Jumped ship from yahoo360

My apologies -- and warning: if you read my last entry on yahoo360.com, don't bother with the one below! It's a repeat (God forbid I miss any of my own writing.)

I just had a few challenges w/ the other blog so am hoping this site is user friendly for all of us!

More to come -- thanks for keeping up w/ me!
Anyway, back to today.
While I didn’t have much energy to attack the day, having slept from 1 to 3 and spent the rest of the night counting sheep, half heartedly reading, tossing around. (Chalk it up to jet lag and too much Indian food too late at night.)
Anyway, my family was up at 8 so I rallied and we ate breakfast together, then Joe headed off to work and we grabbed wipes, water & cameras and headed out with our driver, Roop.
He whisked us off to New Delhi; we’d been told traffic would be terribly cumbersome due to Divali but we didn’t spend much time en route. That may be in part due to the driver’s road sense – he keeps telling me 24 years of experience, sometimes 26, today it was 27 years driving.
(And having been warned a million times that it will take FOREVER to get ANYWHERE here my expectations are low so maybe it was a zoo out there today – I will say I’m amazed at what passes as traffic here…)
Back to New Delhi:
I found the Capitol area of New Delhi to be very clean, relatively orderly, with lovely green spaces, trees and flowers throughout. Many of the embassies, universities, homes of armed service leaders, etc. were recessed behind shrubbery so we were left imagining their auspiciousness or lack thereof. We did spot the American flag and the seal on the front of what Roop said is a huge American embassy.
Even the road, which featured a ton of roundabouts (Becky you would have been at home) seemed a bit less chaotic – until the ride home, when we saw an accident involving 2 cars, 1 bicycle, 3 angry men and from what I could see, no blood.
Back to touring: Roop gave us a driving tour of the Houses of Parliament and the President’s House, which were all appropriately auspicious.
Our first actual stop was the India gate, “a massive red sandstone arch, built to commemorate the Indian and British soldiers who died in WWI and those who fell in the battle in the NW Frontier Province and the 3rd Afghan War (good Lord how many wars have they had?).” – verbiage straight out of my guidebook (with some commentary from me on # of wars) -- guidebook courtesy of some of the beautiful women in my life.
Back to the Gate. At the bottom is an eternal flame in memory of soldiers who died in the 1971 India-Pakistan War.
Near the India Gate is an impressive Statue Canopy; together they make a lovely focal point into New Delhi.
Also near the Gate were a wide array of vendors, one with monkeys that do tricks (tied to payment, naturally), others selling peacock feathers, what looked like scrawny cotton candy, guide books, photos, etc. We passed.
Oh, and several foreigners who felt a need to take Ava and Claire’s photos. The kids declined; I don’t blame them.
From the Gate we went to Humayun’s Tomb, the “1st example of a Mughal garden tomb” and inspiration for the Taj Majal and other later monuments. It was built in 1565 by a Persian architect, commissioned by Humayun’s senior widow (so I have to ask: is there a junior widow too?).
Before checking out the Tomb (which Roop and now Ava refers to as the Baby Taj – they share the same type of dome), we wandered around the two crypts nearby, where other important Mughals are buried. (I swear someone said one was the king’s barber. Given my fondness for hair cuts, I’d agree with the high status of the barber.)
We were able to climb up to the 2nd story (for lack of a better word) on one of the crypts and on the Tomb, too, so were able to absorb more of the detailed stonework and surrounding gardens. We also spotted several temples in the area – fodder for future sight-seeing adventures.
The Tomb was truly magnificent; the arch leading in lends itself to the magnificence of the building. Both kids were enamored, Ava particularly in being a model in every photo, Tomb and otherwise. She perched right up on one of the tombs inside. No doubt it was non-spiritually correct but I can’t imagine the Moghals mind at this point.
After traipsing around the Tomb area and complaining about the quality of the bathroom (thank heavens one had a seat; the other 3 were squatters and the kids aren’t quite ready for that yet), we headed for a market recommended by Roop.
It was more like a regular store than street market -- sales people were quietly helpful, there was no bargaining, prices were established on each product. We oohed and aahed appropriately and managed to leave without a bunch of small carved elephants and such. (I’m not ready to fill up our hotel space w/ trinkets just yet…)
Roop then whisked us back to our hotel.
Our highlight for the evening was an in-kitchen demonstration of the tandoor oven. We expressed interest so the chef brought us around the counter to watch a ball of dough be flattened, then attached to the inside of one of the two big barrel-like (might I mention extremely hot) ovens (they burn coal and must burn 1 ½ hours to cool down enough for use). The dough remains on the side of the oven until done and peeled off with very long tongs (if too done it peels off by itself and I suspect would then incinerate).
As a final note, we are enjoying the light displays in and around the hotel for Divali – each day more lights are added to trees in the courtyard, candles in the water features, candles and ornate flower petal decorations inside and out.
Re: the petals – as we were waiting for our driver this morning, a very tall American man took a step back on the sidewalk and wiped out an entire Diwali petal decoration with his size 12 shoe. I think he wanted to crawl under the tiny Indian rental that retrieved him shortly thereafter.
And Ava has clearly settled into India already: “Mom, WHERE is our driver?!?”
Happy Divali in advance to all!