My India and Nepal Adventure| Delhi

Wednesday, July 02, 2014

So on the 9th of June I jetted off from Heathrow airport with my friend Jess in search for India. We landed at 7:15ish am in New Delhi airport ready to start the G-Adventures Delhi to Kathmandu YOLO adventure tour. Having collected and un-tied our rucksacks we headed to the taxi rank, pre-paid taxis only mind you. Despite being early in the morning it was still uncomfortably hot in the taxi, trying to get to the hotel was a challenge in itself because as TripAdvisor had predicted the driver didn't know where it was and had to pause to ask a friend.

Once we reached the hotel and made ourselves comfortable, one or our fellow tourmates(?) Veronika asked if we wanted to explore Delhi with her before the tour began. So that is what we did.

We started with the Red Fort. The fort itself is made with red sandstone, but the many buildings inside are built with ornately carved marble. The one thing I noticed on entrance is the amount of colour that the people in India wear, specifically the women who to my surprise wear nearly all in traditional dress.

I will admit to stealing this photo from Jess from her Facebook album, this will be a recurring theme as I lack many photos of myself.

We didn't actually enter the Lotus Temple, but I tried to get a sneaky picture of it as it was so different to anything that I have ever seen before. I later found out that the lotus means beauty and non-attachment (to allow rebirth) in Hinduism.

Our final stop before heading back to the hotel was Humayun's Tomb. I really didn't think massive oversized and really quite fancy tombs was something that was done outside of the Egyptian Pyramids. I was very wrong. Regardless of the size of this place it was a gorgeous building and was really interesting to see the different ways that cultures bury their dead.

Once we returned from the quick sightseeing tour we met up with the rest of our tour group and out tour guide for a quick overview of what we would be doing for the next couple of weeks from our tour guide CP, a quick visit to the governmental buildings and India Gate which are perfectly in line which we had already seen via taxi. And of course our taxi driver was pulled over for an illegal U-turn on our way back to the hotel before the group meet up. Next up was our first meal as a group, I opted for Butter Chicken with Plain Naan as I didn't want to start the trip with an upset stomach....

XO, Miriam