Castro Travels: June 2014

May 21st

City Visiting: Delhi

Today's High: 102 degrees

We were up super early ready for the day today. We could not wait to see what adventures we were going to get into. After breakfast in the hotel, we met up with 34 fellow travels to set out on our bus to explore. Our first stop was Humayun's Tomb. Within the area, there were the Char Bagh (big grassy areas), 2 different tombs/mausoleums, mosques and a beautiful gateway/entrance.

The architecture was so different than anything we had really seen anywhere. As we walked through Humayun's tomb we learned how these structures were designed with 9 different rooms, a central room with markers are located in the center of the structure and then 8 rooms surrounding it. The detail was so impressive.

Humayun Tomb

Isa Khan Tomb Enclosure

Our next stop was the Jama Masjid, India's largest mosque. This was the first place the traditional attire was required. All of us had to be covered so even though we all thought we came prepared, they had us put on their coverings and we all had to leave our shoes at the main gate. No cameras or phones were allowed in so we spent our time just walking around. One of the most surprising things to me was how different it was. When I think of a mosque, I think that it is just a different spin on a church building. Boy was I wrong. There are no chairs, no pulpit or stage. It is just a huge open area with a fountain in the center and what we would consider an open air archway. The archway is really, really tall, kind of dark and very cool.

Gateway up to Mosque

Source

This seems to be the area that people come to pray. There are no idols or statues, just the wall. They were gracious enough the let a bunch of foreigners walk through and just observe. Many people just came to sit by the fountain or hang out with family and friends around the walls. You did not see many people hanging out in the big open area. It was very hot in the sun by now and we saw pictures of when the mosque is full, they will bring in large sheet that are hung over the entire open area to provide more shade while people pray. It was such a neat experience.

The mosque is located right in the middle of Old Delhi. Old Delhi is just that: old. This is where Delhi started and, in a way, it doesn’t look like much had changed in all the years. You can tell where they have tried to add modern technology by running a million cables to power individuals homes and shops.

A view of the mosque from the streets of Old Delhi

The residents lived in the living spaces above their shops and there were shops for EVERYTHING! As we watched people go by we watched as they carried home food, clothes, car bumpers and ladders. Some of these things were carried on tiny vehicles called Tuk-tuk’s, some on motorcycles, rickshaws, bicycles or oxen. It was wild to watch this city function as people came in and out of this area.

We were given the opportunity to hop on to a rickshaw and have them give us a ride through the original city. Oh my gosh, this was so fun and crazy. This area was not built with wide roads or even paved roads in part but our rickshaw driver was ducking and weaving though all kinds of areas. We would go head to head with small cars, motorcycles, tour buses and the occasional cow.

We drove through the very colorful areas with beautiful clothes for sale and perfectly arranged fruits and vegetable stands. I am sure we could have gotten lost for hours shopping and exploring which is why I am sure they just let the tour group just ride though. Besides, we have other chances to shop and there was more to see today.

Selfie with our rickshaw driver

A view from of the Old Delhi street from the rickshaw

A restaurant in Old Delhi

Another option for a meal

In an effort to speed up the shopping process that all tourists (especially a group of our size) is bound to do on a trip like this, Bhanu helped by having all the street hawkers sell straight though him at the door. So when we boarded the bus after our rickshaw trip, half a dozen hawkers came running up to the door to have Bhanu sell us their stuff. It was a pretty creative idea, especially for people like Jed and I that hate to bargain. So after everyone was done buying elephant purses, puppets and other random trinkets we were off.

On our way to lunch, we got a tour of the parliament buildings from our bus windows. We learned that there political system follows the UK system. They had recently voted a new political party into the Prime Minister role and that he would be there to be sworn in while we were in India.

India Gate

Parliament Buildings

Lunch was at Hotel Broadway and it was really good. Food was a bit of a concern for both of us and even though we wanted to be very adventurous, the idea of getting sick caused us to err on the safer side. It was a family style meal where they just brought food after food and you just grabbed whatever. It was great food and an opportunity to start to get to know people on the tour.

After lunch we headed to Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti. This is where Gandhi spent the last years of his life and where he was shot on his way to morning prayer on January 30, 1948. It was a very powerful experience as we walked in his footsteps, reading quotes and learning about a man that impacted so many.

As we walked around the grounds, we wandered into the larger museum when we ended up having to rush through so much and were still WAY late back to the bus (thankfully there were 10 of us way late so they didn’t leave us). I think we all could have spent the rest of the day on this property and if you ever find yourself in Delhi, this is a MUST SEE.

As we were trying to process all that we had seen, felt and experienced at our last stop we quickly arrived to our last stop of the day, GurudwaraBangla Sahib (the Sikh Temple). If our heads weren’t spinning before this stop they definitely were after this stop. This place was fascinating in so many ways. Let me see if I can do it justice.

As we first approached the temple, we knew that we had to be fully covered with shoes off before entering. Even the guys had to have their heads covered. We had a Sikh guide that took us into the temple so we all knew what and where to do what. As we approached the temple you were required to wash your hands and feet. They provided running water, soap and sinks to wash our hands and then there was slow running water that we walked through to cleanse our feet.

The temple from the courtyard was beautiful, bright white with gold everywhere. Our guide wanted to show us some of the things the temple provides to the community. The Sikh religion is all about community service and a big part of that is feeding the community. This temple feeds over 10,000 a day! It was unbelievable to see this process. Oh and did I mention that it is all done by volunteers and completely funded by donations!

After our tour of the kitchen, our Sikh guide led us all through the temple. In this temple, it was a little more tradition with a few huge differences. The Sikh people do not go to a “service” on a certain day at a particular time. It is always going on. In the center of the temple there is a structure kind of like a booth and in that booth there is a selected Sikh person of high status in the faith that has been given the opportunity to read from their “scripture”. This is read all day, everyday. As that is being read, there is a small group of young children that are singing from their “hymn book”. There is also an area that you can offer your prayers for people to pray for.

Once we had had the opportunity to observe what was happening in the temple, we were given time to just walk around the rest of the area. Many of us focused on walking around their large pond/pool. This was another gathering place for people to just come and hang out. It was beautiful to observe how life worked here.

We headed back to the hotel after the temple for a quick orientation meeting where we had the chance to meet more people on our tour and even convince Jess & Ciby to come out to dinner with us.

We were trying to figure out where we were going to go for dinner when a guy started hitting on Jess in the lobby. To make a hilarious story short, Jess ended up getting the guys number, he told us all about owning land in the Himalaya’s, getting out of the financial world and recommended a place called Veda for dinner. The four of us got out of the hotel lobby as quickly as we could and wandered the streets of Delhi looking for our restaurant. After a few detours, we found it!