The Trinational Adventure: Part 1 - Delhi

- April 20-21, 2011, Wednesday-Thursday.

- Good things come to those who wait, and what I had not done 4 years ago was realized this year. Finally, I was given the chance to go to the Hindu motherland: India.

- I had a morning flight to Thailand with my mom and our other two tourmates, and had a connecting flight to India from there. I arrived in India around 9 in the evening, and had a hard time looking for the person from the travel agency to fetch us. Apparently, the agency here in Manila gave accidentally provided Indian agency with wrong information. Instead of Thai Airways, the person was waiting in the Singapore Airlines arrival area. Luckily, we were able to find each other in around half an hour or so. We arrived at Hotel Hilton Delhi/Janakpuri almost midnight, and slept immediately from a whole day of flying.

Survarnabhumi Airport.

THERE IT IS!! INDIA!!!!

I can't believe I'm here.

Plenty of mudras.

Some dogs guarding our bags.

- From the moment I got off the plane and while riding the car to our hotel, I immediately felt that first, India wasn't as hot as it was supposed to be, and second, it had healthy healthy mosquitoes. Haha.

Our hotel's way of welcoming us.

- Day 2 started with me calling up my friend Kaushik, and trying to set a schedule to meet up with each other, since we've never personally met before. My friend Angela only introduced him to me online during Kaushik and Angela's exchange student program in Singapore two years ago. It was nice to hear Kaushik's voice, although I was in a hurry to prepare for our day tour in old and new Delhi.

- We never really knew why our guide didn't let us go to Chandni Chowk, a local marketplace in Delhi, even if it was supposed to be part of the tour. Instead, he immediately led us to Qutub Minar, a red-brick minaret. Inside the Qutub complex were many gardens, functioning and non-functioning mosques, and the base of a supposed minaret twice the size of the Qutub Minar.

What's left of the complex.

The minaret.

Look an airplane!!

This used to be a mosque.

Ruins.

The sun was very bright that day.

Everything's red.

Nice window.

How can they carve these things on stones??

A tomb. 

The Altai Minar, supposedly twice the height of Qutb Minar.

- After lunch, we headed to Jama Masjid, the largest mosque in India, and Rajghat, Mahatma Gandhi's memorial. Even if the Rajghat was just "a slab of stone," I almost teared up because of the solemness of the place, especially knowing what Mahatma Gandhi did for India.

Plenty of pigeons.

Red Fort from the van.

Entrance to Jama Masjid.

A devotee.

Behold!!

One of the gates facing the mosque.

TRaditional Mughal arches.

Loving that gate

Rajghat.

"He Ram."

- Soon, we were on our way to see Humayun's Tomb, the prototype for the famous Taj Mahal. Since it wasn't supposed to be part of the tour, we had to pay for our entrance tickets. However, I think I would have wanted to see the tomb more than Chandni Chowk - even if we were really supposed to go there. All of us were bitter because the guide did not want to take us to Chandni Chowk no matter how many times we asked why.

- We went around the big complex, containing many tombs of Humayun's relatives, but Humayun's tomb was of course the most prominent one. It did resemble Taj Mahal (supposed to be the other way around,) but it was made with red bricks and white marble, unlike the Taj which was built entirely of marble.

Humayun's Tomb.

Photo from the inside. I adore the details of the window.

From the outside.

The tomb of Humayun.

Ceiling.

One of the gates.

This shot reminds me of Beverly Hills.

- After walking around the complex, we drove past modern government buildings, as well as the India Gate, on the way to the cottage industries before going to dinner.

England?? I don't think so. That's Delhi for you.

Parliament Building.

India Gate.

Plenty of carpets.

Traditionally-woven carpets.

- I later called up Kaushik again to know if we'd be able to meet, but it was already too late in the evening, and I had to prepare myself for a long long long long drive to Rajasthan, the desert state of India.

- Oh by the way, during my second day, I also realized that India had a lot of trees, even in urban areas, which was why the sky was filled with numerous species of birds - unlike here in the Philippines. I did not see cats roaming around the streets, but cows and dogs were. So instead of "dead cats" like what I usually see here, I see dead dogs on the roads. Cows, however, are sacred, and cannot be killed.