Of Delhi and Agra - A Joshua Post

Its been a little bit since I told the stories of the travels. While my father kept everyone updated on Delhi, I will give an abridged summary of what mattered to me.

Delhi was quite the experience. Lets start with some of the bad, things that are obvious before I get into it. Delhi air is not good. The pollution in the air leaves a thick smog that you can taste after not too long. It's somehow dry and humid at the same time. The streets are littered with trash and stray dogs are everywhere. India has a massive homeless population and it's quite visible in the evenings in Delhi. There are so many people in Delhi, and India as a whole, that it makes even the largest American cities look like villages. 

Our first day in Delhi was a short day. We had flown in early and woke up late. We didn't get started until the afternoon, after we got some phones sorted out. 

Once we got on the road, we visited the Akshardham Temple. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the temple, heck we weren't even allowed to take our phones! It was nice and peaceful. There were statues of elephants decorating the outside of the temple with quotes from stories in Hindi and English about elephants, be them religious Hindu stories or common fables about animals. Once we were finished seeking self reflection, we went and ate some food at a food court. We got a photo taken as a group and we will post it when we have more time to get everything uploaded and condensed onto one computer.

After that, we went home and Dad and Ajoba went to bed. Meanwhile the twins and I were awake and HUNGRY. We ordered some room service, and while some dishes on their menu were probably overpriced, we were very happy with what we got for the cost. 

The next day in Delhi, we visited a mosque built by Shah Jahan. It was imposing with a large staircase to approach it, and an impressive view over Delhi when you were at the top. The sacred space was respected and the areas for particular worship was cordoned off from tourists so that practitioners of the faith can worship in peace. It was very nice to visit and while we could've gone in a tower of the mosque, we didn't feel the need to stay much longer.

Then we went to the memorial to Indian national hero, Mahatma Gandhi. It was quite solemn to visit the place and it was quite quiet as many others paid respects and remembered the honored man. We also saw several birds and dogs while we were there. Wise teachings of the great man were etched into stone around him, and those will last many hundreds of years.

After getting distracted by a chipmunk on our way out of the memorial, we went shopping and ate lunch at Dilli Haat. It's an open air market where haggling is definitely allowed, though most of it goes unsaid. While some people will aggressively try to get you to buy things, they won't use dishonorable tactics because Dilli Haat has standards. It's sort of like a shopping mall and a market in one. Being connected to it brings in tourists and those who are well off. It is worth it to be less aggressive and make better sales for them. 

After that, the twins wanted to rest at the hotel while Ajoba, Dad and myself wanted to visit Ashoka's pillar. It's one of a series of pillars Ashoka built around his kingdom. At the time he called them Pillars of Dharma and inscribed his edicts to the people to do good for others by doing their Dharma. It was kind of inspiring to see the pillars in person. Almost  all of them have been moved at some point and the one we visited was no different, but to think that he wanted his people to be happy so much that he built pillars to tell them about it and help them to be better is really inspiring.

After that, we went back to the hotel room, only to learn the twins were treated poorly by their rickshaw driver when they got back, and sorted out dinner. This time, instead of sleeping, Dad and Ajoba went adventuring and found a kind of fast food style place which does a lot of deliveries. He talked about that more in his post, so check that out!

Today, however was a departure from Delhi and a 5 hour journey to Agra, the home of the Taj Mahal. We got a much nicer hotel with more stable wi-fi so at least for now posts are still coming daily. We will only be here tonight before going to Jaipur. 

We only really had time to see the Taj Mahal today, and afterwards visited a government owned marble working shop that seeks to preserve the ancient art of working with marble. 

After that we went to a kind of pricy restaurant that was recommended to us. The food was very good and it was very classy.

Then we came home and as I type we are preparing for bed. It's been a long day and while tomorrow isn't as early a morning, we still have a lot to do. 

I look forward to posting probably tomorrow night or on our first night in Pune, which is where we are going after Jaipur. 

I plan to do a BIG photo dump in Jaipur of all the photos I can get together, so stay tuned for that! 

~~=Joshua=~~