JoelBoucher.net

A Tale of Two Cities – Part II

After yesterday’s touring adventure, we wanted nothing to do with tourist traps again.  Too bad we can’t escape it.  Again, after breakfast, we had the front desk call us a taxi.  To our dismay, it was the same driver from yesterday.  We knew exactly what was in store for us - shopping at our expense and at his benefit. We gave him a list of places that we wanted to go, and he even threw in a few extra suggestions for us.   There really is soo much to do in Delhi.  The Lonely Planet guide gave us options for touring the city in four days and in two days.  We wanted to squeeze all of it into less than a full day.

The day started out with a trip to the Raj Gath, a Gandhi Memorial.  Then we were off to the Purana Quli.  The Purana Quli It is believed to be the place where Indraprastha, the Pandava capital mentioned in the epic Mahabharata, once stood. Interestingly, excavations near its eastern wall reveal that the site has been continuously occupied since 1000 BC.  Talk about history!  After that, we continued our tour of Delhi on to the next stop at Humayun’s Tomb.  This tomb is more like a massive complex of waterways, fountains, and walls with the tomb in the center of the whole place.  It was also the first place to be build with the Mughal architectural style that the Taj Mahal was built with.

After we left Humayun’s Tomb, we got back into our car and drove to the Rajpath.  This was a spectacular place!   The governmental buildings cast an impressive, dominating feeling.  The buildings looked majestic sitting on the hill.  It was my highlight of the day to stand in between the buildings and look around at the city.  Standing right in the middle of it all, you could take everything in.   Directly in front of me was the Rashtrapati Bhavan - the official residence of the President of India.  To my right were the buildings that held the External affairs and Defense ministries.  To my left were the buildings that held the offices of Finance and Home ministries.  Behind me and down the road a bit was the India gate, the war memorial arch in honor of those who died in defending India in War.  The best part of it all was the city here was beautiful.  Wide avenues and tree lined roads with open grassy parks visible all around.  This was truly the nice section of the city.   The Exact opposite of how I first perceived the city when I arrived.

Now the driver asked us what we wanted to do, and we didn’t know what we wanted or where we wanted to go.  I was still speechless from the last site.  Surprise, Surprise. He decided that we wanted to go shopping.  He took us to a garment shop near Connaught Place, and when we told him that we didn’t want to go shopping, he seemed to get very distressed.  He wasn’t going to make his money.  As he started to drive, we asked if we could go to another place that just caught our eye in the Lonely Planet guide, the Lotus Temple, but, he said it was too far and we would never make it to the airport in time.   OK, it was a little far, but we still had more than three hours before the flight took off.   Well, his general sentiment towards us turned quickly.  He stopped talking with us and drove us to the airport.  He tried one last time to take us to his friend’s restaurant, but we had enough of being treated like stupid tourists, so we got out at the airport.

Aside from the scams, traffic, and people demanding money and tips, I had a great weekend!   The giant tourist scam was a problem, I am just glad we didn’t fall too far into it.  The traffic in Delhi is worse than Bangalore!  Not only are there more cars and people use the horn even more, but the presence of the bike-shaws is also very dangerous for everyone.  They do not have a horn to beep, so no one knows they are there.  The government is actively working to ban them from the streets.  And the tips, well maybe it’s the increase in tourists to Delhi and the locals are used to getting tips, but the people would get openly angry if you did not tip them.  It was annoying.   On the positive side, there were only a few street merchants that bothered you to buy their stuff; and when you said NO, they actually listened, well most of the time.

Oh I was reading the newspaper, and I came across an interesting article - China has banned the sale of dog for the Olympics.

Professional

India

Sponsered Links