A day in Delhi
We did a short tour of Delhi in a car with a driver and went to the Red Fort, the Gandhi memorial and a state owned clothing emporium.
We do not know too much of the detail, but the Red Fort was built during some earlier dynasty and seemed to have been a fortified royal palace or city - big spacious gardens with impressive masonry and stone carvings - like a little peaceful haven in the midst of the Delhi chaos.
When the driver parks, he just hands his keys to one of the parking attendants - they move the cars around so that everyone can get out even though you may become terribly parked in in the two or three rows of cars in front of a wall - no problem.
The Gandhi memorial is in a big garden where a flame burns on a simple block of black marble. Nothing too exciting to see - the gardens, however, have trees planted by numerous heads of states. There is one by Bill Clinton and Margaret Thatcher, as well as presidents from every imaginable country - just a pity that the biggest tree we saw was planted by the ex-dictator Kenneth Kaunda from Zambia!
We do not know too much of the detail, but the Red Fort was built during some earlier dynasty and seemed to have been a fortified royal palace or city - big spacious gardens with impressive masonry and stone carvings - like a little peaceful haven in the midst of the Delhi chaos.
When the driver parks, he just hands his keys to one of the parking attendants - they move the cars around so that everyone can get out even though you may become terribly parked in in the two or three rows of cars in front of a wall - no problem.
The Gandhi memorial is in a big garden where a flame burns on a simple block of black marble. Nothing too exciting to see - the gardens, however, have trees planted by numerous heads of states. There is one by Bill Clinton and Margaret Thatcher, as well as presidents from every imaginable country - just a pity that the biggest tree we saw was planted by the ex-dictator Kenneth Kaunda from Zambia!
Outside the gardens, we had our first encounter with a snake charmer. When we asked him what the name of his snake is, he said "his name is Cobra". The snakes seemed lazy, although they did rise after been hit a few times - they one guy had a huge plaster on his cheek - possibly concealing a snake bite?! Janine was brave as usual and wanted to hang the snake around her neck, which she did!
We went to the clothing emporium to get an idea of the typical quality and price of Indian clothing - Janine was very impressed with the quality and Johan was very impressed with the price! By this visit was purely educational for the invariable future purchases that will follow...
Culture shocks: people stare at one as if you are the last human on earth; the mild spicy food is so hot that Johan develops a rash on his chest for up to 1 hour after the meal; even in budget hotels, all the floors, steps and bathrooms are made from marble; buses proclaim to be "the largest eco-friendly bus service in the world" and "propelled by clean fuel" while smoke billows from under the buses; there are many many children begging and they are quite aggressive; saw our hotel manager in his small office - typical Mafia set-up in a big chair with 4 large TV screens facing him with different TV programs showing.
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