New Delhi

After 24 hours of travel, I finally landed in New Delhi. Even after midnight it was still over 100 degrees! This morning I headed out to see some of the sights. First was the Shri Lakshmi Narain Temple: a newish temple opened by Ghandi in 1939. It had lovely paintings and artwork throughout. Next was Humayun's Tomb. It was built in the mid-16th century by the wife of the second Mughal emperor. It's unusual for a woman to have built a monument for a man. It has what looks like stars of david with a lotus flower inside, but actually the triangle represents woman, and the innverted triangle represents man. The tomb was a complete departure from

previous Mughal architecture and set a precedent for the future Taj
Mahal - you can tell by the picture at left. After the tomb, I did a quick driving tour through Delhi and saw the presidential palace and India Gate. The gate is a memorial for the 90,000 (!) soldiers who died fighting for the British Empire during WWI and the Afghan Wars. Next up was the stunning Jama Masjid Mosque. It is absolutely gorgeous, but I have to admit I couldn't totally take it all in. I was the only Western woman there and it's hard to relax when every step you take is being watched by hundreds of silent men! They have non-Muslim women wear these blue, flowery muu-muu's. And because you can't wear shoes and the ground is so hot, the tourists wear white fluffy slippers. I seriously saw what I'm going to look like in 40 years. It wasn't pretty :) The Red Fort was last for the day. It was built in the 17th century and used as the capitol for the Mughals and later the British used it as a military camp. It was crowded with Indians and lots of teenage boys. I will never understand why with all the
tourists who come here, why Indians always want photos of them. I must be in 50 pictures today alone, which is insane, because I looked horrible. And I'm not being too hard on myself....I looked horrible. My face was bright red and my hair was matted to my head but they still kept clicking away. The teenage boys are the worse because they try to be sneaky about it and hold their arms up like they're stretching, but their phones are pointed at me and I can hear the shutter clicking. It's pretty funny/annoying after a full day of it. I thought about sticking my tongue out or making a face in some of the pictures, but then I thought that might encourage them :) I did meet a lot of nice Indian families and again, had many photos taken and held many babies.

Originally I had planned to travel through Rajasthan, but I got scared off by the intense heat and decided to go north instead. Today definitely reaffirmed that I made the right decision. After one day in 110 degree heat, I was exhausted. Today it's off to Kalka to catch the famous Toy Train!