Lindy and I slept soundly in the windowless hotel room, until we were awakened by hammering at 8:15 am. After our breakfast, the hotel management had us change rooms due to "technical problems" which turned out to be the fact they were doing construction next door.
Arun Jain, father of the bride, had been kind enough to provide us with an Indian cell phone for the duration of the visit. We got that working, and through the vacation were amazed at the constantly good reception over all of India.
While eating breakfast, we were informed our driver had arrived at the hotel - we had understood we would call him when we were ready - but he was fine with waiting. We finally were ready to go at 11:00 am.
Driving through New Delhi, we saw some water buffalo and monkeys. Our guide Khan played a qawwali on his phone for us when we expressed interest in this service sometimes sung at the Hazrat Nizam-ud-din Dargah.
We toured Humayun's Tomb, built well before the Taj Mahal, with much the same layout. A good Moslem tomb needs symmetric spacious gardens and water surrounding it, reminding one of paradise.
Some sights, such as the Red Fort, were closed on Mondays but we drove to see it from the outside. We also saw the Jain Temple that is also a bird hospital, treating vegetarian birds on its grounds. (Raptors are also cared for on an out-patient basis.) We also saw the Baha'i Lotus Temple.
We spent some time at India Gate and drove by governmental buildings including Parliament.
We saw the mosque Jama Masjid, but were unable to go inside as they were having a service.
Our guide encouraged us to drop by a place to see "how artisans work". This turned out to be a popular theme, with each guide wanting to take us to see some craftsmanship, naturally with the opportunity to buy. In this case, we did appreciate seeing how some fine rugs were made and Lindy elected to take the opportunity to purchase a small one.
After we returned to the hotel, the concierge showed us some of the preparations being done for a wedding. All of the hotel rooms would be rented for the wedding, in addition to more rooms from other hotels. A giant pavilion was being draped with colorful fabrics. He told us this wedding would cost about 100 lahk, the equivalent of $200,000 US dollars.
Arun Jain, father of the bride, had been kind enough to provide us with an Indian cell phone for the duration of the visit. We got that working, and through the vacation were amazed at the constantly good reception over all of India.
While eating breakfast, we were informed our driver had arrived at the hotel - we had understood we would call him when we were ready - but he was fine with waiting. We finally were ready to go at 11:00 am.
Driving through New Delhi, we saw some water buffalo and monkeys. Our guide Khan played a qawwali on his phone for us when we expressed interest in this service sometimes sung at the Hazrat Nizam-ud-din Dargah.
We toured Humayun's Tomb, built well before the Taj Mahal, with much the same layout. A good Moslem tomb needs symmetric spacious gardens and water surrounding it, reminding one of paradise.Some sights, such as the Red Fort, were closed on Mondays but we drove to see it from the outside. We also saw the Jain Temple that is also a bird hospital, treating vegetarian birds on its grounds. (Raptors are also cared for on an out-patient basis.) We also saw the Baha'i Lotus Temple.
We spent some time at India Gate and drove by governmental buildings including Parliament.We saw the mosque Jama Masjid, but were unable to go inside as they were having a service.
Our guide encouraged us to drop by a place to see "how artisans work". This turned out to be a popular theme, with each guide wanting to take us to see some craftsmanship, naturally with the opportunity to buy. In this case, we did appreciate seeing how some fine rugs were made and Lindy elected to take the opportunity to purchase a small one.
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