I'm just a few days back from what I would consider to be a "trip of a lifetime" and my only regret is that I didn't get to experience it with Matt! I hate to admit that visiting India was not on my top 10 list of places to travel to when we moved over to Singapore. I hate to admit even more that India was not on my list of places to travel to EVER in life. So when Kay, a woman who teaches cooking classes here in Singapore, put together the trip and invited me to go along, I admitedly thought long and hard about whether I wanted to invest my time and money into a place I didn't really think I was very interested in. Ultimately, I decided to go because I was afraid of missing my only chance to see a completely new part of the world...and WOW am I thankful that I went! The things we did and saw were so unique and the experiences we had were completely new (to me) in every way.
The trip lasted for 8 days and we certainly accomplished a lot within that time...I have nearly 2,000 pictures to show for it (but don't worry, I won't be posting every picture on the blog...I'll narrow it down to maybe 1,500...just kidding)! I'm going to blog about India in a slightly different way than I usually do. I'm still going to do a day-by-day recap, but I'm going to break it into two seperate blogs, one for the things we did and one for the people of India...because it's the people that captivated me more than anything else. I could have spent an entire day on the street in the same spot photographing the people without getting bored. They were friendly and full of color and one look from a sweet child was enough to consume my thoughts for the rest of the day.
So let's check out day 1 in India!
We departed Singapore at 11 p.m., flew for 5.5 hours and settled into our hotel rooms in Delhi around 4 a.m. After 3 hours of sleep, we forced ourselves out of bed and set out to explore the first major city of our trip!
Upon our arrival at each hotel we stayed in, we were given a traditional Indian greeting and a red dot was placed on our foreheads.
I was so thrilled that 3 of my very close friends were there with me!
(Amanda, Chris, me and Cara)
The first place we went to was the Qutb Complex. The focal point of the complex is the Qutb Minar which was built in 1193 by Qutbuddin Aibak to announce the advent of the Muslim sultans. Later, Iltutmish, Alauddin Khilji and Feroze Shah Tughlaq added other buildings so today the complex is a fusion of Hindu and Islamic architecture. (I definitely stole this information from one of the books Chris lent me...I'm good with remembering info, but not THAT good with remembering names!)
The Qutb Minar
Inside the Qutb Complex
I'm absolutely in love with the bright colored saris the Indian women wear!
On our way to our next stop we were able to take pictures of this place from the bus. This is the Lakshmi Narayan, a temple built in 1938 by GD Birla. (Photo credit goes to Chris)
This is the India Gate. It was built to commemorate the Indian and British soldiers who died in WWI and those who fell in battle in the North-West Frontier Province and the Third Afghan War. Right behind the 3 flags is an eternal flame that burns in memory of unknown soldiers.
After we left India Gate we stopped off at Delhi Haat, a market that sold mostly local crafts and then we went on to one of Kay's favorite stores to shop for traditional Indian clothing. Our bus was too big to take us down the narrow path to the store so we all had to take rickshaws!
There is a McDonald's right next to the stores we were shopping at. I had to snap a picture - not a typical menu item in the states! Actually, there is no beef sold at McDonalds (or anywhere) since the cow is considered to be holy among Hindus. It was strange not seeing hamburgers on the menu!
Our first night's dinner was SO delicious! We had fish tikki, tandoori chicken, lamb kebabs, black dahl, and of course, naan, among many other dishes! I wish I had taken a picture of the meal, but I was too busy eating it to remember. We skipped lunch on the first day so we were all starving by the time we got to dinner. See those smiles? That's because we know food is on the way! :)
Our final stop for the night was the Red Fort in Delhi to see a light and sound show. As the story is narrated over the loud speakers the surrounding buildings light up, sometimes one by one, sometimes all together. I would like to say that the show was great, but I can't say for sure...I fell asleep...as did everyone else, ha! After an over night flight, 3 hours of sleeping and an ALL day tour, we were pretty much done by this point!
We had an awesome first day! The sights and sounds were enough to overwhelm us in one short day and we could not wait to see what the next day had in store! We settled in for the night and woke up the next morning to start our 5 hour journey to Agra to see the...TAJ MAHAL!! :)
