We woke this morning to rain and excitement. Excitement diminished ever so slightly by the rain. Until we hit the breakfast buffet. I hit the meats and fruits and allowed Barbara to scope out the local foods. She's so much better at chatting up the chef/wait staff/locals in getting the low down on what is available. She comes back with a full plate of all kinds of food stuffs. Several tastes later, I now know what to get on my second pass. We each ordered a couple eggs made to order. I regret this decision almost as soon as my order is placed in front of me. A mushroom omelet that seems to be missing the mushrooms and doesn't look as thoroughly cooked as I would like. My second plate is filled with the gloriousness that Barbara has found in the local section of the buffet; A chickpea curry, several other sauces that I could not really identify (other than one had cilantro in it) and some flat breads. In the end we both roll our full selves to the bus for our first stop.
The bus pulls up in front of the Jama Mosque. It is a red sandstone number that seems to me to be pretty massive. Shankar tells us that we should wait in the bus for a bit for the bad weather to pass. It was lightly raining at the time. Barbara and I looked at each other figuring that a little light rain isn't going to hurt anyone. We have rain coats. She brought an umbrella. But, I don't think everyone else came as prepared for this type of weather. So in the bus we remained.
Shankar is like a weatherman. Several minutes later the rain started coming down in sheets. Pouring down rain. Yeah, that would have sucked. There would be no way for me to be able to pull my camera out and use it in that weather. We looked out the windows of the bus and entertained ourselves for about a quarter hour when the rain lightened again.
After the security check and metal detector scan (that nobody seemed to pay attention to), we are told we must take our shoes off to enter the mosque. I'm not really a barefoot kind of fellow. The majority of the mosque is outdoors. After the heavy rain we just had and the continual light rain, there's no way I can walk around in socks. Who would ever have thought that, of all the places, I would kick off my shoes and wander around barefoot in India. Barbara was asked to wear a gown (as were all of the ladies and those men who had shorts on) to be able to enter the mosque. We wandered around and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.
For those of you who have been reading for a while, the next stop should be a pub. That's how these travels are supposed to go; Religion and then beer. Looks like I'm not going to be able to follow that on this trip :(. After this place of worship we were treated to a rickshaw ride through the very narrow streets and alley in the area. Motorcycles, rickshaws, bicycles and, at times, cars vied for the right of way on these sometimes one lane alleys. Our rickshaw driver seemed to be able to navigate through jedi powers. Dodging and weaving left and right around the people and other vehicles. It was pretty damned cool. He drove us around for about 20 minutes and we ended up back at our tour bus.
Our next stop would be the location that Gandhi was cremated. In the Hindu culture, the body is cremated and the ashes returned to the nearest river. Gandhi's place of cremation was turned into a large park and monument. However, due to the rains, all of the entrances were completely flooded. In some locations we would have to wade through water halfway up to our knees. Some of the members of our tour were not very keen on that. Shankar said we would try another entrance to the park. It had the same situation. He told us not to worry, he has a backup plan.
We were taken to the house that Gandhi had lived out his last 144 days. In the back of the house where he was living was where he was assassinated. The house and grounds have been turned into a museum to his life and death. We spent some time wandering the grounds and house. Not too bad of a backup plan. Especially for a last minute game change.
The India Gate was our next stop for today. Yes, lots of things to do and see on these tours most days. The India Gate was built in the same style as the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. It was placed there as a war memorial to honor the Indian soldiers that had lost their lives fighting in World War I. It holds the Indian Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
For lunch (or light snack, as it turns out) we stop by what we will call an Artisan Education Facility. These locations are on all of these types of tours. From what I have read, they actually help to keep the costs down. They figure they will kick back some money to the tour operator for expenses because they know they will have a steady stream of potential customers constantly walking through the door.
This facility is a Cashmere crafts institution where rugs are made. We are treated to a demonstration of how these rugs are made, their history and then shown various rugs of different sizes and shapes. Of course, all of these rugs are for sale. I believe that the rug dealer had said "We will not pressure you to buy a rug you do not want, but, if you fall in love with a rug, we will not stop". I have always wanted to buy a rug in a place like this. It's an experience I was looking for if/when we ever get to Istanbul. I had no idea that I would get that experience here.
We sat down and gave the dealer something to start with. We told him we are looking for a round rug and an approximate size. Men started pulling rugs and showing them to us. We told them that we didn't like this color or that type of pattern and away those carpets would go to be replaced with carpets a bit more to our taste. Each time he asked us about a carpet that did not match our taste, he would look at one of the many assistants and would tell them to take that carpet away. However, he would say it in a way that sounded like the carpet offended us, and therefore offended him. Eventually, my dear readers, he found a carpet that Barbara and I could not leave without. With free freight and insurance I filled out the forms and forked over some cash. Our carpet arrives in about 3 weeks.
After the rug merchant, we headed out to the Qutab Minar. This is the largest free standing minaret in the world at 238 feet. It was pretty impressive. I took a boat load of pictures of it (me? Take pictures of something? Nah). Some things, I find, just want to have their photos taken. This is one of those things. At the same site is the Iron Pillar. From what we were told, this is an old border/boundary marker from the 5th century made from...you guessed it...iron. The interesting thing about it is that, although it is iron and completely open to the elements, it has never rusted. Nobody has been able to explain why this is.
The last stop for the day is the Lakshmi Narayan Temple. We are given a blessing of the temple and Tilak (the red dot). Shankar explains the different gods of the temple and we are given some time to wander around to explore on our own. By the way, this being a temple, we are shoeless again. At the end of our free time we meet back towards the main part of the temple when one of the two religious ceremonies for the day begins. One ceremony in the morning and one in the evening. Each lasts about eight to ten minutes. I guess we could count ourselves lucky to be able to experience one of the ceremonies on my first (and possibly only) trip to the temple.
Back to the hotel for some dinner and rest. I would like to say the food was passable. It was GLORIOUS! No secret that both Barbara and I love Indian food. This meal served it up right. A lamb kebab, a chicken curry dish with naan and some local wine; Awesome. I even got to try a specific type of coffee that is made here during the monsoon season. Very strong coffee. I loved it! Barbara's creme brule was missing the hard sugar crust on top....so more of a custard then a creme brule. But apparently still tasty.
Tomorrow we have a long bus ride to Agra; near seven hours.
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