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Evening All : )
After three days watching movies in the hotel room, a work free stress free day was much welcomed :) and it was lovely.
We hired an auto rickshaw or tuk tuk for 400 Rs which is like 4.50/5 for the day (12/1 - 6 ish) and he took us around different parts of surrounding Delhi and gave us some info, and droped us off at a few places and waiting for us. He was lovely, and had very good English. He took us to the Lotus Temple which sat in lovely gardens, was free to get in, and was a nice break from hussly bussly market streets. Ellie took a video of the route there to show how busy the roads are which we'll upload soon (although for some reason it takes ages here to upload). We got to the temple and got our cameras out straight away to take pictures, and when I was taking a picture of ellie with the temple behind, people just got in the picture, first a man and baby, then we had to pose for their camera, then a family of like 1 woman and 3 kids got in. Then a group of about 5 men asked for pictures, so we got in for them (and took our own of course) and another time, Ellie and I were talking and this man just took a picture of us randomly. They LOVE taking pictures of us!! Its very strange thing to get used to!!
So Lotus Temple is a modern structure which is a place of worship for Bahai religion which is supporting of all/religions. So we got to wear vest tops and show our shoulders and risk a tan :) although I don't think that was the point. Inside the building it was just one massive room with seats and you weren't allowed to talk, people stayed for under a minute after praying but you could stay for longer. Ellie got the giggles, by the time we came out her eyes were watering!! It was a strange 5 minutes though. Probably more purposeful if you followed a religion.
Then we went to an Indian market that sold some stuff we hadn't seen but was quite expensive. There were beautiful indian paintings on camel bone :S something wrong there.
Then we went to Ghandi's home/museum. We only had about 20 mins there, it was really interesting but we didn't have enough time because it was closing. We did however see the last footsteps of Ghandi and the very spot he was assassinated in in 1948. Kind of eery, but interesting.
Theeeen we went to the president's palace, constructed by the British (which by the way is WAY prettier than our houses of parlaiment).
Theeeeeen we ate on a roof top restaurant which was so peaceful. And we went home :) After going to the docs and getting my four days of antibiotics but I feel A-OK *thumbs up*
So heres a couple more things I've learnt: women don't smoke here unless your a graduate/full time worker, then its kind of ok, but men still look at you very weirdly. Some babies wear eyeliner. Men chew something that makes their spit red, possibly tobacco but is that red? All the stray dogs here get rabies shots, and the locals love em. INDIA HAS MONKEYS!!!!!!!!!! But your not allowed to touch them. I Love monkeys. The rickshaw drivers have agreements with shops that if they take tourists there, the shop will give them fuel tokens. People here find it interesting when you try and speak their language, I think they are really used to speaking english as all the advertisement here is in english (on tv, billboards etc).
Ellie will upload her pics of the day soon, my camera ran out of battery :(
xxxxx
- comments
Robert Peett Mia, they are chewing paan - made from betel leaves and so on. And the 'eyeliner' is, presumnably, kohl.
Mia Thanks Bob. And I was told the eyeliner is for good luck. x