Our tour of Delhi did not begin well. The Shatabdi Express from Ajmer got us to Delhi as scheduled, at 10:40PM, and the Caper Travel representative met us at the station promptly. There was some confusion about the hotel we were to stay in, and this entailed a trip from the New Delhi train station to South Delhi, very near the airport, and then back again to New Delhi, trying first one, then another “Good Times” hotel. We finally got settled in sometime after midnight, and decided to begin the Delhi tour proper at 10 the next morning.
FWIW, the “Good Times” hotel was fairly awful, next only to the filthy Hotel Chanakya in Agra. But then everything in Agra seemed ankle deep in excrement, human and other. Among the six hotels we stayed in in India, I would rate only the Greenwood in Khajraho as good, the Chandargupta in Jaipur as acceptable, the Royal Safari Camp as a case apart (thought better than the Chanakya and the Pallavi International in Varanasi, where the excrement seemed knee-deep. Or perhaps it was just the “culture” shock.)
Our tour of Delhi, once it got underway, was superb. Such a city deserves a week or weeks, but we saw a very great deal in one long day. We began in Old Delhi and the Jama Masjid mosque, built by our old friend Shah Jahan (Taj Mahal) in 1656. One wonders whether there would be a tourism industry in India without Jahan. We followed this with a pedi-cab tour of Chandi Chowk, the marketplace of the old city, its myriad narrow alleys of commerce and residence (“Do not get off the pedi-cab,” our guide, Herb, warned). It was pretty fascinating, divided, like so many Asian places of commerce we have seen, into “districts,” perhaps a block or so, of booksellers, paper goods, saris, blankets, car parts, radiators, ball bearings, jewelry, vegetables, fish, and so on. The monumental Red Fort was closed, but we got some pix. The Red Fort does not compare with the Agra Fort or the Amber Fort, Herb said, and we have now seen our share of forts anyway.
Next we visited the Raj Ghat, the memorial to Gandhi, where his body was cremated (his ashes were placed in Pushkar Lake, I should add (Nehru's too); something about caste, I think). Hundreds of people were at the memorial, even now, 60 years later. Truly the father of his country and a most unusual leader. I indicated further interest in Gandhi and Herb took us to the 1948 assassination site, now a Gandhi museum, where we spent perhaps an hour lingering among the exhibits. So much occurred in India (and Pakistan, etc.) in 1947-48, so much that still has major implications for our world. Gandhi opposed the Partition, and in this, as well as other things, he was not heard.
Next we briefly visited New Delhi's government houses, parliament, the President's House, the India Gate, and associated monuments and edifices. Clearly, the Brits had big plans for India when they moved their capital to Delhi in the aftermath of 1857. It is a beautiful capital complex, parks, fountains, ponds, wide, tree-lined boulevards, a place any European imperialist might envy.
After another mediocre Indian lunch, we drove on to the complex of tombs associated with Humayun. Humayun's Tomb is regarded by some as a proto-type for the Taj. It is a World Heritage site, built in 1562. It is in a large Mughal tomb complex, some of which are older, pre-Mughal, still Muslim, but somehow more "indian"-looking to me.
Vicki wanted to see the Lotus Temple, renowned for (allegedly) attracting more visitors than the Taj. Upon closer examination, this turned out to be a 1986 concrete structure, a temple of the Bahai faith, not worth a glance, IMHO, much less a detour. But the crowds and tour buses certainly were there.
Last, and perhaps best, we visited the Qutub Minar complex, another World Heritage site. Its centerpiece is the 72m high (that's 20 stories or more) minaret, built in 1206 to celebrate the Muslim conquest of most of India. Its fluted brick columns are truly impressive. Just as impressive are the adjoining ruins of Delhi's first mosque, built from the stones of the 20-odd Hindu temples that stood on this site in the 12th century. The various Hindu images were defaced, just a bit (Muslims don't do icons and images), but not so much that one can't see exactly how it was all put together. Enlarge the picture above (click on it) and you will see a part of this structure in the foreground. Delhi is a very old city―six or more distinct cities, historically―and this medieval complex is 12-15km south of Old Delhi. I guess it's always been a large place, but never a particularly important place, until 1857.
We had some time to kill (our plane left a few minutes past midnight), so Herb took us on a walking tour in the university district, to “see how the real people live.” We had already seen enough of this, so we checked email at a cyber cafe. Actually, we checked email at two cyber cafes. We left the first rather abruptly after an electrical fire started at our work station. But that's another story.
It was, nonetheless, one of our better tour days.
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