Day Two in Delhi

We walked around Old Delhi and saw the famous Red Fort which is a beautiful sandstone fortress built by the Mughals. Above is a picture of the Red Fort that I took while I was there. Some of the carvings were so extravagant and they the Mughals inlaid lots of precious stones into the carvings. I will try to refrain from posting too many pictures with my posts but I think that the designs are something to marvel at so I will just tell you about some of the artwork.

Many of the artwork in the historical buildings that we saw feature flowers (especially the lotus). The Mughals would carve out their desired designs and then put their precious jewels into the patterns. Unfortunately many people have robbed the monuments and stolen the precious stones. Below is an example of some of the exquisite artistry at the Red Fort.

After visiting the Red Fort we congregated across the street at a Jain Temple before preceeding on to Chandni Chowk, the market in Old Delhi. The walk in Old Delhi was definitely exciting because you have to be quick on your feet and not be afraid to be jostled around quite a bit. We saw a snake charmer in one of the back alleys and Sucharita (our program director) was surprised at the sight of the snake charmers. She had told us before we left that we probably wouldn't see any and that was a stereotype that people had of India. We all had a laugh when we saw the snake charmer at Chandni Chowk (I will come back to the snake charmers in a later post).

Anyway, we walked through Old Delhi and stopped by the Jama Masjiid, a Muslim mosque, during midday prayer. We ate across the street at one of Old Delhi's finest Muslim restaurants, Karim's. Walking back to where we parked was a bit tricky because our guide was no longer with us, but eventually we found our way back (after stopping and asking for directions a couple times). I should also maybe mention that during my time in Delhi I tended to count the number of random men I saw peeing on the side of the road. It was taken up as somewhat of a game for us and our record was 13 in about 5 hours. In India there is no such thing as indecent exposure so often you walk by people peeing on the side of the street.

Later during the night Brenna and I went with Kingshuk (Sucharita's husband) to a bar/club. It was quite sophisticated and was dimly lit with two tables set up for hookah. Apparently in Delhi the drinking age is 25 but no one checks. Nonetheless we went to observe the atmosphere and found it to be somewhat intimidating because the women are good dancers (plus we don't particularly know what to do when Bollywood songs come on) and the club that we went to had clientele that were in their 30s or higher. Yes, everyone else was feeling the effects of jet lag but I never truly did so instead I decided to see as much as I could with the time that I had (man, I really DO take after my dad). The nightlife in Delhi is a little different than in America but we usually tried to do activities inside and only went out when Kingshuk could take us. We will all miss Kingshuk when he leaves to go back to the US to teach but I am trying to badger him into coming for spring break. We will see how this turns out ;)