Our hotel was in New Delhi but our day of touring was to sights in Old Delhi. “New” and “Old” are misnomers. New Delhi should be “Newest Delhi” and Old Delhi, “Slightly Older Delhi” as Delhi has been razed, rebuilt, and moved seven or eight times during its long history. Each new conquerer over several millennia built forts, temples, palaces and mausoleums to impress the populace, rivals and their gods. There are dozens of major historical sites in Delhi in various states of ruin, preservation and restoration. For our day-long excursion, we concentrated on two, Humayun’s Tomb and Qutub Minar.
“Don’t drink the water and don’t breath the air”
We traveled by coach so, once again, many of my pictures were taken through tinted windows. Worse, the air was hazy with pollution, perhaps low by Delhi standards, thank goodness, but not something most of us would want to endure long term.
We passed by but did not visit Lal Qila or the Red Fort. It was built in the mid 1600’s and covers over 250 acres, with a mile and a half of walls and turrets.
It’s a Sunday and the street markets were active. I was on the wrong side of the bus for pictures of the denser populated market areas. Besides the hive of peoples in the markets, many Indians were out in colorful attire, or at least the women were.
We ate dinner in one of the hotel’s specialty restaurants, The Imperial Spice. The name should give you a hint as to the seasoning of the Indian cuisine. Spicy it was, but not so much as to reduce our enjoyment of the offerings. No doubt, for foreigners, the chefs accommodate alien palates. (At all our eating venues, western food is also offered but, other than at breakfast, we eat and greatly enjoy Indian cuisine.)
