India ... Jewel in the Crown ... Delhi

Indias Gate

We are in India ... we arrived on Monday night. A fairly easy departure. Kathmandu airport was crazy! Not like other international airports ... but we did not get lost and managed to catch the right flight. We are staying in New Delhi and have a really nice hotel. Someone we met while in Nepal suggested we have good hotels to stay in because India can get intense, we took their advice. We are spending time with Pita and Tasi while we are here in Delhi. We have been very excited to see them ... it has been a few months since we have spent time with family. 

A few leaving kathmandu pix ...

Downsizing again. We sent this bag home with our woollen gear and some other things that we bought for our trekking. Pete wanted us to go carry on to India so we really trimmed back our bags ... we did it. It is official, we are carry on only now! We didn't have much to start with, now we have less. Wearing the same thing day after day after day!

We found it Rosie ... here is your bookshop. I was very excited to find this bookshop, we had looked everywhere and checked every bookshop. There is a juice stand right in front and they sell the best freshly squeezed juices. We tried freshly squeezed sugar cane juice there, we have never drunk sugar cane juice before ... quite nice.

We were lining up to check in for our flight to Delhi at Kathmandu International Airport ... trying to stay ahead of a group of Chinese tourists and along came  a couple of maintenance men with their ladder, to fix something in the ceiling ... this is how they set it up ... I felt very very anxious looking at this ... thinking surely they are not going climb up the ladder like that?! 

India ... New Delhi ...

Many, many years ago Marg & Grandma Gibson went on a world trip together and India was one of the places they visited. Marg loved India ... I think that is when India became a place I wanted to visit 'one day'. In the 80's there was a  BBC series, 'Jewel in the Crown', set around the end of the British occupation of India. Charles Dance was one of the male leads, I had a crush on him. I loved the series and became fascinated with India and here we are! 

Here are some photos of our first few days ...

Pete & I in front of the Bahai Lotus Temple ... taken by Tasi ... I think we will have a few photos of us together now that we have someone to take them for us.

We visited Humayun's Tomb on Day 2. I loved it here ... the buildings, the setting, I thought it was beautiful,

Look Up ... the decoration of temples and buildings here is a lot different to Nepal ... simple but very beautiful! The craftsmanship in the detail is stunning! Sometimes less is more.

Family ... wonderful to be with family for a while (taken at Humayun's Tomb). Tasi and Pita are well travelled, particularly in Eastern and Asian countries ... not intimidated at all by the crowds, noise or pollution. We are thrilled to be spending a few days with them and seeing some of the wonderful sites here in India. 

Tasi & I ... Humayun's Tomb.

I thought this looked like handmade lace. So beautiful.

Humayan's Tomb ... this reminds me of Jewel in the Crown.

Seeing these cars took me back to my childhood ... they look like Morris Oxfords. We also saw white ones that are used for Government Officials.

After our lunch these were put on our table. A mixture of aniseed, cumin seeds and sweets. Tasty.

I love the light in this photo ... we are at the Red Fort. This building is made from marble ... the detail is beautiful ... 

Did I say how much I loved the light on this building ...

I think the workmanship is beautiful.

We spent three days touring with Tasi while Pita was in Political Negotiations at a summit he was attending. I found it very stressful walking around the sites with Tasi ... men kept looking at her, some took photos without asking, some asked. I found it very stressful. Pete nearly assaulted a man at India's Gate who was taking a sneaky photo of Tasi. Whenever we noticed someone trying to take a photo we would walk in front of Tasi in an attempt to block them. It was really bad at the Red Fort. I started walking up to men taking photos of them taking photos of Tasi and they did not like it. Here is one of the photos I took as proof. Women would ask if they could have their photos taken with Tasi. It was like being with a celebrity or royal.

For the first 2 days we took a taxi and then we used tuktuks ... we found them much faster and  cheaper. We saw a family of 5 get out of one of these. The driving here is crazy, crazy, crazy!

Pete and Tasi at a Sikh Temple we visited. We had to cover our heads, we were not hassled here by people wanting to take Tasi's photo because they could not see the colour of her hair, we were invisible, just another family of white tourists. I think Pete looks like a biker gang member here.

The pool by the Sikh Temple.

The entrance way to a garden behind a Hindu Temple we visited. We think there may have been a wedding going on. There are quite a few wedding celebrations we have seen ... parades of people on the street singing and dancing a real celebration and they look so much fun.