December 23. Delhi, India

Finally, Delhi! Sunny, 65 degrees, and FANTASTIC.


So we left Heathrow (London) in the morning on Emirates Airlines, which was pretty terrific. It was a 7 hour flight to Dubai, but it didn’t really feel that long because I got to watch several movies (English, Hindi, and even Telugu!) on the little screen the back of the seat in front of me. Even my parents watched:


We got to the Dubai International Airport at about 11 PM local time. Like I had predicted with my vast foresight, the airport was extremely nice (especially compared to the crapholes that are Logan and Heathrow) and really really big. We probably walked an entire mile through the whole thing trying to get to our transfer gate. But it was a nice walk since everything was so pretty and there were so many interestingly dressed people. The last time I went to an airport in a oil-rich middle eastern country was eleven years ago, in Bahrain.


Prayer Room! How thoughtful of them.


Anyway, we boarded Jet Airways to Delhi (and got more TVs in front of our faces!) and got there at 3:30 AM local time. After spending a while in the airport reporting our two missing suitcases we finally got picked up by our tour guide and transferred to the hotel room. After about 5 hours of sleep, we took off to see:

1. Qutub Minar. This is basically a really tall tower constructed by the Mughals, the builders of other really nice architecture including the Taj Mahal. See how tiny I am in the picture (standing at the railing)?


2. Lotus Building. Essentially a really large meditation building built in the shape of a flowering lotus, relevant to the Bahai faith.


3. Tomb of Humayun. Since tombs were important to the Mughals, they’re always extremely elaborate pieces of architecture. Humayun was the second Mughal emperor, father of Akbar, and great grandfather of Shah Jahan.


4. Gandhi Memorial. This is the place in Delhi where Mahatma Gandhi lived during his final days and contains the spot where he was assassinated. See below: the living quarters of Gandhi during the days before his death.


5. Indira Gandhi Memorial. This is where Indira Gandhi lived in Delhi. She has no biological relation to Mahatma Gandhi, but was the daughter of freedom fighter Jawaharlal Nehru and got the name “Gandhi” when she married Feroze Khan, who was “adopted” by Gandhi. Also assassinated. Below is the Sari she was wearing during the assassination. You can even see the bullet holes and blood stain! Aieeeeeeeeee.


6. Rashtrapathi Bhavan. This is equivalent to the White House. The president lives here and there also a bunch of important offices. I should mention now that it’s hard to see far in Delhi…or in any Indian city for that matter…because everything is really, really smoggy.


7. India Gate. This was built right after World War II sort of as a memorial to the soldiers who fought alongside the US and Britain.


So, Delhi is pretty nice (except for the staring boys and the smog). It's a very pleasant 65 degrees right now. Everybody around here is wearing sweaters, whereas we are traipsing around in T-shirts and shorts. I don’t think we could be more conspicuous as tourists.
It was a pretty tiring day and we were completely wiped out, especially after being thoroughly sleep deprived. Right now it’s 3:00 AM and I just woke up after sleeping for 10 hours. Funny, isn’t it? How normally I go to sleep at this time. Jet lag screws up everything. I think I will try to sleep for a little bit longer before I am yanked out of bed again and taken to Agra. I will upload these posts at the very next opportune moment. Thanks for reading!

Lookit all that SMOG!