Vivek and on the road to parts unknown by morning. Delhi had been a plethora of emotions and experiences, it had shown us what it is like to land in a strange country and be brought to the roughest part of town to fend for ourselves, but it has been a great start to this journey. There are plenty of places to see in Delhi, most of which we missed, but I can honestly say that a trip to India without Delhi is a trip wasted.