DELHI

After our rest day yesterday we had our tour of New and Old Delhi. Our tour guide and driver picked us up at 9.15 am  this morning to start our days tour. The guide was excellent and the driver will be with us for the rest of our Indian tour. We are please about this as he seems to be a very good driver. Better than the guy that picked us up from the Airport.

Our first stop was amazing we went to Qutub Minar where the city of Delhi first started in the 4th century with the population of two million. Now Delhi's population is twenty million.

They built this tower in the 12th century and it took eighty years to build. Each generation built another segment to its current height of 73metres. We were told that there is another segment (which we saw) that is supposed to be erected on top of the top segment but the aviation executive consider it would be a safety issue as it is on the flight path to the airport.

This is a close up of the base of the tower. You have to wonder how they could build such a monument like this in those days

Walking around the old city.

Ditto 

The entrance to the Tomb

Inside the Tomb. You weren't allowed to sit on anything within the walls. In fact our guide gave some folk some stern words as they were sitting on the Tomb stone.

Ditto

The tower looking through the old ruins

 

Looking up into the dome in the building on the left of the tower in the above picture. Amazing the fine work that went into the construction of all these buildings.




We then went to Lodi Gardens above and below

We then went to Humayun's Tomb built in 1570 one of the best preserved monuments,above and two below. It is a replica of the Taj Mahal.

Raj Ghat is an open air memorial dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi.  A black marble plate marking the place where the peace leader was cremated after his assassination in 1948.

This is the tree branch where Mahatma Gandhi used to come and sit, just like the men above.

We have now been taken to old Delhi for a drive through the streets. What a congestion , cars, rickshaws motor bikes , dirty roads, old shops no road rules, everyone for themselves. Our driver just kept driving. A place you wouldn't want to go without a guide. We just kept driving no stopping or getting out of the car. What an experience. Above Dad Mum and two little kids on the back of the scooter. Mum had two babies one under each arm. Amazing so dangerous.

This old fellow had a shop selling mattresses.

Tuk Tuk,s



At an intersection everyone just goes in all directions all trying to be first.

Looking through the windscreen of our car. Cars coming towards you, some going with you, some trying to turn and plenty of swaping lanes. You have to see it to believe it.

 Now we are driving past the memorial for the First World War men who lost their lives. Much in the style of the Arc de Triumph.

When we came to the White Temple we decided not to stop and go in as we were getting very tired with the heat so just drove past and took a quick photo.

Drove past this homeless residence.

It has been a very interesting day but very exhausting with the heat. A beautiful day cloudless skies but the sun bearing down on us while walking around all of these places was hard work but well worth the experience. To finish the day we were taken to a factory that makes clothing made to measure with all the fabrics to choose from. We were only going in to have a quick look but ended up having a couple of shirts made and now waiting for them to be delivered to our hotel.  We leave Delhi tomorrow morning and driving down to Agra. Looking forward to our next adventure, home of the Taj Mahal. The weather has been great in Delhi clear blue skies and very hot in the sun. We were told that a few days ago it was raining and had turned cold but that's probably cold for them not us. So we have been lucky.