Archive for the 'Delhi' Category

The next part of our tour was to the heart of New Delhi.  We first stopped at the enormous India Gate.  It is the national monument of India and commemorates the loss of 90,000 Indian soldiers.

The roads that extend from it are the most important in the nation, as they lead to both the Parliament House and the Presidential Palace.  Very few cars are allowed on these roads due to terrorist threats in the past.

And to the right, a view of the Parliament House and the Presidential Palace.

We then visited the Parliament House and the Presidential Palace.  Being there felt like we had temporarily left India.  There were hardly any people or cars; 2 things that are synonymous with the country.

The grounds were beautifully landscaped with flowers and fountains.

Then while the others made a quick stop at a carpet store to shop, I made friends with an auto-rickshaw driver drinking his afternoon chai.

Afterwards, we began our drive to Agra, the next city on our itinerary.  However, before we could leave, the local monkeys came out to say goodbye.

My last memory of Delhi was the the Bahá’í House of Worship, otherwise known as the Lotus Temple, which we drove by as we departed the city.  It truly is an architectural work of art!  Bahá’í temples are open to people of any faith, thus my kind of place (and apparently for many others as well, because it is one of the most visited monuments in the world having attracted over 50 million visitors).  When I return to Delhi in the future, one of the first things I will do is to have lunch there.  I heard the vegetarian meals served are delicious.

Obviously, a day and a half in the pulsing capitol is simply not enough time.  While, Delhi is an ancient and historical city with more than 60,000 identifiable monuments, it is also quiet modern and I really enjoyed that mix.

The drive from Delhi to Agra is around 5 hours of stop and go traffic.  Not really conducive to sleeping or reading.

But that was okay, as I just entertained myself with thoughts of tomorrow, since tomorrow I would be seeing THE Taj Mahal!!!

I awoke after only a couple of hours of sleep with an abundance of energy.  I was ready to explore India!  In the morning we were touring Old Delhi and in the afternoon we were touring New Delhi.  While we were driving, I noticed that traffic was almost non-existent.  This was due to the fact that Good Friday is a recognized holiday in India.  I was very surprised to discover that, since I knew the majority of Indians identified themselves as Hindus.  My guide, however, explained that religious tolerance is important to most Indians.  Therefore, holidays from all of the major religions are observed throughout the year.

Our first stop of the day was to a beautiful Hindu Temple.  We were not allowed to take pictures inside, nor were we allowed to wear shoes.  I know that most people would find walking around a public space barefooted to be gross, but I found that it made me feel very connected to the temple.  Plus, it was just beginning to get hot outside, so the marble ground helped cool me down.

The facade of the temple.

Me and Kristen with our first bindis of the trip.

Our next stop was to the Jama Masjid, which is India’s largest mosque.  Sadly, we only got about 20 minutes to wander the grounds, which did not leave enough time to go inside.  This is definitely one of the negatives about being on an organized tour.  Nonetheless, I enjoyed my precious 20 minutes.

I was able to take in the glorious view of the mosque.

Pose for pictures, as well as take pictures.

And, best of all, make friends!

My two new friends were full of a lot of energy and kept asking me to take pictures of them.  In that moment I silently yelled at myself for not learning more Hindi before the trip, as I would have loved to have engaged them in some kind of conversation.  They both had quite the personalities, as I am sure you can tell by the photos.

The mosque is located on a very busy central street and it is there where I got my first real taste of Indian traffic, which can best be described as ordered chaos.  I know those are two opposing words, but even though the traffic is a complete mess and no one is abiding to the rules of the road, it somehow works.  The nation does have one of the highest rate’s of car accidents in the world, although while I was there I never saw one.

Our next and last stop in Old Delhi was to the Memorial of Mahatma Gandhi.  The memorial itself was small and simple, and I felt that was very fitting.  The eternal flame is to symbolize that Gandhi’s message and his legacy lives on forever.

To be honest, I have very mixed feelings about Gandhi.  In College, I took a class that was completely devoted to him, thus I feel well-educated enough to form an opinion on the matter.  I will not go into great detail now regarding my opinion, as I do not want to offend or bore anyone.  However, I will say that I am wildly passionate about his practice of satyagraha, or nonviolent resistance.

I believe wholeheartedly that the only way to peace is through peace.

Having said all that, I am disgusted by the fact that he abused his wife.  How can someone expect a world of peace, when he cannot even have peace in his own home?  Unfortunately, 2 other men known for their “peace missions” also treated their wives poorly, Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela.

Off to New Delhi…

“Why India?”  If I had a penny for every time I was asked this question I would be able to afford another trip to India again!  My response, of course, is “Why not?”  But in all honesty, that is a really simplistic answer, because the reason why I chose India is much more meaningful, as it gives insight into who I truly am as a person.

India creeped its way into my heart when I was a teenager.  I was raised in a fairly liberal Catholic family, who encouraged me to explore my curiosity about the world.  The first place I turned to for answers were books and pretty soon Barnes & Noble became my mecca.  I am not sure, other than it being some karma-related force, why I was at first so strongly drawn to books on India?  I loved the spirituality that the entire country seemed to ooze from its pours, and the images of the people, the land, and the temples captured my young heart.  At the age of 14, I developed some major health problems and became frustrated with Western Medicine and its inability to help me.  Maybe one day I will go into more depth about this personal subject, but for now I will say it is what led me down the path of Holistic and Natural Medicine and is why I am a Chinese Medicine Doctor today.  During my path to recovery, my Mom discovered the extraordinary Deepak Chopra and after we both read some of his books we were inspired to spend a week at his Ayurvedic Clinic in California.  It was there that I fell in love with the philosophy of synchronicity and from then on I tried to always be aware of its power in my life.  In College, I become even more fascinated by India through some of the classes I was taking and decided half-way through my education to change my major from Biology to Comparative Religious Studies (with a focus on the Asian Religions).  I remember spending countless hours learning (and dreaming) about India, since many of the world’s most popular religions originated from there and to understand these religions one needed to understand India.  I made a promise then that I would one day visit India.

Fast-forward 10 years later.  Why had I yet to visit the country?  Especially since I pride myself on keeping all of my promises.  The problem was that I had always felt that I needed to give India at least a month of my time.  I knew that it would be a life-changing experience and I did not want to rush through it.  Except a free month of time never materialized itself.

Well, about 6 months ago my dear friend Kristen mentioned that she would like to travel with me again.  We started thinking about which country to go to and India was mentioned.  And then right on cue synchronicity decided to enter the picture with an alluring trip to India offered by Gate 1.  It was only 11 days, versus a month, but I would have been a fool to pass up the opportunity!

6 months flew by and the next thing I knew it was the morning of my trip.  It was such a surreal feeling that I almost did not feel excited.

All packed and ready to go.

Normally, I wait until the very last minute to go to the airport, since security lines are not usually long at the Charlotte Douglas International Airport.  However, I decided to give myself some extra time to get coffee.  Thankfully I did, because as I turned my car on my flat tire warning went off.  I jumped out of the car to see if it was true and sure enough one of my tires was completely deflated.  Instead of panicking I called my Dad and he quickly came to my rescue.  I made it to the airport with just enough time for me to grab a cafe latte from Starbucks and board my flight to JFK.

At JFK I switched terminals and waiting at my new gate was a smiling Kristen.  As we boarded the flight it finally hit me that I was on my way to my dream destination!

The 15-hour flight was actually quite pleasant.  I had an empty seat next to me, so I was able to stretch out my long legs.  I watched a couple of Bollywood movies, ate my first of many vegetarian Indian meals that I would consume on the trip, and then slept.  By the time I awoke we were close to landing.

The first thing I noticed about Delhi was the intense dry heat.  It was near 100 degrees at 6PM!  I love hot weather, thus I embraced it.  The second thing I noticed was that I did not experience any of things that people warned me about when I left the airport.  There was no terrible smell and there were not thousands of begging children.  I should have known better to not listen to their fears.

We met up with the rest of our tour group and they all seemed like lovely people.  There was even a couple from Charlotte (small world, huh?)!  Soon we were in our bus on the way to the hotel.

As soon as we got to the hotel Kristen and I rushed, despite our jetlag, to get ready for our only night out in Delhi.  I had contacted a Couchsurfer named Jared prior to the trip and he had offered to take us out.

Jared arrived about an hour later with his equally fabulous girlfriend, Rafaela.  They took us to a nightclub about 20 minutes away in New Delhi called Pure where we dined, drank, and danced.

Kristen, me, and Rafaela.

Jared and his bro.

Kristen and I would have loved to have stayed out until the sun came out, alas we had to be up at 6:30AM for our first tour of the trip.  Jared and Rafaela kindly drove us back to our hotel around 1AM and on the way we asked them a million questions about India.  As I laid my head on the pillow and drifted off into my first slumber in India, I reminded myself to remain open to everything that the incredible country had to offer me and to be present in each moment, as the next 10 days would go by way too quickly.

In a couple of hours I will board my flight to JFK, which is where I will board another flight that will take me to India.  As I write this post my heart is aflutter.

India has been #1 on my “dream destination list” for over a decade, so this trip truly is a dream-come-true for me.

Why have I waited this long to visit the country?  Its simple, as I have always felt, and still feel, that India deserves at least a month to really experience it.  And so as the years went by and I never found myself with a month of free time due to College, then Graduate School, and then owning my own business, my dream never materialized.  Well, about 6 months ago a girlfriend of mine suggested, after seeing an incredible deal offered by Gate 1 Travel, that I finally complete my dream with her.  I thought about it for a couple of days and came to the conclusion that it was now or never.  My life seems to only get more busy by the day and I tend to repeat countries anyway, thus I agreed to the trip!

At first I was hesitant to go through a tour company, though I will say that I have used Gate 1 Travel before on my trip to Morocco 4 years ago and I was thoroughly impressed.  However, now that I consider myself to be a more of an expert when it comes to traveling, I shy away from tours, because I like to be in complete control of my travel plans.  Since we only had a short amount of time though and wanted to see as many cities as we could, we both thought it was best to go on a tour.  Not to mention that the price was unbelievable.

Of course we are doing the tour Andi-style!  We are not going on any of the optional paid tours, rather we will explore each city on our own.  I have also contacted Couchsurfers in each city to meet along the way.

The itinerary is as follows: March 31-April 2 Delhi, April 2-4 Agra, April 4-6 Jaipur, April 6-8 Kochi, and April 8-10 Mumbai.

Our route in India.

I will not be blogging about India while I am away, as I am a firm believer in disconnecting to get the most out of my trip.  However, I have some posts finishing my tale of Brasil that are scheduled to go live  over the next 11 days, so until I return ~NAMASTE~!