Touring Delhi: Day 2

We continued our tour of Old and New Delhi yesterday with visits to Humyan’s Tomb, the Lodi Gardens and the Khan Market.  Originally we had hoped to go to the city of Agra and visit the Taj Mahal, but all the trains were booked for the next 4 days.  So, we will try to go after we move south to Gurgaon.  

Getting around Delhi is a challenge so Jess and I hire a car and driver for 8 hours.  We pay between 1,000 and 1,600 rupees, which comes out to between $22 and $35.  Our driver meets us at our guesthouse and takes us wherever we want to go.   We began yesterday at the Lodi Gardens, a 90-acre manicured sanctuary situated near the U.S. embassy.  In order to fit in, Jess purchased a beautiful piece of clothing at a moderately inflated price.  Her she is modeling her outfit for me, and you.  

 Lodi Gardens is home to several Tombs, a Mosque, a few kissing teenagers, a gaggle of geese, and much more.  Jess and I walked the grounds for probably two hours, seeing everything we could before we had to retreat from the heat.  The first pictures are of the entrance to the Garden over the bridge and past the geese that guard the water.  The architecture is amazing.  The Tomb behind me is Shish Gombad.  It is known for it’s blue tiles, which according to our officiously meddling “guide” were molded and glazed in Afghanistan. (See our “guide” persuading the never-skeptical Jessica into a “tour” of the Mosque in the 6th photo.) The Arabic inscriptions in the wall of the Mosque are impressive in person.  I don’t know what it says, but the delicacy required of the chisel must mean they are important words.

After leaving the Lodi Gardens,  Jess and I went to the Khan Market nearby for some lunch and shopping. We ate at Latitude, a very nice restaurant above a shop called Good Earth.  We didn't take any pictures of Khan Market because Jess was busy shopping and I was eating.  We left Khan Market after a very long lunch talking politics with a nice old woman from France and drove over to the Humayun's Tomb.  Unfortunately, the pictures do not do justice to the hugeness of Humayun's city of tombs.  Both of our cameras died before we could photograph most of the grounds.  Jess and I climbed the monument and walked around inside the Tombs.  Humayun's tomb is famous for the stone pattern over the windows cut into a spider's web to represent the spider's web weaved over the mouth of a cave that saved the Prophet Muhammad from being killed by enemies one night. 

It was so hot that the dogs living at the tomb dug holes in the dirt under the trees to sleep in.  Jess and I beat the heat to a nice little bar for a few cold beers and some authentic Indian tobacco.  So far we have been serious tourists.  We are really looking forward to starting work on Monday.