Delhi

Delhi was a nice change of pace for us. It felt more familiar than the other cities we visited. It still had pollution, tarp homes and crazy traffic, but it seemed more like a modern city. We went to an Italian restaurant run by an expatriate that had good food that was more authentic Italian than the Indian versions we have experienced. We spent very enjoyable afternoons with Chris and Laurie in a restaurant and club. Most of our time there was spent visiting various temples.

Our first stop was at the Lotus Temple. It was far more interesting on the outside than in. This is one of seven houses of worship in the world for the Baha'i religion. All Baha'i Houses of Worship are nine sided since nine is the highest digit and "symbolizes comprehensiveness, oneness and unity" according to Baha'i literature. I do like the principles of this faith especially equality of men and women, universal peace and compulsory education.

This is the India Gate which is a national war monument to World War I Indian solders who lost their lives in World War I and the Third Afghan War. We were very hot here and it wasn't really that interesting up close.

Because it was so hot in Delhi we tried to do activities that involved air conditioning. The national Museum seemed like a good idea, but there were only a couple of rooms that were cool. 

The museum had a lot of Indian artifacts and art, but the museum is in need of some upkeep. We were a little appalled to see that some of the stone artifacts were placed on pedestals that were painted and the bottoms of the artifacts had some paint on them. In the above picture Jon is standing in front of an exhibit which claims to contain some of Buddha's remains.

This temple was like going to a carnival funhouse. It is a 108 foot Hanuman statue next to the highway. The gods inside are very colorful and there are tunnels and a lot of rooms to explore. Jon and I had a puja blessing inside (for a fee of course). 

The last temple we visited was the Akshardham temple. We could not take pictures there but did take an interesting boat ride that was like Disneyland's "Its a Small World" ride. It provided riders with a little of India's history; however, I question some of the claims made.